100 likely suspects
Who killed the postal workers with anthrax?
By G. Dunkel
After months of hemming and hawing by the media, who have
been trying to cast the blame for the anthrax attacks on Iraq
or Middle Eastern terrorists, it's becoming clear that they
were made in the USA.
In a New York Times column on Jan. 4, Nicholas D. Kristof
concedes, "In fact, many experts believe that the killer is
tied to the American bio-weapons program because the anthrax he
sent out is genetically identical to the anthrax kept by the
United States Army."
He adds that the anthrax in the laced letters is
"astonishingly pure and equivalent (in spore size and
concentration) to the best the American Army ever
achieved."
Kristof concludes, "Thus it seems that the murderer had
access not only to the American military germs but also to some
knowledge of the American military method of preparing it in
its dry form."
How many people possess that level of knowledge and
access?
Kristof quotes one person "with long experience in the
shadows of the United States bio-defense program." The expert
tells Kristof, "I think there are on the order of 100 people
who could have done it, who have the access to the spores and
the technical expertise to have done it."
It shouldn't take long to round up those suspects. More than
a thousand Arab and Muslim males--the exact number is a state
secret--were rounded up in mass detentions, held incommunicado
and threatened with torture, military tribunals and the death
penalty after Sept. 11. Government officials cynically
manipulated public fear about the anthrax-laden letters to help
"justify" these racist disappearings.
It is now being admitted that trying to make the facts of
the investigation fit the aspirations of war hawks, who wanted
to pin the anthrax attack on Iraq, led government investigators
away from the real bio-terrorists.
At the same time, postal workers were being put in harm's
way. And they still are.
Two postal workers died from anthrax early on, 10 or so
became seriously ill, and tens of thousands were issued
preventive doses of Cipro, an antibiotic with a number of
dangerous side effects, while being told to continue working in
contaminated environments.
A double standard became glaringly obvious in the handling
of the anthrax crisis. When Senator Tom Daschle's office
received a letter filled with anthrax, the building was shut
for cleaning. The building has twice been filled with poison
gas in an attempt to kill all the anthrax spores. Capitol Hill
cops still haven't announced when it will be re-opened.
But Morgan Station in Manhattan is contaminated and despite
postal workers' demands that the facility shut down for
decontamination, the facility has not closed. Morgan Station
moves 12 million pieces of mail a day and 6,000 postal
employees work there.
The New York Metro Area Postal Union sued post office bosses
in October to force them to decontaminate the facility. After
management promised to clean it up, but keep it running, U.S.
District Judge John Keenan ruled against the union.
Then on Dec. 23, anthrax was found on a machine that had
been cleaned in October. The union went back to court. Keenan
gave both sides two weeks to present briefs.
"The court still doesn't want to deal with this hot potato,"
William Smith, president of the union, said following the
hearing. "The more time that goes by, the more workers are
exposed."
Postal workers are not just relying on legal tactics. In New
York City, Philadelphia and Raleigh, N.C., workers are wearing
pins on the job that are inscribed with the dying words of a
Washington postal worker who had contracted the inhalation form
of anthrax.
"I have a tendency not to believe these people," the pins
read, recalling what Thomas Morris Jr. said to 911 dispatchers
when he asked for an ambulance hours before his death in
October. Morris, 55, can be heard on the 911 audiotape saying
that he recalled being near a co-worker who had handled a
letter containing powder.
He told the dispatcher, "I was told that it wasn't
[anthrax], but I have a tendency not to believe these
people."
Post office managers, Centers for Disease Control
specialists and federal lawyers have repeatedly told postal
workers that they are in no danger, that the facilities they
work in are clean and safe, that their health and wellbeing are
a major concern.
But their "tendency not to believe these people" keeps being
reinforced.
Reprinted from the Jan. 17, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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