The Anthrax Attacks happened
January 29, 2008 by William K. Wolfrum
This is a true story: Living in an apartment in Victorville, California, not long after 9/11, I went to my mailbox. Standing in front of the mailbox’s was a woman, probably a couple years younger than I. She was wearing gloves. She was shaking. She was crying. She looked at me, still not able to open her mailbox, and said in a trembling voice, “I am so afraid.”
So President Bush and the right wing can repeat the mantra of “There has not been another attack on our soil since 9/11″ over and over again, but it’s a lie. As Atrios wrote:
… anthrax was what made things like “mobile chemical weapons labs” sound so scary. Not everyone agrees, but I think more than 9/11 the anthrax freaked the country out. 9/11 was horrible, but the anthrax made it seem like we’d reached a new era where some horrible creepy shit was going to happen every day.
And then it was all forgotten.
The Anthrax Attacks happened. And they terrified the living hell out of people. Just ask my former neighbor.
–WKW
[...] The list of outright lies that Republican Bush followers are willing to spew has always been quite impressive. From gloating that the U.S. hasn’t had a terrorist attack since 9/11 to the relentless lies about warrantless eavesdropping, Bush’s attack crew has made it clear that even truthiness is too much of a challenge and that blatant lying is more effective. And their hyper-fringe base loves it. [...]
[...] In a story that will receive much coverage but will be instantly forgotten the next time George W. McBush says that there have been no terrorist attacks since 9/11, Bruce E. Ivins, who was to be indicted on charges stemming from the 2001 anthrax attacks, killed himself by overdosing on Tylenol with codeine. Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in [...]
[...] Listening to Bush (falsely) claim that following the time he didn’t keep the U.S. safe, he had kept the U.S. safe for seven years, I was struck by how terror attacks are like the Bowl Championship Series. It seems like it’s better to lose early. It’s an imperfect system, of course. [...]
[...] There has not been a terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001. [...]