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New Anthrax Case - New Angle?

17:09 / 18.10.01

First non-US anthrax case confirmed.

from the article:

The letter was posted on 8 September and arrived at a house in Nairobi one month later. It is not yet clear why the house was targeted. Two other suspicious letters, including one sent to a United Nations complex, are still being investigated, the health minister said.

Number of interesting points raised by this:

1: Why target Nairobi? Can anyone point me to a reason why terrorists would target Kenya?
(Note: According to this, Kenya is mainly Christian in belief )

2: The letter was posted three days before September 11. So how can it be - like US commentators are arguing - a response to US and UK attacks on Afghanistan. They hadn't happened, and neither had the WTC and Pentagon attacks.

Now you could argue that 'the terrorists knew what was going to happen' - but I'd suggest that this case adds more weight to the 'Lone Nutter' theory.

What do you think?

17:18 / 18.10.01

I lean toward the belief that the cases of anthrax in the US were the work of a group(s) unconnected to the Sept 11th bombing (the released message of the letters received by NBC and Senator Daschle were something like "You've been poisoned! Death to Isreal! Alla h is great!", which sounds like a neo-nazi caricature of radical Islam more than anything else).

However, is it possible that there was a lot of Anthrax going out in the mail well before Sept 11th, and no one paid attention to it because they weren't alert to it? And now with heightened sensitivities, letters that would have been dismissed as hoaxes are being scrutinized more carefully?

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

17:22 / 18.10.01

Even so, what would a lone nutter have against a random house in Nairobi? What would anybody have against Mr & Mrs Random, of Nairobi, Kenya?

Why can't we have wars which make sense any more?
Maybe every single batch of anthrax has been sent by a different group/nutjob, and the Mafia, or whoever the hell you buy anthrax off, were doing a two-for-one special.

Maybe he/she/it/they sent it to someone completely random to provoke terror in all the other random people in the world?
Maybe somebody from nairobi just really hates Mr and Mrs Random, and decided to send them some of their OWN carefully cultivated anthrax, on the grounds that the terrorists would get blamed?
Oh, no, wait, that doesn't make sense if it was sent 3 days pre-911.
But none of this makes sense! I think I'm going to go live on mars til they at least start fighting sensibly...

[ 18-10-2001: Message edited by: Johnny Haiku Headed Racoon-Dog ]

17:28 / 18.10.01

Originally posted by Johnny Haiku Headed Racoon-Dog:

Even so, what would a lone nutter have against a random house in Nairobi? What would anybody have against Mr & Mrs Random, of Nairobi, Kenya?

Lone nutters do not think rationally. It's kind of in the job description.

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

17:41 / 18.10.01

Well, I'm no expert on nutters or anything, but don't they generally obey some kind of internal logic, at least?
I mean, there's usually some kind of reason, based on some kind of logic, even if based on completely fucked precepts, isn't there?

17:52 / 18.10.01

White Supremacists and the Means of Biowar.

Oh, and Johnny: Yeah, they do follow their own 'logic' - but we don't know what it is.

Could be, for instance, "We are a slave planet. Everyone is going to be enslaved by the United Nations. I will attack the UN, and save others by killing them, as they we be re-incarnated behind the Halle Bopp comet."

18:00 / 18.10.01

quote:Originally posted by Johnny Haiku Headed Racoon-Dog:
Even so, what would a lone nutter have against a random house in Nairobi? What would anybody have against Mr & Mrs Random, of Nairobi, Kenya?

well, how do you know anything about the people hit with letters? one of them worked for the UN. People make enemies all the time, especially when they're involved in politics.

remember the first people killed by tylonol way back in the early 80s? didnt they think that may have been a targetted murder, for reasons we'll never know.

and then if you want to get conspiracy on it, today the bombers of the Kenyan embassy were sentenced. but that's probably coincidence too.

im with the theory that there was occasional anthrax in the mail before that no one noticed. since you die from flew like symptoms weeks later, no one thought to look for it.

but i think yr idea of "who would have anything against a random Kenyon" lack a bit of imagination.

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

18:57 / 18.10.01

quote:Originally posted by Mystery Gypt:

well, how do you know anything about the people hit with letters? one of them worked for the UN. People make enemies all the time, especially when they're involved in politics.
...
but i think yr idea of "who would have anything against a random Kenyon" lack a bit of imagination.

Well, according to the article 'It is not yet clear why the house was targeted.' But compared to previous targets, ie media/news centres, major companies (microsoft), senators etc, all American, and all fairly predictable targets. Sure, the UN at least makes some kind of sense, big obvious sense. This doesn't.
And yes, I'm sure there was some kind of reason, which is pretty much unknowable at the moment based on the limited and possibly contradictary information available. I was, as I'm sure you all gathered from my 'tone of voice' in my first post, being slightly flippant, hence my over-veering towards the 'this is completely fucking stupid' line of thought, rather than more detailed speculation about why the anthraxers chose such a non-obvious target.
But your theory about occaisional anthrax makes some kind of sense, although I don't think the anthrax-mailers could have timed this so it would be detected by the time of the trial.

[ 18-10-2001: Message edited by: Johnny Haiku Headed Racoon-Dog ]

16:01 / 10.11.01

The FBI are now saying it's a lone nut as well.

Which means they'll have to find another reason to bomb Iraq....