Amy Langfield's New York Notebook

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

MORE GERMS
Germs recounts a meeting of terrorism experts in June 1995 - just two months after the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City and only three months after the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway -- ultimately hoping to hasten Armmageddon. One of the experts at the meeting had something to say that rings especially loudly now:

"The copycat phenomenon, which we worry about a great deal in counterterrorism, is a real risk here," Philip C. Wilcox Jr., the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, told a packed auditorium in Bethesda, Maryland. "Once it has happened, others will take their cue and try it again. Once the barrier has been breached, what was originally unthinkable now becomes more likely."

- posted by Amy @ 10/16/2001 10:53:00 PM