REPELLING invaders has become something of an obsession in Washington. Not only are we on the lookout for more terrorists, but President Bush is now talking about going to where he says they live 鈥� Iraq, for example 鈥� and getting rid of them just in case anyone wants to become a terrorist.
The government is having a harder time rooting out its own home-grown terrorists. The FBI has long believed that whoever mailed all those anthrax letters last year was an American, probably a disgruntled scientist.
One theory bandied about by characters trying to identify the agent is that someone manufactured some anthrax and sent it around to make the point that the US is unprepared for a bioattack. But 10 months has passed and no one has been apprehended. Lots of expensive DNA analysis of the spores used in the attack led nowhere.
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What the FBI has done is let the press tag along as it investigated what it considered to be suspects. Steven Hatfill, a former army scientist and bioweapons expert, finally got sick of it and called his own press conference to decry the FBI鈥檚 鈥渋s he or isn鈥檛 he?鈥� treatment of him. The government continues to say it has no physical evidence linking Hatfill to the crimes, yet it won鈥檛 clear him either.
Hatfill has not been arrested, he is not officially a 鈥渟uspect鈥�, yet he remains a 鈥減erson of interest鈥�, say government investigators. Hatfill has worked for the defence establishment on biological warfare techniques. According to his own r茅sum茅, he also has experience as a fighter for the white minority government of Rhodesia before it gained independence and became Zimbabwe. Hatfill claims to have lost a job because of the investigation. He calls himself a good American and has recently proved it by doing the American thing of hiring an attorney.
Before all this came down around his ears, he had other plans for personal fame. It turns out that he wrote a novel about a bioattack on the US, based on his experience in the US military establishment. A manuscript at the US copyright office tells the story of a mutant strain of plague that starts off in Antarctica and ends up wreaking havoc in Washington DC. The novel has not been published, but it鈥檚 a good guess that its chances on the publication auction block look quite a bit better now that the author has achieved such name-recognition.
DIPLOMATS, even those who work at the UN, really do work hard. And they need to kick back now and then. Hence the renowned cocktail parties with all the world鈥檚 nations represented: aqua-cultured shrimp from Ecuador, Indonesian satay in peanut sauce, and well-chilled Australian Sauvignon blanc. How else can the world鈥檚 movers and shakers talk frankly with each other in the kind of plain language that apparently is forbidden during official UN business?
Bad news recently arrived for the noshers among the diplomatic corps, however. A memo acquired by the Reuters wire service, written by a senior UN official, advised UN officials at this month鈥檚 World Summit in Johannesburg to hold back. 鈥淲e must keep in mind that this conference is taking place in the midst of a major food crisis in southern Africa, affecting 13 million people,鈥� the memo is quoted as saying. Officials should 鈥渞efrain from excessive levels of hospitality鈥�, the memo warned. Excessive levels of hospitality? It鈥檚 good to see that even though the level of luxury will come down, the UN has not abandoned its luxurious way with words.
