The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed

by Marilyn W. Thompson

Book Overview

A lethal germ is unleashed in the U.S. mail. A chain of letters spreads terror from Florida to Washington, from New York to Connecticut, from the halls of the U.S. Congress to the assembly lines of the U.S. Postal Service. Five people die and ten thousand more line up for antibiotics to protect against exposure. A government already outsmarted by the terrorist hijackers of 9/11 stumbles, leaving workers vulnerable and a diabolical killer on the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006052278X
• ISBN13: 9780060522780
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fine recapitulation of the anthrax mailings story

This is a very carefully written account of the anthrax mailings with an emphasis on the victims and the governmental response. It sheds little new light on the investigation which to this day has still not turned up a suspect.Marilyn W. Thompson, who is an editor at the Washington Post, and her research assistants, Davene Grosfeld and Maryanne Warrick, interviewed scores of people from Leroy Richmond, a postal employee who almost died from inhalation anthrax, to Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, then director of the Centers for Disease Control, in putting together the story. But apparently they were not able to interview anybody in the FBI, nor did they talk to Steven J. Hatfill, who was dubbed by Attorney General John Ashcroft as "a person of interest" in the investigation and was prominently in the public eye as a possible suspect. Much of the material was culled from news sources and public records. Consequently, what we have here is a presentation of what is publically known about the case and a record of events.One of the aspects that Thompson concentrates on is the differential between the public health response to the anthrax found on Capitol Hill and the response to that found at the Brentwood Mail Processing and Distribution Center in Washington, D.C. with the suggestion that there was a dual standard at work, one for the white and powerful and another for the black and blue collar. This may be so, but the most damaging criticism she presents--against the CDC at least--is their failure to realize that anthrax could escape a sealed envelope. However it could, and did, especially in the Brentwood Center.Thompson does get into "who done it," hinting that Al-Qaeda may be responsible as she recalls the pre-9/11 activities of Mohammed Atta, alleged ringleader of the hijackings, who is reported to have met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague where he accepted "a glass container" that may have contained an anthrax sample. (pp. 53-54) She also recalls Atta's interest in crop dusters and his visits to a south Florida rural airstrip to check out an Air Tractor AT-502 crop duster. (p. 54)Even more sensational (to me at least) is the write up of "a textbook description of cutaneous anthrax" by Dr. Christos Tsonas of Fort Lauderdale, Florida after treating Ahmed Ibrahim al-Haznawi, one of the hijackers who went down with United Airlines Flight 93 in Somerset County Pennsylvania, for a "dry, blackish scab covered wound" on his leg. As Thompson remarks, "skin anthrax could be acquired in only one way: through direct contact with anthrax spores." (pp. 51-52)A lot of ink is also spent on Hatfill, although Thompson is careful not to propose that he is the culprit. What she does is give a report on his background including his partially falsified resume, including a false claim that he has a Ph.D in microbiology (p. 191) and a report on his soldier of fortune persona. She also quotes scientist Barbara Hatch Rosenberg's "likely portrait of the perpetrator," a

enthralling

enthralling, I wrote this review which you now have posted under the author's name. This book is totally engrossing from the first page to the last. It manages to take a story about a real-life incident (the anthrax letters of 2001) and spin it into a fascinating yarn that has shades of fiction. The characters are richly drawn -- Leroy Richmond, the devoted postal worker who contracts anthrax when his boss asks him to leave his work station and clean up some rubbish behind the anthrax-contaminated Machine 17; John Ezzell, the scientist who frets during sleepless nights about how to protect the public from this menace; Jeff Koplan, the dedicated bureaucrat who ends up being the Bush administration's fall guy. Despite its title, which is a play on words about anthrax exposure, Thompson tries to engage the reader and succeeds in spinning a story that informs, enrages and leaves lingering questions about our government's ability to deal with acts of orchestrated terror. Can't put it down reading.

Riveting!

This is a well writen book. I could not put it down until I had read it through. Ms.Thompson took the truth and made it seem like fiction. It was hard to believe that someone could do this to innocent people. I hope all of your readers will buy this great book

A true masterpiece of nonfiction novels

Simply put, THE KILLER STRAIN, stunningly written by journalist Marilyn W. Thompson, is one of the best nonfiction novels of its time. It makes the true events of the [chemical substances] attacks a real suspense thriller that keeps the reader interested and never lets them go. The stories of the survivors are heartfelt and inspiring, and this book is a stunning tribute to the hardships they faced in late 2001. ...

Review for A Killer Strain

This book is a rivoting account of one of the most unnerving periods in recent history--In A Killer Strain, Marilyn Thompson compassionately portrays the stories of those whose lives were uprooted by anthrax while pointing out alarming govermental negligence that resulted in the deaths of postal employees and panic worldwide.