Salon | Newsreal: The terror at home, page 2

T A B L E+T A L K
Are the Olympics too commercial? Debate the games' merits and faults in Table Talk's Olympic Village

D A I L Y+Q U O T E
Slate? Insecure? Nah!

R E C E N T L Y
Bigger than the pope
By Andrew Jennings
When the Olympics president says, "Come unto me," the local Catholic priests say, "How fast?"
(02/19/98)
Not over the hill
By Eve Pell
While the TV cameras at Nagano focus on the young, athletes 40 and over -- including some in their 90s -- are a growing presence on tracks and fields everywhere
(02/18/98)
New York Times: All the facts that are fit to omit
By Gene Lyons
On the Clinton scandals, the newspaper of record is the newspaper of insinuations, half-truths, omissions and flat-out inaccuracies
(02/14/98)
Gays and dogs
By Daniel Reitz
If Maine voters think gays shouldn't have any more rights than dogs, then maybe gays shouldn't be paying taxes
(02/13/98)
The heart of the matter
By Geoff Shandler
What love has joined, no man, not even a scientist, can rend asunder
(02/13/98)
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THE TERROR AT HOME | PAGE 2 OF 2
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David Smith, editor of a shortwave radio program produced by the Church of God Evangelistic Association in Waxahachie, Texas, suggested in a telephone interview with Salon Thursday that the arrest of Harris, whom he interviewed last year, could be a government set-up.
"It used to be that the communists were the enemy of the United States. Since they've taken over Washington, D.C. -- they and their cohorts -- now they have to make anybody who believes in patriotism look like the enemy," Smith said. "They have to arrest someone who is in some way trying to warn the American people about the possibility of this warfare."
Coincidentally, the Pentagon planned to start making a training film Friday on handling anthrax for local police, fire and medical units. Anthrax is easy to make, the Pentagon found more than 30 years ago, when it conducted secret experiments to see if non-scientists could assemble biological weapons from textbooks and readily available materials, Salon has learned.
"There were studies in the '50s and '60s where they took people who were not microbiologists and not engineers that showed they could very successfully carry out things," a government source said. "They had two tasks before them: They had to create a biological weapon, and they had to disperse it. And they could do it."
Thomas Dashiell, who in 1988 retired as director of the Pentagon's Environmental and Life Sciences office, said he knew of Pentagon studies in the 1970s that tried to determine how easy it would be for non-experts to manufacture poisonous weapon, based on publicly available literature.
"And yes, there was no question about it," Dashiell told Salon. "In fact, there was a report that said, 'Oh, yeah.'"
The Pentagon quickly suppressed the study, Dashiell said. "It was an unclassified research effort," he said. "However, the final report was immediately classified, because they did not want to give a cookbook to every terrorist in the country."
Recipes for germ and chemical warfare substances are easily found on the Internet, he pointed out. Anthrax can be rendered from bovine waste and dead rodents using standard dairy equipment.
The easy availability of germ agents was to be one of the major points of the training film to be made Friday by the Pentagon's Chemical and Biological Command, a source there said.
Despite spending upwards of $1 billion on coping with biological and chemical warfare, many experts say, the government is nowhere close to effectively coping with the major release of something like anthrax in a U.S. city.
"We have no ability at the local level to deal with the situation," Dr. Joseph Waeckerle, the editor of Annals of Emergency Medicine, said in a telephone interview with Salon. "Not for biological stuff."
More than 120 cities have been selected for civil defense exercises this year, but Waeckerle argues that the federal government should shift spending away from military units to a regular regimen of training local health and rescue personnel.
"Somebody's got to recognize we have a problem and contain the problem while we call for reinforcements," he said.
While the U.S. is spending billions more to counter Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf, the country remains "completely vulnerable" to germ-toting white supremacists like Larry Wayne Harris, an FBI agent worried.
"He's my nightmare," the agent said. "Guys like that. Much more than Saddam Hussein."
SALON | Feb. 20, 1998
Jeff Stein covers criminal justice and national security issues for Salon.

T A B L E+T A L K Are the Olympics too commercial? Debate the games' merits and faults in Table Talk's Olympic Village D A I L Y+Q U O T E Slate? Insecure? Nah! R E C E N T L Y Bigger than the pope By Andrew Jennings When the Olympics president says, "Come unto me," the local Catholic priests say, "How fast?" (02/19/98) Not over the hill By Eve Pell While the TV cameras at Nagano focus on the young, athletes 40 and over -- including some in their 90s -- are a growing presence on tracks and fields everywhere (02/18/98) New York Times: All the facts that are fit to omit By Gene Lyons On the Clinton scandals, the newspaper of record is the newspaper of insinuations, half-truths, omissions and flat-out inaccuracies (02/14/98) Gays and dogs By Daniel Reitz If Maine voters think gays shouldn't have any more rights than dogs, then maybe gays shouldn't be paying taxes (02/13/98) The heart of the matter By Geoff Shandler What love has joined, no man, not even a scientist, can rend asunder (02/13/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		THE TERROR AT HOME \| PAGE 2 OF 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - David Smith, editor of a shortwave radio program produced by the Church of God Evangelistic Association in Waxahachie, Texas, suggested in a telephone interview with Salon Thursday that the arrest of Harris, whom he interviewed last year, could be a government set-up. "It used to be that the communists were the enemy of the United States. Since they've taken over Washington, D.C. -- they and their cohorts -- now they have to make anybody who believes in patriotism look like the enemy," Smith said. "They have to arrest someone who is in some way trying to warn the American people about the possibility of this warfare." Coincidentally, the Pentagon planned to start making a training film Friday on handling anthrax for local police, fire and medical units. Anthrax is easy to make, the Pentagon found more than 30 years ago, when it conducted secret experiments to see if non-scientists could assemble biological weapons from textbooks and readily available materials, Salon has learned. "There were studies in the '50s and '60s where they took people who were not microbiologists and not engineers that showed they could very successfully carry out things," a government source said. "They had two tasks before them: They had to create a biological weapon, and they had to disperse it. And they could do it." Thomas Dashiell, who in 1988 retired as director of the Pentagon's Environmental and Life Sciences office, said he knew of Pentagon studies in the 1970s that tried to determine how easy it would be for non-experts to manufacture poisonous weapon, based on publicly available literature. "And yes, there was no question about it," Dashiell told Salon. "In fact, there was a report that said, 'Oh, yeah.'" The Pentagon quickly suppressed the study, Dashiell said. "It was an unclassified research effort," he said. "However, the final report was immediately classified, because they did not want to give a cookbook to every terrorist in the country." Recipes for germ and chemical warfare substances are easily found on the Internet, he pointed out. Anthrax can be rendered from bovine waste and dead rodents using standard dairy equipment. The easy availability of germ agents was to be one of the major points of the training film to be made Friday by the Pentagon's Chemical and Biological Command, a source there said. Despite spending upwards of $1 billion on coping with biological and chemical warfare, many experts say, the government is nowhere close to effectively coping with the major release of something like anthrax in a U.S. city. "We have no ability at the local level to deal with the situation," Dr. Joseph Waeckerle, the editor of Annals of Emergency Medicine, said in a telephone interview with Salon. "Not for biological stuff." More than 120 cities have been selected for civil defense exercises this year, but Waeckerle argues that the federal government should shift spending away from military units to a regular regimen of training local health and rescue personnel. "Somebody's got to recognize we have a problem and contain the problem while we call for reinforcements," he said. While the U.S. is spending billions more to counter Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf, the country remains "completely vulnerable" to germ-toting white supremacists like Larry Wayne Harris, an FBI agent worried. "He's my nightmare," the agent said. "Guys like that. Much more than Saddam Hussein." SALON \| Feb. 20, 1998 Jeff Stein covers criminal justice and national security issues for Salon.