Racin' for ricin

Yesterday, I was on the Capitol ricin scare in DC. Today there's more in the NYTimes in this article: Ricin Poses Postal Risk, but Different From Germs

The thrust of the message is that, yes, the postal system has to cope with these things but poison (ricin) is considerably less troublesome than a biological/virus (anthrax), and screening systems are being upgraded. Besides, as a terror activity it's not that effective.

True enough, potentially knocking off a senator or congressman might actually be considered a heroic measure by some parts of the American population. And, poison in the mail is not as big as planes meeting buildings. But, if these anthrax or poison laced envelopes were being distributed randomly to people often in the news (hollywood stars, music stars, athletes [notice an alarming trend toward entertainment being "important" in this list? ed.], corporate executives, state and municipal politicians, and so forth), and you would have yourself an enormously effective terrorist activity. Remember, the impact of the terrorist action is not to kill or harm a specific target for its intrinsic value, but to cause destabilization of social systems. Making the US mail a cause for life-and-death caution in general would do that. Remember what happened to air travel -- and travel in general a couple years ago. There was and would be a significant economic impact, if not a restructuring of social systems.

Just a thought.

Posted by Grayson at February 5, 2004 07:47 AM