Mail Delivery Shows Limitations of Anthrax Attack — “The delivery method of the anthrax spores — via the postal system — offers some insight into the capabilities and motives of the perpetrators. At the same time, it reveals technical and perhaps even political limitations constraining broader, more indiscriminate attacks.”

Large-scale anthrax attacks on the United States would only serve to further weaken bin Laden’s position among Muslim nations. Even Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has condemned anthrax attacks, calling anthrax a “weapon of mass destruction,” according to Reuters*.

Political leaders and their mouthpieces in the media, however, could be considered more legitimate military targets. This would allow a continuation of the terror war in America without driving Islamic nations closer to the United States. Given these political restraints and the technical difficulties of deploying anthrax, a widespread anthrax attack on a major metropolitan area remains unlikely. For the average American, the chances of getting anthrax remain extremely low.

StratFor

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*(Coverage of Gadhafi’s remarks is here. However, I can never seem to get into Yahoo! anymore.)

Empowering or Cowering?: “Years ago, in a justifiably famous essay titled ‘Politics and the English Language,’ George Orwell pointed out that the way politicians use language tends to confuse the public and destroy the clear communication that is the basis of a true democratic politics. His novel 1984 shows how a totalitarian state can destroy people’s understanding of the meaning of words in order to keep those people in a state of oppression… For some reason, academic writers on the left, who, like Orwell, used to be champions of the plain style, today have hidden themselves in the thick jungle of some of the most impenetrable prose on the planet.” The Vocabula Review

“War and destruction cannot stop us from playing – our job is to play cricket.” Afghans pad up for peace. A link sent by a bemused reader who cited the incongruity of mentioning Afghanis and cricket in the same breath. BBC When I was in Afghanistan a quarter century ago, the national sport was buzkashi. I wonder if it’s still played…

Text of a U.S. propaganda radio broadcast into Afghanistan:

“Attention Taliban! You are condemned. Did you know that? The instant the terrorists you support took over our planes, you sentenced yourselves to death. The Armed Forces of the United States are here to seek justice for our dead. Highly trained soldiers are coming to shut down once and for all Osama bin Laden’s ring of terrorism, and the Taliban that supports them and their actions.

“Our forces are armed with state of the art military equipment. What are you using, obsolete and ineffective weaponry? Our helicopters will rain fire down upon your camps before you detect them on your radar. Our bombs are so accurate we can drop them right through your windows. Our infantry is trained for any climate and terrain on earth. United States soldiers fire with superior marksmanship and are armed with superior weapons.

“You have only one choice … Surrender now and we will give you a second chance. We will let you live. If you surrender no harm will come to you. When you decide to surrender, approach United States forces with your hands in the air. Sling your weapon across your back muzzle towards the ground. Remove your magazine and expel any rounds. Doing this is your only chance of survival.”

Mark Halpern: Two Bad Papers on Language Usage: “They are both, in very different ways, bad papers. Wallace’s makes some sound points in support of traditional good English, but is itself so badly written as to make the thought cross one’s mind, at least for a moment, that it was written by a clever enemy of good English in order to discredit the notion. Winchester’s is a little ? not much ? better written, but makes no sound points at all; its thesis is so nonsensical as to suggest that it was written by his bitterest enemy, out to ruin him professionally. The Vocabula Review

A Journal of Academic Life Halts Publication. Disappointing news in todays New York Times that Lingua Franca is out of business. I have always found something rich and deep whenever I have read it. On the one hand, I think that if anything I have linked to it too little, but perhaps we should’ve been buying subscriptions to the print edition instead of reading it online. Thank heavens, at least, that the related site Arts and Letters Online will continue.[via R.H.]

Wired is running two articles about yer drugs of abuse today, first the illicit and then the licit. In How Safe Are Your Illegal Drugs?:

“Terrorists could poison drug supplies and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration probably can’t do anything about it.

Politicos have warned that dirt-cheap, high-potency heroin will soon flood world markets and cause an epidemic of overdoses in the wake of the Taliban evacuating opium supplies before the first bombs hit Afghan soil. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Because the drugs are illegal, health officials are not authorized to monitor the purity of such substances — not just heroin, but marijuana and ecstasy and other illicit drugs. This coming at a time when authorities are on high alert against bio and chemical attacks.”

Not to mention that a number of DEA personnel have been transferred to FAA duties after the hijackings.

In Pushing pills to the anxious? concern is raised about whether manufacturers of psychopharmaceuticals useful for the treatment of anxiety are trying to profit from the climate of fear in New York and elsewhere with their current marketing strategies.

“With fears of anthrax in the mail running high, postal inspectors in St. Paul have given their colleagues a heads-up that Publishers Clearinghouse is sending out packages of powdered detergent.” ABC

“Although September 11 was horrible, it didn’t threaten the survival of the human race.” Colonies in space may be only hope, says Hawking: ‘The human race is likely to be wiped out by a doomsday virus before the Millennium is out, unless we set up colonies in space, Prof Stephen Hawking warns today.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Prof Hawking, the world’s best known cosmologist, says that biology, rather than physics, presents the biggest challenge to human survival. “In the long term, I am more worried about biology. Nuclear weapons need large facilities, but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can’t regulate every lab in the world. The danger is that either by accident or design, we create a virus that destroys us.

” ‘

King’s Ransom. Seymour Hersh writes: “Since 1994 or earlier, the National Security Agency has been collecting electronic intercepts of conversations between members of the Saudi Arabian royal family, which is headed by King Fahd. The intercepts depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country’s religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channelling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.” The New Yorker

Thanks to Fred Lapides for this, which relates to the photos we’re being shown of the target sites in Afghanistan.‘The US Government has bought all rights to all the pictures of Afghanistan

and surrounding areas taken by the privately operated Ikonos high-resolution imaging satellite… Under the terms of the contract, Space Imaging, the company that operates Ikonos, will not “sell, distribute, share or provide the imagery to any other entity”.

Although Ikonos images can be sold commercially, the US Government has the right to impose such restrictions, which are known as “shutter control”.

The objective is for the US Government to obtain an additional pair of eyes over Afghanistan to supplement its own spy satellites and, more importantly, to deny others the use of the images.

Space Imaging’s two-year-old Ikonos satellite provides black-and-white images capable of seeing objects one metre (3.2 feet) across. It also takes colour pictures with 4-m (13.1-ft) resolution. The detail in the Ikonos images already taken show a line of trainees from the al-Qaeda network marching between camps in Jalalabad.’ BBC

Scaring some readers? An FmH reader writes:

‘Whenever I visit your page now I get the following message box:

“This page is accessing information that is not under its control. This poses a

security risk. Do you want to continue?”

I assume it’s some security setting on my computer (Win2K PC, IE6), but I thought I’d let you know just the same. You might be scaring some readers.’

Thank you, Microsoft; I’m looking forward to continuing to provide you with information that is not under my control. Hope you don’t find that too scary…