Sunday, January 18, 2009

Inevitable.

A comment from Digby's pad outlines a really good point.
The anthrax case was unprecedented even in terms of other high-profile cases, due in part to their proximity to 9/11, and collective amnesia is not enough to erase the fact that Bush did not keep the victims and their families safe, as two waves of contaminated letters shocked an already terrorized nation.
My respects to Sarah, whom wrote an incredibly good comment, and I want to explore it a bit more.

Imagine if you will, that we had never been attacked on September 11, and that the public at large remained more or less ignorant of the alleged (since we've never put anyone on trial) threat by Al-Qaeda. The biggest deal that went on that year to date was the inept handling of the American spy plane incident with China. And that whole Enron thing, tech bubble, and recession, too.

And then 2 separate groups of mailings, one in September and the second in October, letters loaded with anthrax were sent to the news media and Congress.

In the largest act of domestic terrorism short of the Unabomber, the U.S. Government flailed helplessly in identifying the perpetrator and where the 'weaponized anthrax' came from. There were racist and false statements in the letters, & the American public, scared and victimized, easily went along with media and Administration assertions that these letters were an attack and proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The United States invades Iraq in 2003, looking for weapons of mass destruction. George Bush is re-elected in 2004 based partially on his success in invading Iraq and 'defending the country'.

You can't tell me that it wasn't in the bag.

3 comments:

iamcoyote said...

Yeah, I don't believe the official story either. Unlike 9-11, the anthrax attacks were an inside job, I think. It could easily have been done in complete secret with just a few in the know. Fuckers.

Anjha said...

Yeah, I don't believe the official story either.

Is there an "official" story? There is the one doctor/scientist guy who was recently found dead (another "suicide" by hanging, wasn't it?) But I do not think that there is any official story other than the fact that this guy was accused and now, cause he is dead, cannot defend himself.

What we do know is that it was weapons grade Anthrax from a US military lab and that it was sent to the two Senators who could have stopped the (un)Patriot Act. It was sent to Leahy and Daschel...Senate Judiciary Chair and Majority Leader. Remember this was at a time when they had the unexpected Dem control of the Senate because whats-his-name switched parties because he could not abide by the NCLB.

The Admin never expected Democratic control of the Senate (regardless of how small) and therefore, the ability to bring or not to bring the (un)Patriot Act to the floor.

Remember, that big ass piece of legislation...thousands and thousands of pages was laying in wait and brought out in a matter of weeks. AND it was another one of those "must be done now" piece of shit pieces of legislation.

Then the Anthrax was also sent to the news media. The last barrier between these assholes and running ramshot over the country.

I may be paranoid and buy into those conspiracy theories too easy...but come on, this was crap.

Judith said...

I never believed that it was anything but an inside job. I think it was a warning and the people who received the letters knew it was a warning.

Did the scientist that was being investigated die? What was his name?