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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: jttmab who wrote (44184)9/15/2002 5:33:21 PM
From: Ilaine  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
What was obvious to you?

That hindsight is always 20-20.

Last year during the anthrax scare a lot of us spent a lot of time researching the issue of biological weapons. I can't remember the precise story, but as I recall, a couple of years ABC(?) ran a special about (I think it was) a project by the Pentagon in which paid a small group of scientists to produce a quantity (gallon? pound?) of weapons-grade anthrax using nothing but items they could purchase on the open market. It took them less than a year to successfully do so.

At that time, you could still buy anthrax samples from US suppliers. You can't do that anymore, but last year you could still buy them overseas.

Did you ever study microbiology in college? I did. For our final we had to successfully identify a mystery microbe. Mine was staphylococcus aureus, a bad bug that mostly causes food poisoning. You'd be appalled by how easy it was (until last year) to have access to all sorts of lethal buggies very casually. Nobody pays attention to student types wandering around labs on college campuses, especially at a very large university with thousands of students like LSU.

I could have easily obtained anthrax from the LSU College of Veterinary Medicine, where I had a work-study job in the lab cleaning glassware.
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