January 12, 2002

8:40 PM

More ammo for the "U.S. brought it on themselves" crowd, courtesy of the New York Times.

"One report obtained by Dr. Zilinskas from the government is "Development of `N' for Offensive Use in Biological Warfare." `N' was the code letter for Bacillus anthracis, the germ that causes anthrax. Another is "The Stability of Botulinum Toxin in Common Beverages." The germ-derived substance is the most poisonous known to science."

Seems that the United States has been selling instructions for the creation of bio-weapons.
posted by Yelling At Nothing (4 comments total)

>"U.S. brought it on themselves" crowd...

who, US foreign policy notwithstanding, hardly need this article for the cause.

lessee... completely lax INS stretched thin by the phony 'war on drugs', unregulated student visa program, criminally lax deregulated airport security thanks to the airline lobby, wild-west-style unregulated network of flight-schools and small-airports, lack of contingency plans for such an attack despite numerous warnings... nevermind the fact that it was our many billions of tax dollars under Reagan/Bush that built all those caves in Afghanistan and supplied the Taliban with the stinger missiles and small arms they're now using to kill our soldiers.
posted by ssdecontrol at 10:24 PM on January 12, 2002

ssdecontrol also knows the exact minute the world will end. c'mon, don't hold back. I need to mark my calendar.

And how many times will people repeat the same old munged logic? The Taliban did not exist in the 1980s. They were not the mujahedin, they fought AGAINST the mujahedin to take over the country. The United States never gave money to the freaking Taliban (no more, that is, than UNHCR and the World Food Program did). The Stingers don't seem to have been used (their batteries probably dead), and if they were (some unidentified SAM fire, to no effect), they haven't killed our soldiers. If you're going to play this angle, sticking a little closer to known facts would be nice.
posted by dhartung at 1:16 AM on January 13, 2002

Of course US soldiers aren't being killed.... the US would rather pay others to take that risk for them.

Taliban, Mujahedin, Nothern Alliance... whats the difference? If you do some reading on the matter, you'll find out most (not all) consist of the same people who keep jumping from one side to another according to whatever circumstances are involved.
posted by Aikido at 1:53 AM on January 13, 2002

I have yet to hear someone say the US brought this on themselves. I have heard people make the case that the US didn't effectively prevent it, I think it's just the ways of prevention that are the real debate.

There is no good answer or precedent whether the ways are military, diplomatic, or economic. It's probably all three.
posted by chaz at 2:48 AM on January 13, 2002