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STRATFOR.com
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THE INTERNET SOURCE FOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE
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Mail Delivery Shows Limitations of Anthrax Attack
October 18, 2001
Summary
The anthrax attacks in Florida, New York and Washington have raised concerns of a broader biological attack against the United States. The delivery method of the anthrax spores -- via the postal system -- offers some insight into the capabilities and motives of the perpetrators. At the same time, it reveals technical and perhaps even political limitations constraining broader, more indiscriminate attacks.
Analysis
An employee of CBS News in New York tested positive for cutaneous anthrax infection, the company announced Oct. 18. Anthrax infections linked to two other major networks -- NBC and ABC -- and at the Florida offices of American Media Inc. have already surfaced; workers at the Hart Senate Office building in Washington, D.C., and at the New York City office of Governor George Pataki also have been exposed.
The attacks, which have caused one death thus far, have all been linked to mail containing anthrax spores. This delivery method offers some insight into the capabilities and motives of the attackers. At the same time, it reveals technical and perhaps even political limitations constraining a broader, more indiscriminate biological attack.
Fear of biowarfare has deepened in the United States and around the world since Sept. 11. The appearance in Florida of a case of inhalation anthrax, the first in the United States in more than two decades, quickly changed these fears into a reality.
(The Rest of the Story)
(c) 2001 Stratfor, Inc.
Dan
Mail Delivery Shows Limitations of Anthrax Attack . . .