OTOH
I’ve read about Zionist plots, Islamic plots, and the guy that the FBI follows around in his underwear. When the anthrax attacks happened, I thought it might be Iraq. It turns out it was the “Ames Strain”. I once suggested that Iraq probably had ricin, because I read it was made from a bean, well, and because some sources suggested Iraq was working on it. I’ve learned a lot more about depressing things than I’d care to, thanks. If there is a superweapon that gives us all a VD that makes our privates explode – BURN the samples. Nuclear heat setting. NOW!
I guess this is almost a prediction thread, and a security question.
Are the anthrax attacks and the ricin attacks related? What person, nation, or group committed either one? Security of the mail going to government might be an issue.
Well, as a man with some small knowledge of the mailstream (I’m do a LOT of direct mail work) I’d have to say protecting the mailstream to a 100% effectiveness would destroy it’s usefullness in marketing and communications.
I don’t have a solution for the problem. As long as some yahoo can put some poison in an envelope and mail it out there’ll be no monolithic defense. Irradiation will kill (probably) biological agents but not chemical.
We’ve got no hard information about it, of course. At least none the public is privy to. So we’re limited to the slimmest of speculation.
I would say that the two attacks are almost certainly related. Somebody’s cooking up some biowarfare agents in their bathtub and sending them out when they’re ready. I think they should start growing orchids instead–just as hard, but less destructive. But there’s just no talking to some people…
That’s my non-paranoid take on the situation. I have paranoid and non-paranoid filters with which to view the world. (I used to only have the paranoid filter, but I cut down on the drugs.) Here’s the paranoid filter’s take on the situation:
This is a Northwoods operation–fake domestic terrorism conducted by the CIA or other interested parties in order to further some agenda. The original Northwoods program was designed to start a war with Cuba. The 2001 anthrax attacks were designed to start a war with Iraq, but it failed. The ricin attack is designed to counteract and distract from the potential damage caused by the lack of WMDs in Iraq. An attempt will be made to pin it on Iraqi Ba’athists somehow so the administration can say “look, they did have this ricin and they gave it to terrorists!” But no one will ever actually be caught or prosecuted for it, or if they are they will be shipped to Camp X-ray and denied access to a lawyer and communication with the outside world. But the operation’s most valuable effect is occurring right now–it’s distracting the public from the WMD story and keeping us afraid until the furor dies down and/or the Administration can come up with a better way to combat it.
Once again, let me emphasize that this is a paranoid take on the situation and I have no evidence to support that theory.
Is there any word on what was in the envelopes besides ricin? Was there a note? How many envelopes are we dealing with?
Why do you suppose, if this were accurate, that the CIA didn’t just come out and say, “We think Iraq did this?”
It would be a hell of a lot more direct route to war than what actually happened, which was basically that the FBI go and name an American who they thought was suspicious.
I’d say they’re unrelated. Weaponized anthrax is difficult to make, and it was probably the “person of interest” that made it.
Ricin, on the other hand, is easy. Anyone could do it, using two very simple tools that millions of Americans would already have in their homes. Note that it wouldn’t be really effective at killing people in the “easily made” form, but I guess it’s pretty effective as a scare tactic.
It worked great for that during the buildup to war, but I’ve never found any evidence that anyone has worked out an effective method for mass delivery of the toxin. Despite all the bioweapons hype, Ricin remains a merely chemical threat, and not a very good one at that.