Assignment for HS 110 - Term Paper Example

thrax as a bio-weapon affected not only the US Post Office, but medical centers that were burdened by the need to stock preventative medicine that had been rarely used before this time. The threat of anthrax coming through the mail became a terror that affected the whole nation and made real the idea that bacteria could be used as a weapon. The events were like something out of a movie. On October 5, 2001 a man in Florida died from what was thought to be an isolated incidence of anthrax. According to an article by PBS there was no need to think that this isolated incident could be tied to terrorist activity.

Tommy Thompson, White House Health Services Secretary announced that “this is an isolated case and it’s not contagious” (PBS). This was not to be the case, however, as a new evidence of outbreaks lead to an investigation that found letters that contained a dog kibble like substance that was the source of the bacteria. Although letters were not found, evidence of the illness cropped up at the three major networks, ABS, CBS, NBC, and at the New York Post. There is a belief that at least five letters with anthrax bacterium was sent to those outlets.

The first man to die, Robert Stevens, worked at a Florida based tabloid, the Sun. The National Enquirer was also targeted in Boca Raton (Security Info Watch). Letters were found to be sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, but the letter to Leahy had been sent to the wrong address and a postal worker contracted the illness as a result. When letters began to appear to the government, postal service to government offices was shut down and the procedures for testing for evidence of the bacteria in the mail began (FBI).

On October 16, 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft stated that “When people send anthrax through the mail to hurt people and invoke terror, it’s a terrorist act” (Army.mil). From this point on, the established framework for the investigation was that of a terrorist act. The FBI lists