Friday, October 12, 2001

 

Anthrax: Of course it's terrorism

Anthrax is popping up all over the place: Florida, New York, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. But Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said "we have no proof whatsoever" that this ... is connected to terrorist activity.

Uh, excuse me?

I have to agree with Vice President Dick Cheney, who in an interview on the PBS "News Hour with Jim Lehrer," noted that the terrorist manuals associated with fugitive Osama bin Laden instruct his followers on "how to deploy these kinds of substances."

"When you start to piece it all together, and again we haven't finished the investigation and maybe it is coincidence, but I must say I'm a skeptic," he said. "I think the only responsible thing for us to do is to proceed on the basis they could be linked."

Exactly.

I'm hoping statements from Thompson and the FBI are meant to throw the terrorists offguard so they let their defenses down, make mistakes and, therefore, make it easier to find them. Maybe they're trying to make sure Americans don't work themselves into a panic.

As for me, it's hard to believe it's a coincidence that anthrax was found in offices of tabloid newspapers, the New York Times, NBC News (meant for Tom Brokaw), a State Department office that deals with congressional correspondence, the State Department's Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, a suburban Denver hospital and Microsoft offices in Nevada.

posted by Anne 10/12/2001 05:54:00 PM