October 16, 2001

7:00 AM

2000 WMD Terrorism Chronology. A reminder that dozens of hoax anthrax letters are reported each year. There were even more in 1999.
posted by SEWilco (4 comments total)

Among journalists, certain stories are called "bacon-coolers." Michael Getler's take in the Washington Post: how yesterday's ho-hum story suddenly becomes today's headline, with recent examples.
posted by Carol Anne at 7:18 AM on October 16, 2001

The proportion of incidents of use to total incidents, although rising, continues to be lower in the United States than in any other region. Out of 58 hoaxes worldwide in 2000, over 77 percent occurred in the United States. The large number of hoaxes in the United States suggests that the primary motivation is to cause disruption, intimidate the government, and elicit a costly emergency response rather than to cause mass casualties. This pattern contrasts with other regions, particularly Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa, where most incidents are designed to cause casualties, if not fatalities


Why doesn't this sound right? Is the subtext that Americans only want to frighten whereas foreigners actually want to hurt people? There's something wrong here but I can't, for the life of me, put my finger on it...Is it that "particularly"? Dunno.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:23 AM on October 16, 2001

And a reminder that dozens of real anthrax letters are being reported now.
posted by y6y6y6 at 10:55 AM on October 16, 2001

And the first i've really read about people actually getting in trouble for causing anthrax scares...

"Federal law allows a fine of up to twice the losses in such hoaxes. The [Connecticut] state agency estimated that in addition to the two-day, $1.5 million cost of the disruption, decontamination will cost about $40,000. "
posted by tpl1212 at 11:35 AM on October 16, 2001