"Anthrax letters" - a favorite terrorist activity for right wingers

[keepCAblue]

The news of the arrest of Free Republic member, Chad Conrad Castagna, for mailing faux anthrax in threatening letters, has brought back memories of the anthrax letters sent back in 2001 shortly after 9/11 to select Dem congressmen (Daschle and Leahy), the NY Times, and to an employee of the tabloid publication, the Sun, who died from the exposure.

In googling the subject, I came up with an interesting find:

Abortion providers and activists received 77 letters threatening anthrax attacks before 9/11, yet the media never considered anthrax threats as terrorism until after 9/11, when such letters were delivered to journalists and members of Congress.

After 9/11, Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups received 554 envelopes containing white powder and messages like: "You have been exposed to anthrax. ... We are going to kill all of you." They were signed by the Army of God, a group that hosts Scripture-filled web pages for "Anti-Abortion Heroes of the Faith," including minister Paul Hill, Michael Griffin and James Kopp, all convicted of murdering abortion providers, and a convicted clinic bomber, the Rev. Michael Bray. Another of their "martyrs," Clayton Waagner, mailed anthrax letters while a fugitive on the FBI's 10 most wanted list for anti-abortion related crimes. More...

[Briar]

1. There's a sort of symbolism involved here

Right wingers by their nature are anti intellectual - they "think" in terms of blood and guts and iron, and they despise the rational, the considered, anything mediated by language and logic. The written word is by its nature about the intellect - it's about communication, discussion, attempts to make contact and encourage understanding. For right wingers, this is treason. They know *instinctively* what is right, they feel it in their gut. Anyone who tries to fog up this intuitive certainty is the enemy - is "them" to our "us". So corrupting one of the key means by which we propagate perception and comprehension in this way must be viscerally (such an appropriate word for the right) satisfying.

None of which answers the key question - why were these "terrorist" attacks never traced back to their perpetrators?

(Edited for clarity)