I haven't heard anything more since the original estimate of 6000+ dropped to 4700+. It had to do with foreigners who didn't check in right away with their respective embassies, when the call went out to do so.

Could that be it?

I heard there were some who tried to scam benefits by registering non-existent people as "missing," and applying for death certificcates for them, but they got weeded out pretty quickly.

Trying to come to terms with something so monumental is difficult, if not impossible for mere humans, I think. I wish I had the answers. The best I can ever do is hope that there's a greater purpose and design involved in our lives, and in the universe at large.

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http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no4/inglesby.htm
What would be the result of a terrorist attack with anthrax? read the cdc report

Thanks for scaring the bejesus out of me, Nathen. That's very enlightening, and quite terrifying.

With the number of US and UK citizens being killed by our bombs in Afganistan on the raise, isn't it about time to decide just who our friends are.

3 young men from the UK and 2 from the US have already been killed, these were young men who at their own expense traveled to the middle east to fight the holy war and to
kill their country men.

I think we need to review our homefront security, I do not have the answers but this question begs for one, what to do?

There's no question about there being a fifth column in this country. What I'd like to know is just how many fifth columns there are, exactly. The "official" word is that the anthrax attacks aren't connected to the Al Qaeda, or don't seem to be -- which means there is another group of people involved.

Who, though? Spoiled rich kids with nothing better to do, who see this as a "joke"? (Spoiled child syndrome, it's called, and some authorities seem to think there's a real possibility that's who's sending out the Anthrax.) Sociopaths who have banded togther for the purpose of hurting people -- just for the "fun" of it, maybe? Or are Survivalists/White Supremacists taking on the US government for their own twisted reason? This is as good a time as any ... How about the possibility that factions within our own government are involved in a takeover attempt? All of the above? Maybe a whole other group I haven't heard about yet?

As for the British and American followers of Islam who are answering the call to Jihad, it stands to reason that they aren't all going to Afghanistan to join the fight, but that they are here among us now, and that will do everything they deem necessary to bring about our collective destruction.

We're told to be on the lookout for another major terrorist attack within the week. Be careful, everybody. Keep your eyes and ears open, and stay safe. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that it's more important now than ever to know just where one stands. It's not about labeling one's self or others, but rather, being very clear on what one believes, and what one believes in. Your life may very well depend on it. Talk about melodrama ... Yikes!

As a 16th generation American (my Native American ancestry takes it back much farther, of course) I don't have any other cultural identity to fall back on, even if I wanted to -- which I don't, but if I did, I couldn't.

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It is scary, Muffy. The whole schema of the anthrax mailings match that of the planes' hitting WTC. i'e' using US resources, as weapons. The content & lettering of the notes accompanying the antrax seemed contrived, as if the originator wished to "imitate" a child, or fundamentalist muslim terrorists. My hope is that the FBI & other law enforcement agencies are much farther along in
i d ing the perpetrators than they are letting on. While any deaths or illness from this, is wrong & tragic. our "national near hysteria" is serving the goals of our ememies. I find myself feeling sorry for the fed officials who are walking a tight-rope now, between pursuing investigations, and allaying citizens' fears. I hear your concern, in your post.
Having faith is the only concrete comfort, now. Hang in there, Muffy, please know that your feelings are felt & shared

The letters do look contrived and fake. On the other hand the timing is amazing. It seems hard to believe that someone just had this set and weaponized and was just waiting for some kind of inspiration to send it out to his or her very special address book. On the other hand all this stuff is hard to believe anyway. I'm not panicking, really. But I'm less and less happy to sort the mail at work each day, too.

It now appears that the goverment has over 1000 people under arrest without having charges to press, this is way too much like the goverments that only a few short weeks ago we condemed. The good news is that these new laws end in four years, let us hope that we will once again become a country of freedom and justice.

In a weird kind of a way, it's a good thing I was in Israel when the Yom Kippur war began. I'm curious (to say the least), and concerned (to be sure), but my entire world changed overnight once before already, as it were. I'm not inured to it, but I'm more inured to it than I might otherwise be. I'm in "What's wrong with this picture?" mode -- which is more about paying attention than about panic.

My upstairs neighbor was taken aback by my level of calm, asking, "Don't you ever get agitated about anything?"

Sure I do. Then I take a deep breath, and another, and a third ... Panic and hysteria only ever make things worse, as far as I'm concerned. Go to pieces when the whole thing is over, if one must, but not until then. Of course, I don't live in Manhattan, so I suppose it's easy for me to say. You see the faces and eyes of people who live there and, especially after the earthquake, so many look like they're on the verge of tears.

What makes me worry more than anything is the level of ineptitude and unpreparedness being displayed by those who are supposed to be "in charge." That, and the possibility of becoming the monster we are supposed to be fighting against, as Nathen suggests. Also, the marked tendency in our culture to victimize the victim and kill the messenger ... Stuff like that.

Yeah, let's definitely hope the FBI is a lot closer to the answers than they're letting on. And those letters ... They sure are weird. Contrived, hunh? Yeah, maybe so. The handwriting looks familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it. No one I know, I hope, but too many people around here were running scared about anthrax (specifically),long before anyone who was exposed to it knew they had been. Some are talking about cruise ships being a target, as if they know that's coming too, and some talk about "those women who think it's so romantic to wear those veils" being part of the problem. So who knows.

Beam me up, Scotty. I want to go home now ...

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Investigators still hold in custody 150 of the 800 (1,028 by some reports) people rounded up in the aftermath of the attacks. (One detainee died in custody in New Jersey.) No charges have been filed, no hearings convened. The names of nearly all those still held remain classified, as do the reasons for their incarceration. Lawyers for some of the hundreds cleared and released have told reporters of questionable treatment of their clients--food withheld, attorneys blocked from access. Of the 150 who remain detained, only four presumed Al Qaeda suspects have been publicly named. FBI agents frustrated at the lack of progress in their interrogations of those four now mutter in the Washington Post about using sodium pentothal, or turning the suspects over to a country where beatings or other torture is used. The government's stranglehold on information about other arrests makes it impossible to know just how far agents have already gone down that road, or whether the dragnet was mainly a public-relations exercise.

Just as damaging as these detentions is an October 12 memo from Attorney General John Ashcroft reversing longstanding Freedom of Information Act policies. In 1993 then-Attorney General Janet Reno directed agencies to disclose any government information upon request unless it was "reasonably foreseeable that disclosure would be harmful." Ashcroft reverses this presumption, instead calling on agencies to withhold information whenever the law permits: "You can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions," he writes. Ashcroft is in effect creating a "born secret" standard; in the words of the Federation of American Scientists, the order "appears to exploit the current circumstances" to turn FOIA into an Official Secrets Act.


The Times They are a changing....

One of the detainees was/is here for a kidney transplant, if you please.

The Saudi government says they weren't notified of the detentions by the FBI or any US agency, so until each individual invovled was finally able to contact their respective embassies, no one knew what had happened to them.

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kinda reminds you of WWII, doesn't it???


how long until we learn from this???


i thought we already learned this.

I had earlier posted a quote that referred to women who think wearing veils is romantic, and suddenly realized I'd put the quote outside of any context -- which in turn, positively begs for misinterpretation.

To set it into its original context, the women in question are Americans of European extraction who have met -- and become enamored of -- Arab men while attending college here in the US. And I was quoting somebody else anyway.

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a nephew who is half German-Jewish and half American-Catholic. His wife is Indian-Moslem. They are both second generation Canadian, and are currently residing in the US. It has got to be an interesting household, but I sure do pray for their health and well being a whole lot these days.

As a result of some late '60s-early '70s experiences, I tend not to be a "joiner," but I have recently joined the ACLU. It's not enough, but it helps with the "what can I do?" dilemma. Also, their e-newsletter is an easy way to get the news on these issues. These are excerpts from yesterday's newsletter:

"We cannot as a nation allow very legitimate public anxiety to immunize the Administration and Congress from their obligation to protect the Bill of Rights and the fundamental values that document embodies," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU's Washington National Office.
…
Compelled by the government's refusal to answer previous inquiries, the ACLU has joined with a coalition of civil liberties, human rights and electronic privacy organizations in filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about the individuals arrested or detained since September 11.
…
The ACLU recognizes that some aspects of this important investigation are necessarily and appropriately confidential. "But we also believe," Gregory T. Nojeim, Associate Director of the ACLU's Washington National Office said, "that specific information can and should be released to assure the American public that the government's investigation is both thorough and fair."

American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, New York 10004-2400 www.aclu.org

Good for you, Ceashell, I've always admired the way the ACLU stands up for principles, even the unpopular ones. If we, as a nation, can't do that, then.....
"It's one....two....three...what are we fightin' for?
don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
next stop, Afghanistan...."