The Contemporary Austin
Administration, at the Very Least, Exploited Anthrax Episode
RECEIVED Thu., Aug. 7, 2008
Dear Editor,
People were scared, sickened, and killed by the anthrax letter episode in 2001, but there's a larger issue that's missing from the current reporting. Now that the FBI is finally presenting us with its case against Bruce E. Ivins, we should remember the role anthrax played in starting the Iraq war.
The anthrax scare came on the heels of the 9/11 attacks. The accompanying letters indicated Muslim perpetrators, and the media were quick to point to Saddam Hussein as a source. ABC News repeatedly stated that the anthrax in question contained bentonite and that bentonite was a fingerprint of the Iraqi biological weapons program. Neither assertion was correct or substantiated.
The anthrax scare became a component of the conspiracy (sorry, Louis) of lies put together by the Bush regime to sell us the Iraq war. Remember Colin Powell's presentation, the bogus centrifuge parts, and yellow-cake uranium?
Whether anyone in Bush's rogue gallery of criminal accomplices had a hand in obtaining and distributing anthrax spores, the fact that they used the resulting panic to pump up war sentiment is totally undeniable. The hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq are also indirect victims of the anthrax scare.
People were scared, sickened, and killed by the anthrax letter episode in 2001, but there's a larger issue that's missing from the current reporting. Now that the FBI is finally presenting us with its case against Bruce E. Ivins, we should remember the role anthrax played in starting the Iraq war.
The anthrax scare came on the heels of the 9/11 attacks. The accompanying letters indicated Muslim perpetrators, and the media were quick to point to Saddam Hussein as a source. ABC News repeatedly stated that the anthrax in question contained bentonite and that bentonite was a fingerprint of the Iraqi biological weapons program. Neither assertion was correct or substantiated.
The anthrax scare became a component of the conspiracy (sorry, Louis) of lies put together by the Bush regime to sell us the Iraq war. Remember Colin Powell's presentation, the bogus centrifuge parts, and yellow-cake uranium?
Whether anyone in Bush's rogue gallery of criminal accomplices had a hand in obtaining and distributing anthrax spores, the fact that they used the resulting panic to pump up war sentiment is totally undeniable. The hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq are also indirect victims of the anthrax scare.
Ben Hogue
