page 6 - The Behrend College Collegian. Thursday, Februnty 26, /998
Anthrax scare raises
By Stephanie Simon=te) 1998, Los
Angeles Times
There's a lot of hate talk swagger
ing through certain corners of society
these days. Talk about taking down
the government.
So when the FBI seized anthrax
from two men in Las Vegas last week,
experts who follow American extrem
ist movements blanched.
That anthrax turned out to he a
harmless veterinary vaccine. But as
scientists point out, the real stuff is
frighteningly easy to get. Other tox
ins are, too.
And while the Las Vegas case was
a false alarm, experts believe biologi
cal weapons may well he attractive to
a small cadre of home-grown terror
ists who think they can save the na
tion only by striking out -- with hor
rific drama -- against a government
they feel is corrupt.
DEA names
of new drug
trafficking
By Laura Brooks and Douglas
Farah=(c) 1998, The Washington Post
BOGOTA, Colombia _ In testimony
before the U.S. Congress last fall,
James S. Milford, then acting deputy
administrator of the Drug Enforce
ment Administration, named the fol
lowing people as the leaders of new
drug trafficking organizations:
-Orlando Gamboa, "the Snail,"
who runs "the most powerful organi
zation on the North Coast. Gamboa
exploits maritime and air routes to the
Dominican Republic. Haiti, Puerto
Rico and other Caribbean islands to
smuggle multi-ton quantities of co
caine ... to the United States."
-Arcangel and Orlando Henao,
brothers "who run the most powerful
of the various independent tratfick-
California
be sued for tobacco
sales to kids
By Maura Dolan=(c) 1998, Los An
geles Times
SAN FRANCISCO _ The Califor
nia Supreme Court ruled Monday
that private individuals and compa
nies may sue stores for selling ciga
rettes to minors.
The court, in a 6-to-1 decision,
found that a 1930 s unfair competi
tion law allows consumers to act as
prosecutors and bring lawsuits to
enforce criminal and civil laws.
The decision came in a case over
the illegal sale of tobacco to minors,
and anti-smoking advocates praised
it as a useful tool in combating teen-
age smoking.
The case, however, could have im
pact beyond tobacco by keeping
alive a bodof lawsuits in which citi
zens or private for-profit corpora
tions have been filing consumer suits
over alleged legal violations by busi
nesses. Such suits have rapidly mul
tiplied during the past decade, and
business lawyers until now had been
able to persuade some trial judges to
limit them.
Public-interest groups had urged
the court to uphold the right of citi
zens to file such suits, arguing they
are needed to fight unfair business
practices. But business organizations
Monday complained the ruling will
lead to more costly litigation against
retailers and other businesses.
"You can wind up subject to one
of these suits for pretty modest mis
takes," said Fred Main, general
counsel for the state Chamber of
Commerce.
The decision will spark more law
suits against stores for selling to
bacco to minors, he predicted, say
"The threat is here. The threat is
real," said Robert Blitzer, chief of the
FBl's domestic terrorism unit. "A
couple of guys with a lot of hate can
get together" on the Internet and make
a biological poison. "That's what
scares us more than anything else."
Guns and homemade bombs will
continue to be the weapons of choice
for most terrorists, authorities say.
But most anyone with a bit of inge
nuity and some biology know-how
can obtain lethal toxins -- and grow
them in the kitchen. What's more, the
microbes can be transported in a test
tube, tucked away in a shirt pocket or
briefcase. They won't set off metal
detectors or raise alarms at airport
security controls.
"It becomes very, very difficult to
control the movement of these organ
isms," said David Huxsoll, a former
commander of the U.S. Army's effort
to develop defenses against biologi-
leaders
groups
ing groups that comprise the North
Cauca Valley drug mafia."
Orlando Henao was arrested last
month but is being held only on
charges of "illicit enrichment," not
drug trafficking. Illicit enrichment
charges rarely yield convictions.
-Julio Cesar Nassar, who "heads a
major `polydrug' trafficking and
money-laundering organization
based out of Colombia's North
Coast."
-Diego Montoya, who "heads a
North Cauca Valley trafficking orga
nization that transports cocaine base
from Peru to Colombia and produces
multi-toquantities of cocaine to bk-
port to the United States and Europe.
DEA considers Montoya to be one of
the most significant cocaine traffick
ers in Colombia today."
stores can
ing that "it has potentially a large
impact."
Stanton Glantz, a professor of I
medicine at the University of Cali
fornia,
San Francisco, called the de
cision "an important development."
"The governor isn't particularly
being very aggressive in allowing the
health department to enforce the state
laws restricting sales to kids," said
Glantz, a member of an oversight
committee for the state's tobacco
control program. "So this will mean
you can have citizen enforcement,
which is good."
Under the law, a plaintiff can seek
restitution, which could be paid to
the state or to some other third party.
In a tobacco case, the restitution it
self would probably be limited to the
amount of money a store made sell
ing tobacco to minors.
The real incentive for a lawyer to
bring such a case, however, is that
the business that is sued can be
forced to pay the lawyer's fees and
expenses.
That prospect drew the attention
of the one justice who dissented.
Justice Janice Rogers Brown
called the smoking case a "poster
child ... for abusive litigation" and
expressed hope the Legislature will
change the law to prohibit such law
suits.
"Selling cigarettes to minors is
against the law, and those guilty of
it should be punished," she said.
"The creation of a standardless, lim
itless, attorney fees machine is not,
however, the best way to accomplish
that goal."
The court ruled in favor of San
Francisco Bay Area lawyer Donald
P. Driscoll, who has filed several
World and Nation
issue of Dangerous Availability
cal weapons. "If someone is really
bent on getting them, it's fairly easy."
Deadly anthrax microbes, for in
stance, can be scraped off the flesh or
extracted from the blood of animals
infected with the disease. The mi
crobes can even he scooped up from
the ground -- if an infected cow dies,
for instance, the spot where it falls
may crawl with anthrax for decades.
Anthrax, which surfaces occasionally
in animals in the United States and
more frequently in other countries, is
a lethal bacteria that can kill humans
in even microscopic amounts.
Even more simple to obtain -- and
even more toxic -- is ricin, an extract
of the castor bean plant. In 1995, four
members of the Minnesota Patriots
Council were convicted of conspiring
to kill federal agents by smearing the
deadly powder on doorknobs. They
had accumulated enough ricin to mur
der 1,400 people.
The threat is real enough that the
National Defense Panel urged the
Pentagon in November to put more
resources into defending against ter
rorist attacks at home -- attacks that
could come from international hitmen
or homegrown extremists.
Huxsoll knows and fears both
brands of terrorists. He has served on
three international inspection teams to
scour Iraq for weapons of mass de
struction, but he knows not all deadly
caches are overseas. As the Las Ve
gas anthrax saga unfolded, he found
himself wondering just what domes
tic terrorists could be cooking up in
their kitchens. "It's something we re
ally have to be concerned about," he
said.
In fact, law enforcement officials
have been concerned for years.
Marching on sin at Rio's Carnival
By Anthony Faiola=(c) 1998, The Washington PoSt
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Behind a backdrop of
electrifying floats toting nearly naked men painted
gold and buxom women in costumes that would
make a Las Vegas showgirl blush, Lazaro Silva,
28, stands on a stage opposite the Carnival parade
route, preaching the word of Jesus.
Like thousands of other evangelists who have
converged on the world's largest and most carnal
hash in record numbers this year. Silva and his group
of 400 Christian soldiers are on a mission to tap
one of the largest concentrations of their target
audience: "sinners" of every sort.
"What better place to find the kind of people we
need to reach than the people who come to Carnival
in Rio?" asks Silva, leader of the evangelical group
Youth on a Mission, when asked why the saintly
are now flocking to Sodom in such startlingly high
numbers for the four-day Carnival that precedes Ash
Wednesday. "It is where we are most needed."
This year, the extravaganza of Rio de Janeiro's
Carnival has taken on a decidedly new and bizarre
twist. It has evolved into a magnet for thousands of
Protestant evangelists who, with quixotic logic, are
streaming in from as far away as Europe and Asia,
bent on converting an unrepentant lot of locals and
tourists who seem quite content and guiltless about
their unabashed debauchery.
The growth of evangelism during Carnival,
ranging from shrill preachers to far more shrewd
organizations that put on their own very successful
-- and fun -- neighborhood festivals of music and
dance with religious themes, underscores life in the
- new Brazil," where Protestant evangelical
denominations have made massive inroads in the
world's largest Roman Catholic country.
The Catholic Church, although issuing occasional
criticism, has largely steered clear of the sacred cow
of Carnival. But the high-energy evangelists are
taking advantage of an opportunity the way Weight
Watchers might target all-you-can-eat buffets. And
with these folks, you can bet that when the Girl
from Ipanema goes walking, everybody prays.
"Why have just four days of joy in Carnival when
you can have a lifetime of happiness with Jesus?"
shouts Silva from his stage. But in sultry Rio, where
shipments of 100,000 condoms were stolen just
before Carnival began and now are likely being put
lawsuits seeking more than $4O bil _ a misdemeanor.
lion from hundreds of Northern Cali The suit seeks $lO billion, but
fornia retailers, primarily small, in Driscoll said he meant to ask for $1
dependent stores, that he said sok billion and made a "typo" in the fil
tobacco to minors. ing of the court papers.
Many of the retailers have pal( "Let a court decide how much res-
Driscoll small settlements, bu titution," he said. "I am convinced
Lucky Stores decided to fight it retailers are doing a whole lot of
court. The 1994 suit against Luck: damage to kids in this state, and I
charges that its stores and about 40( think a court will agree with us."
other small markets committed un Driscoll represents a for-profit
fair business practices by selling to group called "Stop Youth Addic
bacco to youths under the age of 1: Lion," which is headed by his mother
That's why FBI agents moved so
quickly against Larry Wayne Harris,
the Ohio microbiologist who alleg
edly boasted to an informant that he
had enough anthrax to wipe out Las
Vegas.
Harris had been convicted in 1997
of fraudulently obtaining bubonic
plague -- yet another toxin that au
thorities believe is easy to get and thus
tempting for use in domestic terror
ism. Harris also had boasted to a uni
versity professor last summer that he
could take out 100,000 people by
spewing anthrax from a crop duster
plane.
So when the FBl's tipster men
tioned Harris in connection with an
thrax last week, agents swarmed in to
arrest him and seize biological mate
rials. The Las Vegas charges against
Harris were dropped Monday, but the
FBl's domestic terrorism chief re
mained wary.
"It just scares the hell out of you,"
Blitzer said. "You just cannot ignore
the fact that we're moving toward the
millenium and there's a lot of nut
heads out there."
Law enforcement officials and aca
demic experts are not willing to esti
mate how many would-be terrorists
are trying to concoct biological weap
ons to use against their own country.
All they can say -- and say with alarm
-- is that such activity is going on.
"Without a doubt," said Brian
Levin, director of the Center on Hate
and Extremism at Stockton College
in New Jersey. "I guarantee you."
Many authorities speculate that the
biggest terrorist threat comes from
right-wing extremists. But that's a
frustratingly vague description. It en
compasses dozens of different phi
to the test in every cornet oT the city, the preachers
have their work cat out for them. As Silva preaches
onstage, his workers hand out religious fliers in an
attempt to corner the human tableau of elaborately
costumed folk _ from feathered transvestites to
drunken, 300-pound women in gold lame bikinis,
all streaming toward Rio's Sambadrome.
The Sambadrome is the very heart of Carnival,
the downtown street theater where this city's
"samba schools," or neighborhood dance
associations, try to outdo one another with the most
sensual, theatrical and best choreographed parade.
Although the themes of the Carnival '9B parades
have never been more serious -- from police
brutality to social inequities -- the costumes and
behavior of the crowd and participants appear as
traditionally sinful as ever.
In the riot of color and tropical-night heat,
Alenira Moreia Santos, 31, who came from a
distant state in northwestern Brazil to spread the
gospel during Carnival, approached a woman in a
leopard bikini with red and black feathers springing
from her buttocks. Moments before, the scantily
clad woman was getting up-close and personal with
a male friend in the street. Moreia tried to hand a
prayer card to the leopard woman, Katia Rodrigues
Teixeira, 37, but she refused to accept it.
"It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen,"
said Teixeira, a Rio physical education teacher
dancing in one of the samba schools. "Carnival is
about release. It's about happiness and fun. Church
has no place here. This is our time.... They should
just leave us alone."
Certain things are happening this year, however,
that have led a few to question whether divine
intervention is at work. On Friday the 13th, only
days before the opening of Carnival, Rio's major
domestic airport -- situated on the waterfront, a
perfect spot for tourists to catch a glimpse of the
glory of this stunning city's lush mountains and
packed beaches -- was destroyed by a freak fire
apparently caused by a short circuit. That forced
all flights to land at an international airport, a half
hour from the city.
In addition, heavy rains attributed to El Nino left
some neighborhoods knee-deep in water, and
massive power outages have wreaked havoc on
hotels and travel agents trying to manage the
millions of hedonistic tourists.
losophies, from the survivalist theo
ries of militia members to the racist
rantings of white supremacists.
The one thing that binds these di
verse groups together is suspicion --
in particular, an intense suspicion of
the federal government. "They see a
government plot to destroy liberty and
impose tyranny," said Chip Berlet, a
senior analyst with the Political Re
search Associates think tank outside
Boston.
"From their point of view," "they're
going up against this sinful, evil bu
reaucracy ...so destroying it is an act
of patriotism."
Indeed, spokesmen for the militia
movement have repeatedly and em
phatically insisted they have no inter
est in terrorism. "How can we recruit
our fellow Americans if we're out
there maiming and killing them?"
asked John Trochmann of the Militia
of Montana. "We do not advocate any
kind of violence. We advocate putting
our nation back together."
The problem, experts say, is that the
fierce anti-government rhetoric un
derpinning such groups may inspire
more radical members to take matters
into their own hands -- no matter how
often their leaders publicly renounce
violence.
Chuck Fenwick, a former military
medic who teaches survivalist tech
niques, points to a recent newsletter
he received from one militia group an
nouncing that its members had been
approached by someone "who advo
cates that 'patriots need biological
(weapons) capability' which he can
help them
obtain."
The newsletter advises members to
turn down such offers by saying, "I
and was incorporated by his law of
fice.
The Supreme Court appeared to
try to distance itself from Driscoll's
case even while giving him a victory.
The majority opinion noted that
Lucky had complained that Driscoll
used unlawful methods to gather evi
dence _ sending minors into stores
to buy cigarettes _ and brought the
lawsuit for his own financial gain.
"These are important concerns."
of Toxins
have no intention of doing that. I don't
think you should, either." But
Fenwick said that rather tepid rejec
tion by the militia leadership seems
unlikely to deter a member bent on
carrying his group's philosophy to its
logical, if bloody, conclusion.
"I consider this a major threat," he
said.
Even more of a threat are the lon
ers who don't belong to any group --
but who absorb the extremist
movement's rhetoric over the Internet,
at survivalist expos, on shortwave ra
dio and through videos. Authorities
cite Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh and convicted Unahomher
Theodore Kaczynski as examples of
loners with deadly ideologies.
''You don't need a mass move
ment;' said Rabbi Abraham Cooper.
who tracks extremist movements at
the Simon Wcisenthal Center in I.os
Angeles. "You just need a couple of
people who are tuned in and turned
on by this stuff. Reading it all gives
them a sense of empowerment and
community."
Those are just the people the FBI is
most concerned about, because, by
definition, they're much harder to
track. They also may hold the most
hard-core views. and may he most
intent on making a splash with a new
kind of weapon. After all, to put it
crudely, 20 deaths from anthrax would
be a lot more horrifying than 20 deaths
from yet another pipe bomb explosion.
"You usually think of terrorists
wanting the big bang of fire. smoke
and visible damage." Huxsoll said.
"But once they see the reaction to bio
logical event, terrorists will he turned
on by it.... We're going to have copy
cats all over the place."
Coincidence? Or acts of God'?
"There are indirect and direct acts of God." the
Rev. Ezequiel Teixeira said with a laugh. "I think
in the case of the electricity, God had a little help
from (disorganized) power company officials in
Rio."
Teixeira is president of the New Life Project, an
evangelical movement that heads a five-year-old
religious bloco (a smaller version of a samha
school) that has grown from just 200 people in
1993 to more than 2,000 this year. His New Life
Project stages three massive street parades during
Carnival, and at first glance, they seem like any of
the other, decidedly secular ones. The troop boasts
a float of spicy samba, a drum section, dancers
and, as always with marching groups at Carnival,
an allegorical play.
But on closer inspection, the difference is
obvious. They have recruiters handing out fans
bearing the church's name and message, the samba
lyrics are about God, and the message of their play
_ in which an angel and a devil battle for the souls
of Rio's prostitutes, drug addicts and alcoholics --
is aimed squarely at conversion.
Most of the crowd in the blue-collar
neighborhood where New Life held the first of its
two parades this season appeared to enjoy and even
encourage the group's efforts.
"Look, I think it's great that we've got some
people from the church who aren't afraid of
Carnival and are actually willing to participate in
it, even if they are trying to convert people," said
Helio Recardo, 28, a hairy bodybuilder dressed in
a tight black-sequined miniskirt and a woman's
halter top. He fanned himself with the leaflet New
Life handed him.
Not everyone was as welcoming. A 43-year-old
man dressed in a pink bikini -- about three sizes
too small for his squat, 200-pound frame -- with a
lavender boa draped around his neck, strutted past
the group holding a half-empty bottle of vodka in
one hand, a half-full glass in the other. "Ah, those
people again," he sighed. "They're the ones who
are the devils, not us. They want to kill the fun."
But Teixeira insists they are not out to stop
Carnival. On the contrary, he says, they are simply
trying to use it "as a tool, to come down, as Jesudid,
and be with the sinner and send them the message
of God."
wrote Justice Kathryn Mickle
Werdegar for the court. She added,
however, that the court was ruling
only on whether such a lawsuit was
valid under the law, "not the
seemliness of (the) litigation strategy
or (the) counsel's motives."
The court has no power to rewrite
the law, Werdegar said, adding that
the Legislature "remains free" to
change it.