Anthrax attacks, five years later
The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks received well-deserved saturation coverage. But little attention has been paid to the fifth anniversary of the anthrax scare. The first wave of anthrax letters was mailed out five years ago yesterday, to the newsrooms of NBC, ABC, CBS and the New York Post in New York City, and to the National Inquirer in Boca Raton, Fla.
I recall that period vividly, more so than 9/11, when I was vacationing in Australia. I only learned of the 9/11 attacks when the waitress at the resort in Port Douglas where my wife and I were staying - who knew we were Americans - greeted us at breakfast by saying, "I'm so sorry." We had no idea what she was talking about. It was shocking, almost surreal. But it wasn't the same as being there.
It wasn't long after I returned to the U.S., and my job as a national editor at The Associated Press in New York City, that the anthrax scare surfaced. Initially, most people believed Muslim terrorists were behind it. The anxiety in the streets of New York City was palpable. I was pretty well convinced we were doomed - a view that was reinforced by reading New York Times' reporter Judith Miller's book on biological weapons, "Germs," which I knocked off in two days.
At the time, AP was located at 50 Rockefeller Plaza, one building over from NBC News at 30 Rock, where one of the anthrax letters was sent to then-news anchor Tom Brokaw. Security was tightened at AP, the building was searched for anthrax spores and we were assured, amid concerns about common ventilation systems and the adequacy of mailroom protocols, that there was no reason to be concerned. We quietly went about our work, with much of what we moved over the AP wire for the next five or six weeks relating to anthrax.
Today, the anthrax investigation is on the verge of being a cold case. Authorities have interviewed 8,000 people on four continents and issued more than 5,000 subpoenas. But they still don't know where the anthrax was produced or who produced it. For many people, the memories of that terrifying period have faded. For me, they have not. And I am convinced that the next successful terrorist attack on the United States will be biological.
I recall that period vividly, more so than 9/11, when I was vacationing in Australia. I only learned of the 9/11 attacks when the waitress at the resort in Port Douglas where my wife and I were staying - who knew we were Americans - greeted us at breakfast by saying, "I'm so sorry." We had no idea what she was talking about. It was shocking, almost surreal. But it wasn't the same as being there.
It wasn't long after I returned to the U.S., and my job as a national editor at The Associated Press in New York City, that the anthrax scare surfaced. Initially, most people believed Muslim terrorists were behind it. The anxiety in the streets of New York City was palpable. I was pretty well convinced we were doomed - a view that was reinforced by reading New York Times' reporter Judith Miller's book on biological weapons, "Germs," which I knocked off in two days.
At the time, AP was located at 50 Rockefeller Plaza, one building over from NBC News at 30 Rock, where one of the anthrax letters was sent to then-news anchor Tom Brokaw. Security was tightened at AP, the building was searched for anthrax spores and we were assured, amid concerns about common ventilation systems and the adequacy of mailroom protocols, that there was no reason to be concerned. We quietly went about our work, with much of what we moved over the AP wire for the next five or six weeks relating to anthrax.
Today, the anthrax investigation is on the verge of being a cold case. Authorities have interviewed 8,000 people on four continents and issued more than 5,000 subpoenas. But they still don't know where the anthrax was produced or who produced it. For many people, the memories of that terrifying period have faded. For me, they have not. And I am convinced that the next successful terrorist attack on the United States will be biological.
posted by Randy Bergmann at 10:24 AM
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