Who stands to gain by poisoning a protest march in DC? Hint: it's not the Bush Administration. Small, unfocused, flaccid demos like this HELP Bush, by making the antiwar point of view look small, unfocused, flaccid.

On the other hand, drawing attention to the demo by creating a situation where they can shout "hey, we was poisoned by the powers that be!" makes the protesters look more serious than they are.

But then, as poisonings go, this was pretty undramatic. By this standard, everyone who goes to work when they feel a cold coming on is a "bioterrorist".

My grandaughter attended the Peace March in Wash.D.C. and was extremely sick for 2 weeks with what was called pnemonia by the doctor in San Diego, Ca. Im sure biological terrorism wasnt a consideration at the time of diagnosis. Mark, thank you for writing and researching this incident. The American public needs to know more about this. This incident deserves to be questioned. If it was a terrorist attack we need to know more. If it was a conspiracy we need to do more!!

I went to the protest with my girlfriend, and one week later I had some of those symptoms (she did not). I first learned of the Washington Post article during the height of them, listening to a news report called the Rachel Maddow show (not Amy Goodman, I'm surprized it hasn't been covered there yet...). Now I am not the kind to easily go to the urgent care ward (i have no health insurance) but I went and got it checked out. I soon got better, so it seems unlikely I had tularemia, but just yesterday, the same day as the Salon investigative report, I got a call from the hospital saying that I did have small amounts of a related bacteria according to the serology from the Massachusetts Department of Health. After a few phone calls today I got them to mail me a copy of these results so I can examine them more closely. I have every intention to mail my testimony to the reported who did this story.

Opinion section:

I think it must have been right-wing terrorists (nazis, whites, "survivalists", the usual lot we heard about so much during the Clinton administration). Remember the Islamic terrorists are also right wingers. But they wouldn't benefit from this attack.

Today, I told a friend about this article, and her response was, "the government probably planted the bacteria in order to infect the antiwar protesters". Although my initial response to my friend was, "you are just too paranoid", her suggestion left lingering thoughts. It is just as likely that a vengeful vigilante (like an Eric Rudolph) who hates anti-war protesters, could have spread the bugs. There is no doubt that the government should investigate this event more thoroughly--if someone or some group has access to these organisms, every American is at risk.

Reading this article I had the same thoughts as EVERYONE who has posted a letter on this Board! It is inconceivable that the writer of the article didn't at least *think* about that possibility right?

Absolutely, *if* the "deadly pathogen" was artificially introduced into the environment, this administration was behind it.

One clue to this was that the "attack" was "BOTCHED." As we all know by now, if a job has been botched, the Bush Administration is behind it.

Can you say INSIDE JOB?

Mark Benjamin's article is well researched and he is to be congradulated for taking on a topic the corporate media is ignoring. But he fails to ask the important question which is: if this was a terrorist attack who would the terrorists be and why? At a time when poorly checked information closes subways and highways on a nearly weekly basis, the Fed's lack of interest in this possible attack seems strange. As strange, as Benjamin points out, as the Fed's lack of interest in the post 9/11 anthrax attacks. So who would attack a bunch of anti-war protesters? Who would have access to weaponized diseases? And why would you not disclose the locations of the other sensors? Could they help pin-point a release location? Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I just don't trust this administration at all, but I would easily believe that our own government would to a little "test" release on people they hate anyway. And then dismiss the whole incident. In this "war on terror", it is becoming very clear that the main people generating terror are the ones who benefit from it financially and politically. People who will use clubs, tear-gas, and rubber bullets will eventually use whatever else they can get away with on thier own citizens. Bird flu in the news everyday...and this story buried...just some anti-war protesters...they don't matter anyway. Hey look over there a bomb! oops not this time. what were we talking about?

I was in DC for the protest -- the 5th time I've visited to tell Bush he's a wanker. My question is, why not ask the obvious question: Did the government try to cull the herd (of progressives, that is) with a bio attack?

After all, we've never heard a satisfactory explanation for the anthrax attacks back in 01 ... or was it 02? So why not try to subdue the masses again and buy some time while the whole f'ing Republican stronghold self destructs! If biohazards don't thin their numbers, they'll pull out all the stops and invoke the buried subclauses in the Patriot Act Redux that says something to the effect of "U.S. citizens can be held without explanation and no legal representation if they're suspected of undermining the government." I don't know the exact wording, but the law is on the books.

Maybe it won't be protests, but something is going to trigger marshal law here in the good ol' USA, and it's just around the corner. If the dire avian flu predictions hold true, they'll be just another gem dropped in the Bushistas lap as an excuse to put the people down. Long live the Bush Misadministration. Whatever...............