Whatever happened to the American anthrax outbreaks?

[wagstaff]

Remember after Sep 11 when all of a sudden a rash of anthrax laced in numerous letters in America were discovered, most sent to various media outlets and branches of government.

There was much talk about how this was the new form of 'neo-terrorism', and that Osama Bin Laden or Iraq and Saddam Hussein were behind these plots. Here's an example of such a story.http://www.observer.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,0-573893,00.html
Remember how there was some blind panic here in Australia for a while.

Then, gradually all the anthrax stories gradually filtered out of the media, yet nothing had been resolved about who was behind this and what were their motives.

Searching around on the Web for stories on how the issue has developed, I came across a couple of interesting articles on where the anthrax has most likely have come from and who sent it.

Now it seems that it most likely came from within America and may be linked to the US Military as these articles show.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/anthrax/story/0,1520,618524,00.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/dec2001/anth-d28.shtml

I've even had to go outside the mainstream press to find any recent stories about it. It's shameful to think that the mainstream press seemed to lose interest in the anthrax story because it wasn't directly related to Sep 11 - even when several lives have been lost.

[ah_19]

people were distracted from the inconsistencies of s11 so the anthrax hoax did its job is what happened

[Mooster7]

There were only a few legitimate cases of Anthrax. It was weapons grade material, and it was obvious from the start that these incidents were domestic acts rather than terrorism from abroad.

Once the news made a huge deal out of it, every over-reacting idiot in the country (we have no shortage of these) jumped on board. We ran a gazillion fire related haz-mat responses because of "suspicous white powder."

One guy called in an anthrax attack that had occurred in his kitchen. As it turned out, the powder was simply residue from donuts his wife was sneaking outside her diet. That's just one example out of hundreds.

My parents began bombing one another with talcum powder, and laughed about it. They aren't subject to terror, although their sense of humor could be questioned. At least they kept this sort of thing at home. There were arrests for public pranks of this nature.

Once the news let go of this non-story, the scare went away as well. I haven't heard if the FBI is any closer to capturing the genuine anthrax instigators.

The real horror of the past few months is that the Chiefs had a lousy season and the Packers didn't even make it to the NFC Championship game. Can't blame Osama for any of that, and we cannot bomb Al Davis, unfortunately. Peace,

[TigerTank]

Originally posted by Mooster7

Can't blame Osama for any of that, and we cannot bomb Al Davis, unfortunately. Peace,


Perhaps we could bomb Al Gore instead?

[evade28]

there were heaps of 'scares' in victoria as well, i think there was about 200. then the media was told not to do anymore stories on all the hoaxes so everyone got over sending envelopes with white powder in them as they werent getting the fame they thought they would.

oh yeah and everyone involved in it was asked not to speak to the media about it. so most of the time they didnt even know about it. thats in australia anyway.

[Stealth bomber]

The rumor that I heard was that it was a domestic doctor/scientist who was upset that more money wasn't being spent on anthrax research/vaccines and that it was a plot for the government to invest more, and that it wasn't meant to get out of hand like it did.

The first part of that seems plausible but I'm not sure I buy the second.