Bill Clinton in The Test of our Times

On Homeland Security: Warned public in 1990s that anthrax threat was coming

In the days before I or anyone else in public office knew that anthrax had been employed as a weapon, health officials made the case that the nation needed new vaccines, a stronger public health infrastructure, and doctors who were better trained to respond to bioterrorism attacks. In the late 1990s William Cohen, the secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, brought a bag of brown sugar to the ABC "This Week" television show. Holding it up for the camera and pointing to it, he said, "The next threat to America will look like this--and it will be anthrax." His message should have awakened us to how the world had changed since the most threatening days of the cold war, when nuclear missiles were the presumed agents of Armageddon. It also indicated, to the select circle of experts who were thinking about this, if anthrax is the new weapon, who is the new enemy, and how are we prepared to defend against it? Source: The Test of our Times, by Tom Ridge, p. 39 Sep 1, 2009

The above quotations are from The Test of our Times: America Under Siege...And How We Can Be Safe Again, by Gov. Tom Ridge. Click here for other excerpts from The Test of our Times: America Under Siege...And How We Can Be Safe Again, by Gov. Tom Ridge. Click here for other excerpts by Bill Clinton. Click here for a profile of Bill Clinton.
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org! Click for details -- or send donations to: 1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140 E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org (We rely on your support!)

Page last updated: Feb 25, 2019