Contagion

--fr. anthrax letter

I don't think we did go blind,
I think we are blind,
Blind but seeing, Blind people
who can see, but do not see
--Blindness, Jose Saramago

When a war breaks out, people say:
"It's too stupid; it can't last long."
But though the war may well be "too stupid,"
that doesn't prevent its lasting.
Stupidity has a knack of getting its way;
as we should see if we were not always
so much wrapped up in ourselves
--The Plague, Albert Camus

"What on earth prompted you to take a hand in this?"
"I don't know. My… my code of morals, perhaps."
"Your code of morals. What code, if I may ask?"
"Comprehension"
--The Plague, Camus
___________________

Discover magazine touts the film Contagion as a "must-see", a "taut pandemic thriller made extra-terrifying by a global outbreak scenario too plausible for comfort."

But when we see movies like Contagion we know they are entertainment, which elicits a different reaction than things like the Anthrax attacks of the early years of the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©), back when wars were things that lasted years versus generations.

Contagion concerns a viral outbreak transmittable via several vectors, like influenza. In Contagion, the infected suffer a 30% mortality rate -- better survival odds than those of inhalation anthrax victims (75% death rate with inhalation anthrax). Here is how the two scenarios differ:

• anthrax is easily identifiable

• anthrax does not produce contagion

• anthrax is highly regulated and secured

• anthrax requires extremely sophisticated production facilities

• anthrax must be delivered to its target

• anthrax can be countered by existing medications

• the anthrax strain used could be genetically isolated

The above leads Ranger to conclude that the 2003 Amerithrax scenario was overblown and played to exaggerate the threat. New information indicates the anthrax crimes remain unsolved, and the source of the anthrax used in the attacks, unknown (Frontline - The Anthrax Files; The Wrong Man.)

The most troubling aspect of the case is how easily security clearances were granted years before the crime to the two primes suspects in the case. Both men had flags that should have precluded their clearance and subsequent access to a Top Secret and above facility. How did these men pass security clearance? Oddly, this question is not addressed in the coverage of this incident.

Additionally, there is no proven link either domestic or foreign Terrorism, despite the oft-shown "handwriting" on the letters. This attack is troubling as it shows the ability of Federal law enforcement to railroad any suspect upon the slightest circumstantial evidence.

Both of the latter two irregularities are more troubling than the actual incidents, for they are a wide-open breach for further failures, whether perpetrated from without or within our system.

Nothing But Fear

[Gitmo inmates] were bombarded with intolerable sounds,
including “meows from cat-food commercials,
Yoko Ono singing and Eminem rapping about America.”
--from NYT Review of The Dark Side, Jane Mayer
_______________

Put nothing past a government villainous enough to use the Yoko Ono torture.

U.S. Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins, 62, recently-designated prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, is dead of apparent suicide (Dead Army Vaccine Scientist Eyed in Anthrax Probe.) The Justice Department is considering closing the investigation. As Dana Carvey's the Church Lady might say, “how Conveenient.”

An 18-year employee at the government's biodefense labs at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, Ivins helped develop the anthrax vaccine effective against even mixed-strain attacks. Ivins colleague of the last 15 years, Dr. W. Russell Byrne, does not think Ivins was behind the attacks and criticized federal agents as harassing the germ scientist and his family.

“They searched his house twice and his computer once,” he said in an interview. “We all felt powerless to stop it.” He said Dr. Ivins was recently escorted away from the laboratory by the authorities and “disgraced in a place he spent his whole career.” “That was so humiliating,” he said. “It’s hard to believe (Dark End for Family Man.)”

Byrne also questions how Ivins, deemed "homicidal and sociopathic by his psychiatrist," gained top security clearance at the government lab.

The FBI originally suspected Ivin's colleague Steven Hatfill, but in late June, "the government exonerated Hatfill and paid him a $5.82 million settlement." Does this all sound vaguely familiar? Remember Jewel and the Atlanta Olympics bomber? Heavy-handedness is becoming the hallmark of U.S. criminal investigations. The $5.82 million payoff is crumbs in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT©).

In the run-up to war, the 2001 domestic anthrax attacks were no small inducement to fear. Then Attorney General John Ashcroft suggested "neither domestic or international terrorism has been ruled out." The attacks were coming fast and furious; it was environment that allowed Condoleeza Rice to suggest an atomic "mushroom cloud" could be next.

In 2001, Terrorists were the new Ruskis. It had been just over a decade since we lost the Red Menace, and the government and military were due for a new archenemy. Of course, calling the anthrax attacker a terrorist ignored the fact that the anthrax used in the attacks originated from government sponsored stock. The anthrax was knitted into the free-floating anxiety that became America's unreasoned fear of terrorism.

Anthrax "is particularly suited to inducing dread," says Paul Slovic, who studies the psychology of risk at the University of Oregon and is the author of "The Perception of Risk."

"People don't know exactly what it is. It's not very visible. It's linked to someone who's propagating this threat with the intent to harm people who are innocent of any wrongdoing, just being malicious -- that's frightening. You don't know who's doing it. What's the extent of ? Is this something that's going to be limited in one small geographic region? It's quite unique. We've done some studies within terrorism. The potential to frighten from anthrax is even higher than that of terrorism with explosive devices, not that that's low. Anthrax was even higher (Yesterday's Fears Fade as we Adjust to Tomorrow's.)"

The guilt or innocence of Mr. Ivins is not our focus. The point is, after seven years the FBI has not been able to resolve the anthrax investigation in a suitable manner. This is the same FBI that turned a blind eye when suspected terrorists were obtaining flight training here in the U.S.

In the twilight of this most corrupt of administrations, we have another string in the terrorist play tied up. Pity he can't tell us about it because he's dead.

The FBI loves it when a plan comes together.

--Jim and Lisa