INDIATIMES
US militia, not Osama behind Anthrax scare:
Wed Oct 17 19:02:02 2001


US militia, not Osama behind Anthrax scare: Expert


SYDNEY: The anthrax attacks now spreading terror
through the United States are unlikely to have had
anything to do with Osama Bin Laden, Australia's
leading authority on terrorism said on Tuesday.

Clive Williams, a specialist in terrorism at the Australian
National University (ANU) in Canberra, believes the evidence
points to right-wing US militia. "I think the first instances of it,
the ones involving media, were more likely to have been
caused by extremist militia in the US who have shown an
interest in anthrax in the past and tried to acquire it," he told
AFP.

"The subsequent instances were basically copy-cat episodes
by mentally unbalanced people, I believe." Williams, widely
acknowledged as Australia's leading authority on the subject,
is preparing a graduate course in terrorism for the ANU's
Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

Speaking 24 hours after Australia was plunged into chaos and
panic because of a series of hoaxes involving "suspicious"
packages of white powder, he said Australia, in reality, is in
little danger from bio-terrorist attack.

However, up to 16 buildings were evacuated on Monday
because of hoax packages and authorities reported dozens
more were received on Tuesday. Williams believes Australia is
better prepared than almost any other country to deal with
bio-terrorist attack because of the planning and equipment
acquired for last year's Olympics in Sydney.

"Australians can rest assured that our government agencies
are world class in their ability to react quickly and deal with
any potential terrorist biological threats. Armageddon is not
around the corner."

He believes the US attacks have involved the use of a form of
anthrax readily available to scientists and researchers. "But
what is rare is the weaponised version of it which is much more
dangerous and has a high lethality rate, but that is not
available and is difficult to manufacture," he said.

"In the United States there has only been one instance in
which it was alleged there was an airborne spore, but that
could have been because somebody touched anthrax and then
picked their nose. I'm not convinced that any of the instances
in the US involved the weaponised variety."
But he said the only anthrax the US militia groups could have
acquired was the type with the potential to cause illness and
which is readily treatable with antibiotics.
A photo editor died on October 5 from respiratory anthrax at
American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida.
Three other people who have since developed the disease were
employees of media companies, triggering suspicions of a
bioterrorist campaign by bin Laden, who is blamed for the
September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
In an article for The Australian newspaper, Williams said few
terrorist groups in the world had demonstrated an interest in
bioterrorism and fewer still had tried to acquire biological
agents.
One that did was Japan's Aum Shinrikyo sect which had
among its members biochemists who tried to develop
biological weapons using anthrax, but gave up after nine
attempts, deciding instead to focus on sarin gas, a chemical
agent. The sect's 1995 sarin attack on Tokyo's subway system
killed 11 and injured around 5,500.
Williams said it has proved extremely difficult to cause mass
casualties with a biological agent although four people had died
in one particular incident. A leakage of anthrax in the Soviet
Union also caused many deaths decades ago, but that was
the weaponised variety, he said.
"So far, no terrorist group has been successful at culturing a
virulent agent capable of causing mass casualties and it is
likely to be some time before this capability exists," he added.

( AFP )
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2001
THE TIMES OF INDIA

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=983950989 

• Re: US militia, not Osama behind Anthrax scare: — boots 7.5, Fri Oct 19 12:47