With yet more confirmed anthrax attacks in the United States, there are reports of a number of Americans, spurred on by rumor and misinformation, buying up gas masks and stocks of antibiotics to survive a bioterror campaign. But while fear of biological warfare is real enough, it would be an exaggeration to say that the United States is in panic, although panic was surely the intention of those responsible for the anthrax attacks.
There is no mass hysteria for the simple fact that although bioterrorism is seen as the poor man’s nuclear bomb, anthrax hardly suits the purpose of the terrorist intent on mass murder — and Americans now know it. An infected person cannot infect another; victims have to be in contact with the spores. To kill a large number of people takes more than a few contaminated letters in the post; it would require a massive postal campaign — which would hardly escape detection. On top of that, the infection is treatable by antibiotics. It cannot therefore be — unless those responsible are very stupid — that they thought to wipe out a large number of Americans by dispatching spores by post. The conclusion has to be that they wanted to spread mass fear, not mass death. Had they wanted the latter, they would have used a different agent.
The US has acted sensibly in not pointing the finger directly at any single organization or individual; this could be anyone. It could be that sympathizers of Bin Laden are responsible. However, there is no evidence against him except that he is the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks. Even that suspicion, it is now clear, is built on circumstantial evidence. It could be the work of a group totally unconnected to Bin Laden, with their own grudge against the US or the US media (it is significant that the first, and so far prime, targets have been the media) and who seized the opportunity to act at this moment in time. It is just possible that it is a loner, who likewise has jumped on bandwagon and acted now; but that is extremely unlikely. Anthrax is not something you can buy off the shelf in a pharmacist’s store. Whoever is responsible for the attacks had to have access to anthrax, and the only sources are governments or terrorist organizations with the wherewithal to acquire it.
Fingers have been pointed both at Iraq and at Bin Laden, only because both of them are natural foes. But it is all supposition and conjecture. There is no evidence so far to accuse either. Previous allegations by Washington that Bin Laden planned to develop chemical and biological capabilities have been proved to be baseless. The missile attack on a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum following the bombing of the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es salaam was initially justified by Washington on the grounds that it was making such weapons for him, but the allegations quickly evaporated through lack of evidence.
There have to be grave doubts about the connection between the two events. The anthrax attack was designed to cause terror. It would have succeeded if the contaminated letters had coincided with the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead, there was a time lapse, which suggests that the bioterror attack was a later, and separate, action. Washington should therefore be looking for different foes.
