Anthrax, not the band

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An NBC employee at Rockfeller Plaza has gotten subcutaneous anthrax.

― Samantha, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No mention yet of JLo.

― Samantha, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Am listening to white house briefing on the anthrax. The US Postal Service official in charge of investigating things like child porn and biochemical terrioism via the mail is named Newman.

I'm not kidding.

― Samantha, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Our workplace just told us not to open mail. Who the hell is going to mail bomb, biologically or otherwise, my company? Yeah, that makes sense.

― Ally, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This may sound like total shit / gossip, but it's easy enough to do, so what's the harm: don't go to any malls on Halloween. My roommate informed me that one of his mother's best friends got a message from her Arabian boyfriend in early September that instructed her not to get on any planes on the 11th and not to go to the mall on OCt. 31st. She never saw from him again, and the day after the WTC attack, she gave the note to the FBI. No one has heard from the boyfriend since. Who goes to the mall on halloween anyhow? If they really want to fuck shit up they should do it on the busiest shopping day of the year: the day after Thanksgiving.

― Timothy, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

well, i'm sure they were too busy to think about that, what with loading every shopping mall and america with bombs and such. i like that it took a massage to get it out of the arabian boyfriend. hey, i just like the term 'arabian boyfriend', it sounds like something catherine the great would have.

― ethan, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is Jason coming to Malls?

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Er, ethan, i think you misparsed message as massage.

Still, better safe than sorry, specially when there's anthrax about. This is a time for panic or death.

― ogden, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I never open my mail anyway and I am delighted my policy is now vindicated. Also this gives me another cast-iron excuse next time the bill men come calling.

― Tom, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Incidentally Al-Qaeda must have the lowest security in the world given that every single one of its operatives seems to have been shagging American birds left right and centre and then warning them about halloween. This being the what, fourth or fifth time I've seen this - and with different details every time.

Great rumour we came up with last night - the terrorists have put Anthrax in London's cocaine supply. Panic on the streets of Hoxton!

― Tom, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i just wanted it to be massage SO BAD. that would have been the best version yet. 'he gave her a massage and told her to stay out of malls'.

― ethan, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

in the versh i heard three times so far, he says "stay out of central london on [insert daet here: three difft dates allo opassed]" beccoz he dropped his wallet and she ran after him with it

= unlikely plague of careless terrorists + even more unlikely plague of conscience- stricken kindly helpful wallet-returning londoners

What happened to the J-Lo angle? The rest is deranged (nonJ-Lo-fan) copycats surely: I believe it has zero to do with Al-Qaeeda...

― mark s, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Malls on Halloween are packed with kids. Many trick or treat in malls instead of on street (a safety thing, I think.) I hadn't heard this rumor, though.

― Mark, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Anthrax is shite, anyway, only a damn fool would use it as a terror attack, a horde of Scottish Terriers would be far more terrifying. I have at my right hand my copy of the Wordsworth Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence, and perusing it now I can't find a single major epidemic of anthrax, like, ever.

― DG, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

too impulsive, my deadly corrosive dosage / attack when you least notice, through explosive postage

― ethan, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the fact you own a book like that DG is so kool . where can i get my grubby paws on one ?

― anthony, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i was hoping you were going to ask about the wu quote too. :-(

― ethan, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

*I* noticed it ethan, if it makes you feel any better...

― jess, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

expect my wu-related love letter on your desk tomorrow.

― ethan, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm mildly scared that my company might be a target, only insofar as we've recieved some publicity as being survivors of the WTC attacks. I also tend to be the one who opens all unaddressed mail.

I am absolutely not convinced that Al-Qaeda is behind these anthrax scares. IIRC, a doctor with Christian Right/militia connections was arrested a couple of years ago for having a fuckload of anthrax bacilius on his person, obstensibly for a homegrown effort develop a better anthrax vaccine yeahright. If blue-eyed devils are behind it all, I think their reasoning would be that a poorly coordinated federal effort to contain anthrax outbreaks would foment a level of distrust in the American government necessary for rightist revolution.

― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Anthony, I got my copy from Amazon.co.uk, it was £2.99, paperback, whereas the hardback version cost £40 at the time.
After doing a bit of research yesterday morning (and it was really only a bit) the worst anthrax outbreak I could find was in the USSR near a biological weapons facility, where 64 people died. Obviously that sucks to be one of the 64, but in terms of an epidemic, well 64 is NOTHING. The best use of anthrax is how it's currently being used (apparently), as a smarter assassination method than a letter bomb.

― DG, Monday, 15 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's also spreading the fear in a very big way, which I think is more important to the people doing it than actually killing anyone.

― Madchen, Monday, 15 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hah - I bet you all wish you had seen Gas Attack now.... (Cue grainy shots of various air conditioning vents at which point Anthrax become s a bluddy nightmare).

― Pete, Monday, 15 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

When our mail-room guy handed me my mail today, he was wearing rubber gloves. Very disheartening. Later I was on the recieving end of some more security overkill. Picking up a package from a real estate company as a favor for a principal, I got my knapsack thoroughly checked by a security guard. Then I was sent to the messenger desk by the side of the building, out of eyeshot of the security guard (thereby rendering my bag search rather pointless), where another security guard escorted me to my floor. Not sure why this building demanded such drastic measures -- the main tenant's a German bank. Next thing you know I'll be strip-searched.

I can't help but think that all those self-styled Cassandras who have, for years, harping on the USA's lack of preparedness for bioterrorism, have only worsened the situation by making biological/chemical terrorism seem more attractively lethal and sure- fire.

― Michael Daddino, Monday, 15 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey - they got the anthrax right across the street from my house now! It's pretty exciting, all the secret service guys and the news vans from other news stations, foreign news stations that never come to my humble abode, news stations besides ABC! It's all quite a lot to think about.

― Ally, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

new york is fucking hell.

― ethan, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

James Ridgeway talks more about America's extreme right and their capacity for bioterrorism here. Osama's henchman aren't the only poisons in the machine, you know.

― Michael Daddino, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

WTF happened with the whole anthrax thing? Has there been an investigation? Charges?

― hmmm (hmmm), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Nope. I just read a newspaper article, I think in the Chicago Tribune, about how they basically have no leads at all. The investigation is still ongoing and incorporates some ridiculous number of FBI agents. They have one guy who they kind of suspect, but they don't really have much evidence against him. So no.

― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

so like.. what became of the intense scrutiny of the FBI's contention that the guy what dun it was a scientist at ft. detrick national laboratory? i remember Glenn Greenwald had like eight days in a row of UPDATED - UPDATED II - UPDATED III - VITAL UNRESOLVED QUESTIONS, doing some serious philip marlowe action about what time the scientist must have left his house in the morning or whatever and going AHA the FBI SCREWED UP but i haven't heard a peep about this for awhile now and greenwald's moved on to VITAL QUESTIONS about i dunno, whatever's on page A-3 this morning.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 7 January 2009 17:01 (sixteen years ago)

one month passes...

too impulsive, my deadly corrosive dosage / attack when you least notice, through explosive postage

― ethan, Saturday, October 13, 2001 8:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the fact you own a book like that DG is so kool . where can i get my grubby paws on one ?

― anthony, Saturday, October 13, 2001 8:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i was hoping you were going to ask about the wu quote too. :-(

― ethan, Saturday, October 13, 2001 8:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

*I* noticed it ethan, if it makes you feel any better...

― jess, Saturday, October 13, 2001 8:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

expect my wu-related love letter on your desk tomorrow.

― ethan, Saturday, October 13, 2001 8:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/images/b/broken_heart-1823.jpg

― and what, Sunday, 1 March 2009 22:47 (sixteen years ago)

nine months pass...

CBC's "Anthrax War" documentary on YouTube now. Scores about a 4 out of 5 on the paranoia level but with lots of details on modern germ warfare history (most of the South African material I wasn't aware of) and current overlaps between the bio-defence and bio-offence industries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N44tCevFvLs

(remaining parts on YT)

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 December 2009 02:13 (fifteen years ago)

i thought this thread was going to be about the band

― mod only knows who i'd ban without u (s1ocki), Friday, 4 December 2009 02:46 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

This news led me to read the Wikipedia article on Bruce Ivins ... pretty interesting stuff. Seems like there's both evidence that Ivins produced and mailed the anthrax and evidence that he wasn't involved (or at least didn't do it all on his own).

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 18:33 (fourteen years ago)

nine years pass...

remember when this widdle thing is all we were scared about?

― genital giant (Neanderthal), Monday, 27 April 2020 22:52 (five years ago)

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