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Home Front: WoT
Rep. Jo Bonner's district offices closed in anthrax scare
2010-01-05
Law enforcement authorities are investigating an anthrax scare at the Alabama offices of Rep. Jo Bonner (R).

Bonner's offices were closed on Monday after each received suspicious letters, according to a spokesman for Bonner. Gazmat crews are on the scene at two of Bonner's district offices, in Mobile and Foley, Ala., according to a local CBS affiliate.

The letters were received this morning, Bonner's spokesman said, and the letters have been turned over to law enforcement. The offices haven't yet begun to reopen.
I heard on the teevee that it was a false alarm, as expected...
Posted by:Fred

#7  Completely off-topic, but why would anybody want to create, much less use an 'opussum de-worming drug?' do we really care if they have worms????
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2010-01-05 23:45  

#6  Yesterday's Alabama event consisted of 8 letters at 5 locations: Congressman Mike Rogers' office at the Anniston federal courthouse(1), Sen. Shelby's office @ Birmingham federal building(2), Sessions, Shelby and Roger's offices at the state capitol(3)(4)(5), and Bonner's offices in Mobile(6) and Foley(7). Don't know if someone got two letters, or what. Link

Also found this gem while searching: A Shahid Malik, MP for Burnley, received a package containing a suspicious white powder at his Parliament office in Westminster. Link.

So, yeah, I'm definitely leaning "not coincidence."
Posted by: Pstanley   2010-01-05 16:08  

#5  trailing wife: Instapundit recently linked to PopSci article that reported over 2/3rds of cocaine in the US is cut with an opossum de-worming drug that, when ingested by humans, weakens the immune system.
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/90292/

A few years ago, US authorities reported interaction between al Qaeda and Latin American drug cartels. Supposedly, at the time, the Drug Lords wanted nothing to do with it because al Qaeda proposed poisoning the cocaine. However, in light of recent events (see other articles on Rantburg's front page) perhaps it's time to re-evaluate this conclusion. And maybe they went ahead with the poisoning, too, just in a way that wasn't obvious on the surface.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/106645.php

About the Glasgow heroin: I don't know. Certainly there are parts of the world where anthrax is found naturally in the soil. If find it plausible that the heroin could originate in some of these places, and that the contamination is unintentional.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8434109.stm

Again, each event taken individually is not cause for alarm. But it's best to keep an eye on it.
Posted by: Pstanley   2010-01-05 15:52  

#4  Thank you, Pstanley. Sadly, my memory not only is not what it was, but it never was, either. Wasn't it recently discovered that heroin stocks were deliberately contaminated with anthrax... or is that the meaning of your two UK cases?
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-01-05 14:41  

#3  Recent, confirmed, infections in both US and UK. Now, both of these incidents seem to have been accidental. In the UK, one died and one got sick from anthrax as a result of heroin injection. The recent US case was inhalational, and the authorities said that the victim attended a workshop involving African-origin drums.

It could be coincidental. It could be that doctors are actually *looking* for anthrax now, partly as a result of the 2001 events; it's difficult to detect if you're not looking, as most cases present like pneumonia.

But also recall that, when Robert Stevens first fell ill in September 2001, Tommy Thompson came out and suggested that he drank water from a stream on his vacation. And he had *inhalational* anthrax.

So when Fred says "I heard on the teevee that it was a false alarm, as expected..." Does Fred mean that he expected that it was a false alarm, or does it mean that he expected that they would announce a false alarm.

Even hoax powder may indicate terrorist activity, especially if there are actual cases. Abortion clinics were frequent recipients of hoax powder in the late '90s. Even if that was domestic US terrorists, where did they get the idea? The Southern Poverty Law Center has published a couple interesting items on connections between US white supremacist/Christian Identity-types and Islamists. These reports, in turn, stemmed from the SPLC's interest in the Oklahoma City bombing...

We don't have enough here to draw any conclusions. In any event, it's good to catalog such goings-on. Long live Rantburg.

Oh, and Edward Jay Epstein just published this PS:
http://edjayepstein.blogspot.com/2009/12/anthrax-case-falls-apart.html
Posted by: Pstanley   2010-01-05 14:20  

#2  What do you mean, Pstanley?
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-01-05 13:38  

#1  There does seem to be quite a bit of anthrax activity recently, though.
Posted by: Pstanley   2010-01-05 12:43  

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