Posted on 11/04/2001 10:59:25 AM PST by t-shirt
They were placed close to a test sight with only bales of hay and trenches to protect them..they have used our military and I suspect our civilians to test all sorts of stuff.
IMHO, those stories are circulated to get Bill Clinton off the hook for doing nothing about terrorism and to enforce Hillary's pet theory of a VRWC working against them, just as were the TWA 800 and OKC investigations.
Click on the link on post #118!
"Anybody who thinks they have been injured or become ill as a result of their military service is entitled to apply for a war pension," he concluded.
Wow, now THAT conclusion justifies murder. Sheesh!!!!!
Maybe "he" should be the next lab rat.
Does anyone ever actually THINK anymore (except for those here at FR, of course.)
I have been away from FR for a while. Has anyone determined wht Mr. Kennedy said was the truth?
Then see my previous threads on the attacks.
See posts numbers 57, 58 and 67 for the addresses of previous related threads.
Many of the news story point to prior government knowledge and warning of the attacks.
Washington Business Journal
From the November 2, 2001 print edition
-------------------------
Officials weigh wisdom of centralized bioterrorism lab
Mike Sunnucks Staff Reporter
One of the major knocks on the federal government's handling of the anthrax issue has been lack of coordination and mixed messages by the agencies and labs dealing with the outbreaks.
Consequently, there is momentum to create a centralized bioterrorism lab to deal with that very problem. A federal terrorism task force, chaired by Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, will endorse the idea as part of a report it will be sending to President Bush.
Several government and military arms -- ranging from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to the medical research facilities at Fort Detrick -- are dealing with anthrax exposures.
"The nation would be better served by an amalgamation of expertise on chemical and bioterrorism," says Gilmore spokesman Reed Boatright. "So you don't have eight different public and private labs performing the same kind of research.
A new lab could be run by the feds, a private contractor or a public/private partnership. It could be used to produce and warehouse vaccines and to consolidate research and assessment efforts now handled by many agencies.
Such an endeavor certainly would have major homeland security implications, but it also could be a big economic boost to wherever it is located. Maryland, Virginia and Georgia almost certainly would be on the short list -- Georgia and Maryland because of their bevy of health and biomedical agencies.
But Virginia also might find itself in the site selection mix. The state is home to key defense and intelligence installations. It is close to D.C. and Maryland health agencies and is becoming a center for bioinformatics research -- a melding of medical and information technology.
Despite the natural inclination to centralize, some people question whether a new lab would be fiscally sound and policy-wise. Atlanta's CDC, Fort Detrick and others already have sophisticated, expensive and secure testing and research equipment. Critics question the wisdom of replicating all that at yet another location.
There also might be the need to locate such a complex away from population centers depending on the nature of the facility and security concerns.
"You've got a lot of issues about these things that frighten people," Boatright says.
Officials with the National Institutes for Health and the CDC routinely have had to calm concerns in their communities about activities at their facilities. Even so, Virginia and Maryland officials see plenty of economic benefit to a centralized bioterrorism lab.
"This would just leapfrog us into prominence in the industry," says Jerry Gordon, CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority
http://www.fairfaxcountyeda.org).
Gordon says the federally owned land in Springfield near a new Northern Virginia Community College biomedical campus and a county-run biotechnology incubator would be well suited for a lab. Gordon, however, is wary about hosting a facility that might create public health concerns.
"Some of those components we are not going to want here in Fairfax," says Gordon, who wants to build a larger bioinformatics industry in the county. "There are some that would work here."
E-MAIL: msunnucks@bizjournals.com PHONE: 703/816-0329
SECURITY AT HOME
Anxiety about terrorism creeps into state's remotest corners
BY STEVE JOHNSON
Mercury News
Even in tiny towns dozing at the end of lonely dirt roads, shielded by steep canyon walls and hidden amid forests far from the big cities, there is a growing fear that it could happen here.
Folks in the remotest corners of California -- from Lone Pine and Lost Hills to Smartville and Tranquillity -- know well that Osama bin Laden is more likely to target large cities with thousands of potential victims. But still they worry that terrorists could mail them anthrax, set off nuclear bombs in places where the wind will waft radiation their way, steal their trucks or crop-dusters for nefarious purposes, or simply drive through their towns on the way to someplace else.
So they're buying guns, questioning strangers, stocking up on emergency supplies and generally watching for anything suspicious.
``Everybody is just scared to death,'' said 46-year-old Barbara Miller, who runs a hair salon in Buttonwillow, a community of 1,266 just west of Bakersfield.
To be sure, many who live in America's hinterlands -- like their counterparts in larger cities -- see no reason to live in fear. But the worries gripping others illustrate just how powerfully the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare have hit home across this country, regardless of where home is. And those apprehensions haven't been eased by the latest warnings from federal and California officials that terrorists may be poised to strike again.
Concern about future
``We don't know what's going to happen,'' said Ed DeBoer, who owns Lake Pillsbury Resort in Potter Valley, northeast of Ukiah. Even though he said his business is ``13 miles up a dirt road'' in Mendocino National Forest, ``we're still very concerned.''
So are some folks in Tranquillity, a community of about 800 west of Fresno. Situated amid miles of cotton fields and a sprinkling of grapevines, tomatoes, carrots and almond orchards, it seems a world away from New York City's ground zero.
The horizon is unrelentingly flat, dusty and empty, except for a few distant power lines and an occasional oasis of trees clustered around a farm. Barking dogs and the need for a new community center are the top community concerns. And in Tranquillity, the nearest thing to the once soaring World Trade Center is a six-story silver and blue water tower that sits atop four spindly legs at the edge of town, just down the block from 75-year-old Mae Taff's house.
But despite Tranquillity's size and out-of-the-way location, Taff warns, ``Everybody needs to be on the alert.'' She particularly dreads someone stealing one of the small planes used to drop pesticides and other chemicals on nearby fields. ``We don't know who might get a hold of one of those crop-dusters.''
Sarge Green, who manages Tranquillity's irrigation district, also has noticed a ``heightened awareness'' toward strangers, adding that ``we may be a little more prone to try to stop and talk to someone and ask what they may be up to.''
Similar concerns are evident at the Tranquillity post office, which is run by 54-year-old Dennis McGinnis, a jovial man with a thick gray beard and suspenders, who leaned forward in his squeaky chair to point at the plastic gloves sitting on his assistant's desk. McGinnis said the woman bought them and is considering donning a mask too because of fears about what terrorists might send in the mail.
The fear also has spread to Lone Pine, a community of 1,655 beneath the towering eastern flanks of the Sierra, west of Death Valley. It's a place where the biggest threats to civic order tend to be ``a little pot smoking, a little drinking and a few cowboys riding their horses down the street,'' said Don Sweat, who owns Don's Garage and has lived there all of his 50 years.
Gun sales increase
Nonetheless, even here, ``gun sales are definitely up'' said 58-year-old Lee Keller, adding that weapons purchases at his general store have doubled in the past month. ``I think it's a little security. It just makes them feel a little safer.''
Some of the people in Lost Hills, a city of about 2,000 southeast of Coalinga, also are being more wary, said Kern County Fire Department Capt. Richard Torrez, who is stationed there. Torrez said his firefighters are keeping a special eye on their truck because of a rumor that terrorists might try to steal the rigs and use them as some sort of weapon.
As a result, he said, ``you're kind of looking around all the time, kind of suspicious.''
In some places such as Gualala, along the Mendocino County coast, the isolation can contribute to the foreboding. ``It's kind of scary in the evenings here,'' said Judy Holmes, 48, who works at the Gualala Unocal station. ``You never know,'' she added, whether a terrorist might happen to drive through one night.
Lots of frightening possibilities have occurred to 46-year-old Rod Deese, a grocer in Smartville, north of Sacramento near Yuba City. He is giving serious thought to stocking up on fuel and water because of his concerns about terrorists using anthrax, sneaking something toxic into the oil the United States gets from the Middle East, or setting off a nuclear bomb at one of California's big cities to his west.
If there were a nuclear attack, the wind would blow the fallout toward Smartville, ``just like in Russia there, with Chernobyl,'' he said, referring to the Ukrainian nuclear power plant that suffered a catastrophic accident in 1986. ``The cloud of radiation, it went all over.''
Some people are worried in Big River, a community nestled beside the Arizona border and Parker Dam, said 30-year-old Sean Young, who said he served in the Persian Gulf War and considers such concerns absurd.
``A lot of the older folks,'' he said, particularly those who vacation in the area, ``let fears get ahold of them that maybe they shouldn't,'' he said. ``I find myself sometimes talking sense into the people down here.''
Some feel safe
Many other people in rural parts of the state agree that they have nothing to be afraid of, given the remoteness and size of their communities.
``That's one of the good things about us,'' said Dave Bradford, 59, a retired police chief in Etna, near Mount Shasta. ``We don't have to worry about what other people are worried about right now.''
That's probably true, said Leonard Slabaugh, 46, who owns a taxidermy shop in Weed, a city of 3,000 east of Etna. After all, ``Why would they hit little cities?'' he asked. ``There is nothing here for them to blow up that would mean anything.''
Still, Slabaugh isn't taking chances. Since Sept. 11, he has tucked away extra food and water and made sure he has several rifles with plenty of ammunition handy in case any terrorists happen to come around.
Slabaugh acknowledged he may be overly cautious. But ``you never know,'' he added. ``You just never know.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Steve Johnson at sjohnson@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5043.
POLICE in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi took a local businessman into preventive custody after a letter containing traces of anthrax was sent to the country's biggest newspaper..."We have taken Mohammad Saleem into preventive detention as we are still examining under what law anthrax cases can be prosecuted," police official Munir Sheikh told AFP.
He flew there from Iowa?
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