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• Wednesday, August 6, 2008 12:58 PM

  @seanmcbride

  Ivins sent an e-mail to [REDACTED] a few days before the anthrax attacks warning [REDACTED] that “Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas” and have “just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans,”

  Why does that draw attention? Millions of Americans were thinking so too - that Bin Laden has decreed death to all Jews and all Americans, and that Bin Laden has anthrax.

  E.g., here is a Sept 27, 2001 article from the New York Times (Ivins' email is from Sept 26), emphasis added.

  " A NATION CHALLENGED: FEAR OF INFECTIONS; Anthrax Scare Prompts Run on an Antibiotic

  By TAMAR LEWIN

  Published: September 27, 2001

  Many New Yorkers -- and to a lesser extent, people across the country -- are stocking up on Cipro, an antibiotic that they believe can be used to treat anthrax.

  Most scientists say that taking Cipro after the appearance of symptoms of exposure to anthrax, a potentially deadly form of bacteria, is useless.

  But Sebastian Manciameli, a pharmacist at Zitomer Pharmacy on Manhattan's Upper East Side, said: ''We can't keep it in stock. It started the day after the World Trade Center, with a few prescriptions, and now there's more and more.''

  Mr. Manciameli added, ''I usually keep 100 tablets in stock, but this time I ordered 3,000 and sold out. One person bought 1,000 tablets.''

  At the Village Pharmacy in the Boston suburb Brookline, Mass., Donald Silkes said that enough people had been asking about antibiotics to prompt him to place an extra order.

  ''They say, 'I've spoken with my doctors and we decided this would be the best in the case of anthrax,' '' Mr. Silkes said. ......

  —macgupta Read macgupta's other letters
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