American WAS attacked after 9/11. Remember Anthrax?

Just to be, you know, accurate and stuff, every single time that someone says, "After all, we haven't been attacked in six long years." I've got one word for you. ANTHRAX.
And I don't mean the band.

And you know the people who should REALLY remember this, and NEVER allow the Anthrax deaths to be ignored?

ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, New York Post and the National Enquirer.

Because they were the targets. (Below is the post I wrote about this.) I know the newsroom short hand is, "Well, we mean 'bombs and buildings blowing up' type attacks." But categorically stating that there have been no terrorist attacks on US soil since 9/11 is just factually incorrect. If you categorize the Anthrax letters as a terrorist attack, (and I'm pretty sure that IS how it is categorized by most organizations and our government) then you MUST be accurate when you discuss terrorist attacks in the US.

Can we forgive Fox and CNN for ignoring this? They weren't targets and maybe they don't consider themselves journalists. Or maybe because they aren't considered "the liberal media" they figure that they are safe. I don't know what they think, I haven't done a mind meld on any of them lately.

Frankly ALL the people who work for ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, New York Post and the National Enquirer, should remember it was YOU and your staff and reporters who were targeted. You dishonor them when you ignore the threat they were/are under. When one of your journalists dies in Iraq or Afghanistan they are just as dead as the people who died from the anthrax letters that were targeted toward you. And, unlike the dead in Iraq, the anthrax letter bombers were targeting YOU specifically, not just any American truck cruising down the road. And just because it was letter cross contamination that killed some of those outside the media doesn't mean we don't know who the real targets were.

Q. Who else was targeted by the Anthrax attacks?
A. Democratic Senators Tom Daschle (D) and Patrick Leahy(D).

Do you suppose that was some brilliant jujitsu on behalf of the Anthrax letter bombers? That they REALLY wanted to kill and scare the Republicans so they sent the anthrax to Democrats? I think that it was intentional. To send a message. Why do I think that?


What better way to send a message than by sending an actual letter?

Remember, in today's communication environment it's not JUST the content, it's also about "sending them a message." What message was sent and to WHOM was it sent?

Do you think that the intended recipients "got the message?" What about all the people who WEREN'T the target? Did they get a message too? I know that *I* got a message.


Here's another question. "Have they caught the Anthrax letter bomber?"

If they DID catch him (them) don't you think that the government would publish it? Wouldn't it be a nice message to send to the American people? (Especially if the message was "feel more secure, we caught some actual bad people who killed American citizens. We still haven't got bin Laden yet, but...")

Of course if the people that they caught were NOT who they WANTED to catch, who didn't have the profile of who they expected to catch, then of course they wouldn't really want to make a big deal out of who they caught. They would just quietly put them away in some army prison. And that act of catching someone, but not revealing that they were caught, would be sending a message too. "STAY afraid." or "We don't want to confuse people with who the enemy is." or "Seriously, you DON'T want to know who this guy is and how he got the stuff. You really don't."
or "National security requires that we don't tell people what we really know about the story, so stop asking."'

And here is another message that whomever sent the Anthrax letters wanted to keep out there. "We can get to you. We know where you live."

And when it is revealed who the Anthrax letter bomber is, I would really like to ensure that the media and the talk radio hosts NOTE if he is NOT a Muslim, of if he is NOT an Arab that going forward they will ALWAYS need to qualify their statements about who the terrorists are.

(Of course if he fits their current profile they will crow, "See? See! I told you that terrorists are ONLY of that religion." You just KNOW that is how they will play it if the anthrax letter bomber fits their expected profile. What will they do if the anthrax bomber is some white Christian right- wing radio fan who decided to act on the rant they heard on the radio?


Here is the post I wrote about this in January 2007.


Q. How many died in the Anthrax letter attacks in the US?

A. 5 fatalities from anthrax. September 2001.

Q. How many others were infected, but survived?

A. 17.

Q. Who were the targets?

Journalists at: ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, New York Post, National Enquirer,

Democratic Senators Tom Daschle (D) and Patrick Leahy(D)

In addition to the death of Robert Stevens in Florida, two died from unknown sources, possibly cross-contamination of mail: Kathy Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, a resident of the borough of the Bronx who worked in New York City; and Ottilie Lundgren, a 94-year old widow of a prominent judge from Oxford, Connecticut, who was the last known victim. The two other deaths were employees of the Brentwood mail facility in Washington, D.C., Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen.