The hunt for the source of the weapons-grade anthrax that has been used in recent attacks on the media and the government has led investigators down many false roads.

The focus has been on Iraq, but according to the world?s leading germ warfare experts, suspicion points more directly at Russia?s military industrial complex. ?The obvious one is Russia, it?s a league ahead of Iraq,? says David Kelly, senior adviser to UN weapons inspectors for Iraq.

The Russian scientists who helped to run the Soviet Union?s secret germ warfare program are now unemployed and could be supplying weapons-grade anthrax to Islamic terrorists. It?s known that Osama bin Laden?s al-Qa?ida network has tried to buy ingredients for biological weapons from Russia in recent years.
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Attorney General John Ashcroft has issued a new statement requesting that federal agencies resist giving out Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) information whenever they have legal grounds to do so. This new statement takes the place of a 1993 memorandum from Attorney General Janet Reno which encouraged disclosure of government information through the FOIA unless it was ?reasonably foreseeable that disclosure would be harmful.? Ashcroft?s policy changes the ?foreseeable harm? standard and instructs agencies to withhold information whenever there is a ?sound legal basis? to do so. Unknowncountry.com Insight: One of the tragedies of war is the inevitable increase in government secrecy, which denies citizens access to information which should rightfully be theirs.read more

A CBS News employee has tested positive for anthrax infection, meaning that all 3 major television networks have been targeted by terrorists. The FBI has posted a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people involved in mailing the deadly bacteria.

The latest person to become infected is a woman who works in Dan Rather?s office. She tested positive for skin, or cutaneous, anthrax and is receiving antibiotics. ?She feels fine,? says CBS News President Andy Heyward.
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The 83 tornadoes that have hit the United States so far this month set a record for the first half of October, according to the National Weather Service. Last week alone 59 twisters struck.

?Despite the record number of tornadoes, there were no fatalities and only twelve minor injuries during this most recent outbreak,? says Dan McCarthy, a meteorologist at the federal Storm Prediction Center.
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