The worst of Australian redneck behaviour has started. Some idiot sent a letter containing biological agent (possibly including Anthrax) to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra. The whole embassy and about 50 staff members are currently quarantined.
Both sides of politics in the Australian Parliament have condemned the criminal act, and apologized to Indonesia.
Leading Australian politicians including Prime Minister John Howard have warned that such criminal acts will hurt rather than help Schapelle Corby in her legal appeal or even application for a presidential pardon.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are some Australian bigots who don’t really care about Corby, other than to use her case as an excuse to attack the Indonesians one way or another.
OK, now. I really don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but where does your average Aussie redneck get hold of this "biological agent"? If the reports are to believed, this agent is or contains a bacillus toxin. This isn't something you find down the back of the couch, even in a student house.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for blaming rednecks, but let's just ask who has access to this kind of stuff, shall we? I for one would have no clue where to find such an item, and surely in the current terrorist-aware climate, supplies of potential biological agents are tightly controlled. They ARE tightly controlled, right?
My guess: it'll turn out to be a hoax, or it'll go the same way as the US Anthrax attacks - no-one's been charged for those, either, remember?
This is, however, just a guess based on the scant reporting so far found. If further information is forthcoming, well, I'll read it.
First of all, it's not a hoax, unlike the case in the USA. PM Howard himself stated that the bio-agent was from the baccilus group, to which the causative agent for Anthrax belongs. I don't believe a man like Howard would run around uttering such frightening facts.
ReplyDeleteBut you're absoluetly right in that it's still early days. This morning I heard news that there was a letter with the powder written in Indonesian to the Ambassador. So let's see what will be revealed. However, on the strength of the PM's staement and those of virtually the leading Parliamentarians, we have the, call it if you like, "interim" facts that I have blogged on.
Secondly, 'redneck' doesn't necessarily mean uneducated hillbillies (which is the common perception). The term redneck now applies to unreasoning bigots. There are some well educated, city-type bigots who may have access to the bio-nasties - just as an example, lab technicians, scientists etc. The fact that the Indon Embassy received the bio-agent is clear proof that some very irresponsible person has had access to the stuff.