RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events anthrax spreading

Anthrax is blamed for several devastating plagues that killed both humans and livestock. Soon after scientists learned more about it in the late 1800s, it emerged in World War I as a biological weapon.

Several countries, including Germany, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Iraq and the former Soviet Union, are believed to have experimented with anthrax, but its use in warfare has been limited.

1500 B.C. -- Fifth Egyptian plague, affecting livestock, and the sixth, known as the plague of boils, symptomatic of anthrax

1600s -- "Black Bane," thought to be anthrax, kills 60,000 cattle in Europe

1876 -- Robert Koch confirms bacterial origin of anthrax.

1880 -- First successful immunization of livestock against anthrax.

1915 -- German agents in the United States believed to have injected horses, mules, and cattle with anthrax on their way to Europe during World War I

1937 -- Japan starts biological warfare program in Manchuria, including tests involving anthrax

1942 -- United Kingdom experiments with anthrax at Gruinard Island off the coast of Scotland. It was only recently decontaminated.

1943 -- United States begins developing anthrax weapons

1945 -- Anthrax outbreak in Iran kills 1 million sheep

1950s and '60s -- U.S. biological warfare program continues after World War II at Fort Detrick, Maryland

1969 -- President Richard Nixon ends United States' biological weapons program

1970 -- Anthrax vaccine approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration

1972 -- International convention outlaws development or stockpiling of biological weapons

1978-80 -- Human anthrax epidemic strikes Zimbabwe, infecting more than 6,000 and killing as many as 100

1979 -- Aerosolized anthrax spores released accidentally at a Soviet Union military facility, killing about 68 people

1991 -- U.S. troops vaccinated for anthrax in preparation for Gulf War

1990-93 -- The terrorist group, Aum Shinrikyo, releases anthrax in Tokyo but no one is injured

1995 -- Iraq admits it produced 8,500 liters of concentrated anthrax as part of biological weapons program

1998 -- U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen approves anthrax vaccination plan for all military service members

2001 -- A letter containing anthrax spores is mailed to NBC one week after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. It was the first of a number of incidents around the country. In Florida, a man dies after inhaling anthrax at the offices of American Media Inc.

It's very unsttling when the postal drop station that delivers YOUR MAIL is the one that is found to have an area infected with Anthrax. If it were Ebola, instead of Anthrax that is treatable with antibiotics, I'd seriously consider not coming in to work.

And as it is, it requires a lot of guarded faith in the government that they are telling us everything we need to know, and that we can come to work without any risk.

If anything they (the Center for Disease Control) had done in the last three weeks made me question the official position that the Anthrax is contained and not a danger, I'd be freaking out right now.

But I think so far the CDC has handled the situation very well.

A very unpleasant disease. It actually seems unlikley to be linked to al Qaeda. Recipients are as far away as Kenya and Brazil. I suspect its another bunch of loonies, as opposed to the loonies currently being bombed in Afghanistan.

frickin unfortunate that people can be such ass holes.

the "bomb scare" phone calls that followed the wtc disasters were so incredibly frustrating. not scary (to me), just frustrating.

I agree Franta. It's getting on my nerves, they've reported all these cases of Anthrax, yet when I logged on to AOL just a while ago, there was a heading that said "is it anthrax or the flu?" and provided a link with more info. They've said that it has flu like symptoms, knowing that, people are going to panic more so then when Menegitis(sp) was going around.

All the cases so far have been resultant from the initial three letters sent to American Media (in Boca Raton), Senator Tom Daschle's office (in Washington D.C.), and the letter to Tom Brokaw at NBC News (in Neww York City), and in the post offices that transported the letters to those offices.

There are cases as well at CBS News and the White House mail, but no outbreaks from those latter two, that I'm aware of. The worst one was the Daschle letter.

I saw an interview on ABC News with some Arab terrorism experts, and while they did not rule out Bin-Laden as a suspect, they felt it was likely someone else for four reasons:

1) The date was written on all three letters as 9/11/2001, but anyone from Europe or the Arab world writes dates in the order of day/month/year, or 11/9/2001.

2) The handwriting is not typical of someone who has written in Arabic or similar languages their whole life.

3) The wording in all three letters: "DEATH TO ISRAEL. DEATH TO AMERICA. ALLAH IS GREAT." is more how Americans imitating the style of how they think an Arab terrorist would write such a letter, than how an Arab terrorist would normally write it.

4) As unfortunate it is for those infected, it is relatively small scale terrorism, and Bin Laden and his group normally go for more large-scale grandiose shows of terrorism (such as blowing up two U.S. embassies simultaneously, or attempting to blow up the Los Angeles Airport) in December 2000, or the massive scale of simultaneous terrorism events on 9/11/01, in New York and Washington.

I'm not an expert on terrorism, but this much is true: Bin Laden has NOT DENIED involvement in these Anthrax outbreaks.

[ 10-26-2001: Message edited by: Dave the Wonder Boy ]

That's the scariest thing about all this; we don't know who's behind it. Bin Laden? Domestic terrorists? Other Islamic Terrorists? Although I believe Bin Laden is behind the hijackings, he's denied responsibility for it and there's no real "smoking gun." I heard an interview with a terrorist who's been in prison since the 70s, and he even condemned these attacks. He said that when he hijacked planes in the 70s, his group always announced who they were and why they were doing this. But all these attacks just seem random and out of nowhere.

The media has obviously been fueling a panic, but on the other hand, don't you want to know what's going on? My girlfriend's mother works in the central post office here in New York; I'm sure she wants to keep informed. And I've seen a lot of media reports trying to calm people's fears; for example, yesterday on NY1 (the local NY cable news channel), they had on some experts from various agencies. One old woman called in, saying she was afraid to open her mail (as though Bin Laden is going to mail anthrax to Widow Jones in Staten Island). Anyway, these experts were able to answer her questions and put her mind at ease.

Bin Laden has officially denied personal involvement, but in a veiled way, saying he is pleased that "others have made a blow against the Crusaders" or somesuch, which could be an evasive way of saying other terrorists cels of his own organization are responsible for 9/11/01, and following the Anthrax outbreak.

Meanwhile, there are still sites you can look at that argue the U.S. is jumping to conclusions, and that there is no real evidence that Bin Laden or al-Qaida are responsible for the airline bombings on 9/11/01.

(Some examples of those sites:
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/10/WTC_Ostrovsky.html
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/10/WTC_ReasonWhy2.html
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/09/WTC_Odigo.html
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/10/08/17401.html
)

Myself, I'm convinced there is plenty of evidence that Bin Laden and al-Qaida are the right target (based on abundant evidence Taliban has hosted Bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization while they committed any number of terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies and military forces in Tanzania, Kenya, Yemen, Saidi Arabia, Somalia and elsewhere. Not to mention Bin Laden boasting to an Arab newspaper of a major operation against the U.S. in about 3 weeks, three weeks prior to 9/11/01, and no doubt the U.S. government has much evidence they are not yet ready to share with the public.)

I think Bin Laden is backing away from responsibility now for the actions he orchestrated on 9/11/01, because he never expected the level of international resolve to put an end to his organization. So rather than take a courageous political stand "for Islam", taking responsibility for his orchestration of events on 9/11/01, he now backs away, in a cowardly fashion.

I used to think capturing these terrorists for public trial and imprisonment was the best way to handle al-Qaida. But now I advocate exterminating them like roaches, before they spread their twisted ideology. Radical terrorist fundamentalism is spreading rapidly throughout the middle east. A report I saw on Frontline on PBS last night, interviewing the terrorist who was captured attempting to bomb the Los Angeles Airport on December 31, 1999, and alleges he no longer supports Bin Laden's terrorism (but is clearly plea-bargaining to reduce his sentence) The captured terrorist described how he entered Canada on a false VISA, and was recruited by Bin Laden's organization to train in Afghanistan as an al-Qaida terrorist. A french-Canadian terrorism expert described Arab immigration to Canada as a "fundamentalist-Muslim aircraft carrier, from which to launch an attack on the United States". These fanatics have to be stopped.

You don't weigh the rights of a cancer, you kill it. That's what needs to be done.

[ 10-28-2001: Message edited by: Dave the Wonder Boy ]

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Originally posted by Dave the Wonder Boy:

1) The date was written on all three letters as 9/11/2001, but anyone from Europe or the Arab world writes dates in the order of day/month/year, or 11/9/2001.

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DOH! My brian must have been asleep when I saw that letter on the news, not to pick up on this one.

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2) The handwriting is not typical of someone who has written in Arabic or similar languages their whole life.

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Not sure what they meant by this. After all Someone who has written in Farsi (or what ever language) could write just as well as you or I do. I think I'd want to ask them what they meant by this one (if I could)

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3) The wording in all three letters: "DEATH TO ISRAEL. DEATH TO AMERICA. ALLAH IS GREAT." is more how Americans imitating the style of how they think an Arab terrorist would write such a letter, than how an Arab terrorist would normally write it.

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True. Almost sounds comic bookie

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4) As unfortunate it is for those infected, it is relatively small scale terrorism, and Bin Laden and his group normally go for more large-scale grandiose shows of terrorism (such as blowing up two U.S. embassies simultaneously, or attempting to blow up the Los Angeles Airport) in December 2000, or the massive scale of simultaneous terrorism events on 9/11/01, in New York and Washington.

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Makes sense

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I'm not an expert on terrorism, but this much is true: Bin Laden has NOT DENIED involvement in these Anthrax outbreaks.

[ 10-26-2001: Message edited by: Dave the Wonder Boy ]

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nod but I still think it's not him...