Do you like the "A-ha!" experience?

- In a typical year, 20,000 Americans die of the flu. -NWI, 9 Jan 1998, ~10:33:07 AM EST

3:14:13 The mystery disease in East Africa (mostly Kenya & Somalia) that causes victims to bleed to death, may have been identified: anthrax. -NWI, 12-29-97, 8:05am EST

-WASHINGTON -- The pentagon will begin vaccinating all 2.4 million military personnel next summer for anthrax, a germ warfare agent possessed by Iraq. "The $130 million, six-year project was announced monday by Defense Secretary William Cohen." ...
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"The frightening possibility of an anthrax attack is growing, military experts say. The lethal germ can be easily produced by a small terrorist group or a country with little else in the way of weapons." "Sprayed in the air, a few pounds of anthrax spores can infect tens of thousands." "An attack would be hard to detect. Once infected, a person dies within days of flue-like symptoms 99% of the time." -"Troops to get vaccine for anthrax," by Steven Komarow, USA TODAY, Tuesday, December 16, 1997, Front page.

"President Clinton says he doesn't plan to be vaccinated against the deadly bacteria anthrax, and 'couldn't recommend" that civilian Americans be vaccinated." ..."Medical and public health experts agreed with the president's view."
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"'There is no reason now for broad public use of this vaccine,' said Phillip Russell, former president of the Army Medical Research and Development Command at Fort Detrick, Md. 'The threat of exposure is too low to justify it.'" ..."Kenneth Berry, president of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians and head of PREEMPT, a counter-terrorism group based in Wellsville, N.Y., dissented from the mainstream medical advice." "'We ought to be planning to make anthrax vaccine widely available to the population, starting in the major cities,' Berry said." "He said military experts believe that a terrorist attack in a major U.S. city using a biological weapon is likely within five years." -Clinton sees little anthrax threat to civilians, By Steven Findlay, USA TODAY, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1997, pg8A

[04:44] Microbiologist {Kevin} Harris obtains a sample of bubonic plague from a domestic laboratory in Maryland, for about $347 and carries it home in the glove compartment of his car. -CNNI, 12-14-97

- ~"A biological attack on the US using a deadly bacteria? Sound far-fetched? New York doesn't think so. They're preparing for just such a biological attack." -Teaser for CNN Impact, 12-14-97, 8:53pm EST

[07:00] It's easy to get bio-weapons, including anthrax, etc. Iraq alone has enough anthrax to wipe out every man, woman, and child on earth. Bacteria are "the poor man's atomic bomb." How easy is it to get these weapons? VERY easy -- see clip above. {} Harris got bubonic plague organisms from a lab in Maryland. Iraq got deadly organisms from the very same Maryland lab. The US government is worried. A demonstration using a US military "anthrax nozzel" shows the device totally ignored on a busy New York street for more than twenty minutes. The US government is thinking the unthinkable.-[12:40] New York city is one of the few cities to prepare for a biological attack. Fewer than ten American cities are similarly preparing. It's almost impossible to stop. A subway would be a particularly good place for an attack. People infected with anthrax wouldn't know it for three days, when they would come down with flu-like symptoms and start dying. One fear is that a terrorist would wait until the flu season to mask the attack. It will be years before the nation will be ready to handle a biological attack, if such a defense is even possible.-[17:02] Clinton has signed on to new nuclear protocols which don't rule out a nuclear strike in retaliation for a biological attack. -CNN Impact, 12-14-97, 9:13pm EST

2:05:44 US claims Iraq is developing long-range scuds which could reach as far as Paris, and that such a missle could carry biological weapons which could kill 10 million each. The only country to support the US hardline is Great Britain, the rest of the countries would "use carrots rather than sticks." -CNN HLN, 12-04-97, 2:35pm EST

2:13:23 UN weapons inspectors in Iraq are forced to postpone inspections because the Iraqi officials, required by agreement to always accompany them, failed to show. The Iraqi claim that some of the inspectors are CIA is called "ridiculous." The Ritter team, the one in question, consists of 9 Americans, 5 British, and three others of other nationalities. All other teams continued normal inspections. Americans and British are the main protagonists in this. Russia solved previous problem by getting Security Council to endorse more diverse nationalities on inspection teams. This hasn't yet been implemented, but no time limit was specified. A White House statement makes it clear US doesn't care what UN says. "In fact the White House Press Secretary, Mike McCurry, this morning pointedly said, quote, 'It is always better to act in concert with others when we can, but there is never any reluctance to act alone if we must.'"-2:19:40 also "The US currently has about 300 war planes in the region, including two aircraft carrier battle groups. Officials here insist for now no plans are under way to beef-up that presence. If it does come down to a unilateral military strike, they do not believe any additional authorization from the United Nations would be required." -Wolf Blitzer-2:21:20 -CNN Today, 13 Jan 1998, ~ 1:08:43 PM EST

N+N:Reprise: Most governments and other terrorists don't make the distinction between the government of the country they attack and the people living in that country. -LRW

Ramsey Yousef, convicted of the World Trade Center Bombing and sentenced to life in prison --- in solitary confinement --- says he's proud to be a terrorist [especially against the United States and Israel]. -CNN Burden of Proof, 8 Jan 1998, ~8:47:50 PM EST

- Americans traveling overseas have been issued a terrorist warning. The state department expects retaliation from the conviction of Ramsey Yousef for the bombing of the World Trade Center. -CNBC, 9 Jan 1998, ~4:37:27 PM EST

- Four American businessmen, executives for Union Texas Oil Company, were shot-down in Karachi, Pakistan while on their way to work. It was suggested that this was retalliation for the guilty verdict returned this week on the Pakistani national convicted of killing two CIA agents as they left work 4 years ago. -CNBC, 11-12-97, 4:20pm EST

NEW: {Moramar} Kasi the Pakistani national who killed two CIA agents as they were leaving work five years ago was sentenced to death today. He claims he did it because of US foreign policy unfair to moslem countries. -CNBC, 23 Jan 1998, ~ 5:16:41 PM EST

- Based on George Bush and the Gulf War: ****-"Would a president go to war to get re-elected? Absolutely." -Larry {Reinhart}, author "American Hero," the basis for the movie "Wagging the Dog," starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro. -MSNBC, 25 Jan 1998, ~ 1:56:22 PM EST

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