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Archive 1 |
I believe that the US authorities were not aware of sannyasins' involvement in this matter until Osho's press conferences on September 16 and 17. IIRC, the 1984 enquiry had concluded that the outbreak had been due to a food hygiene problem. As is documented by Frances FitzGerald (writing in The New Yorker – the article later also appeared in her book Cities on a Hill, p. 360/361), at the September 85 press conferences Osho
... said that Sheela and a dozen other commune leaders, including Puja, had left the commune over the weekend and gone to Europe. Calling them a "gang of fascists", he charged them with attempting to poison his doctor, his female companion as well as the Jefferson County district attorney and the water system in The Dalles. He also said that Sheela had mismanaged the commune's finances, stolen money, and left the commune $55 million in debt. ... The next day and then later on in the week, he added a number of new charges to the list: Sheela and her gang had robbed and set fire to the Wasco County planning office and had planned to crash an explosives-laden plane into The Dalles courthouse; they had engineered the bombing of the hotel in Portland; they had poisoned the county commissioner, Judge William Hulse, and quite possibly they had been responsible for the salmonella outbreak in The Dalles.
IIRC, it was only at this point that the enquiry into the salmonella incident was reopened, and investigations of the other specific issues Osho mentioned commenced. The subsequent enquiry confirmed the accuracy of most of his allegations (with the notable exception of the Portland bombing, I believe, which AFAIR was not found to have been instigated by sannyasins). I don't know where in the article that should go, perhaps after the sentence reporting the initial findings, but I think it should be mentioned somewhere, since it was a crucial point in the chain of events leading to the discovery of the plot. -- Jayen 466 13:33, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
It seems like we have conflicting viewpoints in multiple secondary sources, with some writing about the bioterrorist attack, and Osho's implicit involvement, and others writing about his seeming double-crossing to other followers and perpetrators, in statements to the press. In order to provide balance, we should talk about this here on the talk page, and then probably add in information from more sources, but with attribution given to who said what in which particular source. Cirt ( talk) 00:45, 20 November 2007 (UTC).
Obviously, there are sources and individuals already noted in the article that say otherwise, so I will continue doing a bit more research before adding the above stuff in to the article, but most of what you mentioned above from WP:RS sources will be added soon, I just want to double-check some stuff and check some additional other sources. Cirt ( talk) 21:31, 20 November 2007 (UTC).
One weakness of the – otherwise solidly researched – article is that it presents "Osho's followers" as one homogeneous block, using phrases such as "Followers of Osho had hoped to incapacitate the voting population", "Osho's followers sought after two of three county seats (and) they decided to incapacitate voters", "clinical laboratory operated by the Rajneeshee movement", etc. These were not the "actions of the Rajneeshee movement" any more than the Nixon administration's crimes were the "actions of the American people". As in that case, the criminal activities committed were a strongly guarded secret within Rajneeshpuram, and the reason they were kept secret was that the vast majority of residents there (including a recent Indian secretary of state, as well as a chairman of a White House commission) would have had no truck with any of these shenanigans. I would welcome a discussion as to how we could remedy this. -- Jayen 466 20:42, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
Let's take a look at how other secondary sources refer to the incident, and the group involved:
I think we can safely say that this sort of wording is used in reliable secondary sources as well. Cirt ( talk) 06:02, 21 November 2007 (UTC).
Sorry, I don't really know how to use this, and I edited the article, so you might want to put it back. But I do think it's based on very faulty claims. As you point out, the original investigators believed that the outbreak was caused by poor food handling. This was largely because there were other outbreaks about the same time in other areas of Oregon and Washington that no one claimed was related to sannyasins. No one has ever been convicted of the crime and no evidence has ever been presented in a court linking the outbreak in The Dalles to the Ranch. So your article as it stands is defamatory to a lot of people. The story of a discovery of the guitly sample, for example, is pure fabrication. I have a copy of the actual police report of the search. The sample was found in the medical lab where it was being used to conduct tests. This was what it was sold for. There was no evidence that salmonella had ever been cultured so it could be used for contamination purposes. Searces were done, powder was scraped off of lab equipment, but no traces of salmonella was ever found. I have those reports too. The story about salmonellla that came through Osho was a report by one woman that she had been asked to contaminate the water supply in The Dalles, but that she didn't do it. Her claim was never verified. (I know her, and she is a bit emotionally challenged.) There were no claims at that point that this was connected to the salad bar contaminations. Those claims didn't arise till two people, David Knapp and Ava (something) turned state's evidence and tried to get off by testifying to what they thought was wanted. Ava, I believe, managed to get off completely, but Knapp still had to serve some time. Given Weaver's insistence that sannayasins were responsible for the poisonings, it's no suprise that these two offered to confess to this very politicized incident. A close examination of the two stories however shows that they both contradict each other and are inconsistent with the evidence. Ava, for example, claimed to have poisoned the milk in a restaurant. The fact that milk had been contaminated had been reported in the press, but Ava got the restaurant wrong. The original investigator said, I believe in the JAMA article, that he wouldn't have believed it if there hadn't been these confessions. But, since these two had a good reason to lie--to get deals with the prosecution--that wasn't a good reason to change his opinion. Their very faulty testimony is the only evidence existing that any intentional contamination occurred. It isn't illegal for a legal medical lab to own an openly purchased sample of salmonella for a strain that had cause recent outbreaks. It would have been negligent for the lab not to have been testing for that strain. Most importantly, these incidents never happened around election time. This was explained by saying they were dry runs, but since they actually worked, why weren't they done around the time of the elections? It is hardly fair to smear an entire community on this kind of nonproof. Two very dishonest people (remember, they were involved in crimnal activity) tried to save themselves by slandering the community they had already betrayed. If you want to write about them, write about them, but don't write about a community whose main activiy was ecological reclamation and an attempt to build something beautiful. SangeetD ( talk) 23:03, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
Please note that Wikipedia is not a discussion forum to discuss personal opinions about articles and historical events. If you have a specific point about a sentence or source used in the article, by all means, please discuss it on the talk page. Thanks. Cirt ( talk) 03:11, 21 November 2007 (UTC).
This article is a great addition to WP. I think the title should be Rajneeshee bioterror attack (1984), however I've experienced the frustration of articles getting renamed multiple times, so I won't change it myself unless there's a broad consensus. Thanks for adding an important event in Oregon's history to the encyclopedia. - Pete ( talk) 19:20, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
As for renaming the article, you're right, I had already renamed it once from 1984 Rajneeshee bioterrorism attack, so unless there is overwhelming consensus to do this, I'd rather the title stay the same. Cirt ( talk) 21:28, 20 November 2007 (UTC).
I am aware that we are currently switching from "Bhagwan (Shree Rajneesh)" to "Osho" and back. We should standardise on one name and use this consistently throughout, except for the intro, where both names should be mentioned. -- Jayen 466 11:32, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
"According to Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, these are the only two confirmed uses of biological weapons for terrorist purposes to harm humans."
This sentence is accurate, as per this text from this source:
There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probably but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letter attacks in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
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By all accounts, sarin is a chemical weapon (a nerve gas), not a biological weapon; hence I've deleted, for now, the references describing this incident and the Tokyo subway attack as the "only two" bioterror incidents. -- Jayen 466 18:10, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
"Osho's followers had previously moved into the city of Antelope, Oregon in Wasco County, and had taken over political control, establishing a main presence at the Big Muddy Ranch, which was legally incorporated as the city of Rajneeshpuram.[6][7] The organization sought to gain political control over the rest of Wasco County by influencing the November 1984 county election." Could you double-check your sources there? This sounds a bit as though Rajneeshees had first moved into Antelope, taken control there, and then moved to the Big Muddy Ranch. What happened was, IIRC, that they bought the Big Muddy Ranch for $6 million, but soon ran into problems with zoning and construction permits, which prevented their erecting buildings on their land. I believe it was at that point that they started buying up empty houses in Antelope, until they actually represented the majority of the (very small, just a few dozen) Antelope population, and started to set up various offices or functions there which they were not permitted to have on their own land. -- Jayen 466 23:31, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
Curt, please have a look at the "Salmonella poisoning" section. I took out a sentence that did not seem to belong there -- you may accidentally have inserted it there when trying to source the preceding sentence. If so, the source needs to be reinserted (at present, the first sentences of the section are unsourced). Thanks. -- Jayen 466 13:43, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
According to Rajneesh's biography in Thomson Gale :
Nevertheless, Rajneesh's activities were brought to the attention of the federal government. The religious leader was soon charged with 35 counts of deliberate violations against immigration laws. On a plea bargain, he admitted his guilt in two of the charges and was deported back to his native India in 1985.
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help)This is not the same as being "allowed to leave the United States" and if acceptable sources say he was "deported" then that should be present in the article. Cirt ( talk) 17:32, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the wording in Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology :
The authorities were never able to connect him with crimes on the ranch, but he was found guilty of immigration violation and conspiracy to evade visa regulations (charges his followers claimed were entirely bogus). He was fined $400,000, given a suspended prison sentence of ten years, and ordered to leave the United States for a minimum of five years.
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help)Cirt ( talk) 17:39, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the wording of his being "deported", in Newsmakers 1990 :
Rajneesh arranged a plea bargain and was deported as a result. After being rejected from 21 other countries, Rajneesh settled again in Poona. He had changed his name in 1988 from "Bhagwan," which is a deity's title in Hindi, to "Osho," a Buddhist term meaning "On whom the heavens shower flowers."
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help)Cirt ( talk) 17:43, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the wording of his being "deported", in Almanac of Famous People :
Cult leader known for preaching blend of Eastern religion, pop psychology, free love; deported from US, 1985, for immigration violations.
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help)Cirt ( talk) 17:53, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Osho may have been both "allowed" to leave the United States, and "deported" as well. And no, just because some sources were written after others, does not give them any less credibility. The fact that multiple biographical articles in other encyclopedias about Osho contradict Carter should either be noted in the article, or simply used instead of the Carter source. Cirt ( talk) 18:02, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the "deportation" of Rajneesh, as per a Forbes article from 1991 :
Rancho Rajneesh collapsed following the deportation of the guru to India in 1985 and the subsequent guilty pleas of top lieutenants on charges including arson, attempted murder, wiretapping and immigration fraud. Several Rajneeshee leaders are wanted for conspiracy to murder a U.S. Attorney. Rajneesh died in India last year.
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help)Cirt ( talk) 18:10, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Okay, so on the one hand we have two sources saying he agreed to leave the United States (though they do not say he was not deported, they simply don't mention it) and then we have these, that do say he was "deported" :
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help)Are you saying that they are all wrong? Cirt ( talk) 18:16, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Bolding is emphasis added to quotes :
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There is an ambiguity in our sentence,
He claimed that Sheela said "she had talked with Bhagwan about the plot to decrease voter turnout in The Dalles by making people sick. Sheela said that Bhagwan commented that it was best not to hurt people, but if a few died not to worry."
The ambiguity lies in who said "not to worry", Sheela or Bhagwan. There is another version of these events on page 30 of Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War. This describes that Sheela played doubters a tape to "prove" that Bhagwan would be fine with poisonings:
"If it was necessary to do things to preserve (the Bhagwan's) vision, then do it," KD reported the guru as saying on the muffled tape. Sheela had interpreted this to mean that killing people in the name of the guru was fine. If a few people had to die so that the Bhagwan's message could prevail, the disciples were "not to worry," Sheela told doubters at the meeting.
This source clearly attributes the words "not to worry" to Sheela, and not to Bhagwan. I wonder if there is an elegant way we could reflect this in our text, and remove this ambiguity.
We also now have rather a lot of statements that "most sannyasins" believed that Osho knew about or condoned Sheela's actions. I would like to point out that there are equally reputable statements to the contrary in the literature, e.g. FitzGerald, p. 378,
"They (sannyasins) also believed that they themselves would never have done violence to anyone on Sheela's orders. The open question was how many of them would have committed crimes if they thought the guru wanted them to. For most of them this was a nonquestion, as they believed Rajneesh incapable of doing, or willing, violence against another person.
However, rather than adding counterbalancing statements of this sort, I think the article would benefit more from removing some of the srecently added statements to the opposite effect, to restore balance. Would appreciate your thoughts on this. -- Jayen 466 21:58, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
The following passage seems questionable to me: "Nuclear Terrorism After 9/11 and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism cite a report which suggests that Osho had initially vetoed the idea of using Salmonella typhi instead of Salmonella typhimurium.[32][33] Salmonella typhi causes typhoid fever, and the report stated that Osho had indicated that although a few fatalities would have been acceptable, the end goal was only to incapacitate people in order to influence voter turnout."
Again, these two sources do not pretend to be authoritative, in-depth studies of this incident, and one of them in fact cites the other as a reference for this statement. Parachini directs his readers to the much more authoritative Carus chapter in Tucker for a more complete account of this case (footnote 4), and Carus writing in Tucker states clearly on page 125:
No information exists in the available records about why Puna decided not to use Salmonella typhi.
He also makes it clear that there was no evidence in the FBI testimony files that would confirm that Rajneesh was involved in the planning of these incidents.
While I can understand the idea to have as many damning statements in the article as we can find, we should not disregard the reliability of sources altogether, and emend less reputable sources where they are in blatant contradiction to the more authoritative ones. -- Jayen 466 14:09, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
No, I am pointing out that this statment about Rajneesh objecting to the use of S. typhi
I did not bring FitzGerald or Carter in at all. :-) Note also that Parachini does not "cite a report", as our article says, he simply states this without giving a source (p.390). -- Jayen 466 14:29, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
Hi, your delinquent GA reviewer here. Perhaps luckily for the article, I was occupied with other duties for too long a time to get to the review in an expedient fashion. I just want to confirm that the RFC truly is agreed to be finished, and that the article is stable enough for review. Please let me know, and I'll get to it right away. Regards, VanTucky talk 20:49, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria
Needless to say, this is review long overdue. Accordingly, I'll keep it short and to the point.
I removed the italics from the serovar. Left it when it is used as the specific epithet. I think this is standard. ( Amaltheus ( talk) 05:48, 2 January 2008 (UTC))
Cirt, if it's of interest to you, Sheela now runs a nursing home in Switzerland: http://www.matrusaden.ch/ Puja I don't know anything about. Jayen 466 00:29, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
I'll be making more than a few edits here... as I see things that look a bit out of place... for example (this may be confusing... sorry):
Some more details on the new-born victim that would be worth including: Carter has "... an infant born two days after his mother's infection survived only after "emergency, continuous and specialized care". He was initially given a 5 percent chance of survival." Jayen 466 10:59, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
The sentence "The Rajneeshees eventually withdrew their candidate from the November 1984 ballot, and the salmonella poisoning did not have the desired effect on the election" does not quite hit the mark. As we state elsewhere in the article, the two poisonings appear to have been test runs (Carter pp. 225–226); as such they were not meant to affect the election, but were meant to establish feasibility. The commune decided on October 25 to boycott the election, following the emergency changes in voter registration (initiated by secretary of state Norma Paulus, according to Carter, p. 220–221) that ensured that the street people would not be certified to vote, rendering the whole issue moot (and probably saving The Dalles from another attack nearer election day). Carter quotes a ranch resident who claimed he ran a computer simulation of the election; even with the street people voting, they thought they would be 700 votes shy of winning; another salmonella attack was considered a potential means to incapacitate the balance (p. 226). Jayen 466 13:44, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
I am not impressed with the [http://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Trust-Collapse-Global-Public/dp/0786884401/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product Garrett] as an encyclopedic source. The narrative seems unreliable; the text states e.g. the salmonella were placed on the eve of the county election (!). That might sound logical, but is not what happened. The cover says, "Reads like a Robert Ludlum thriller" ... Jayen 466 18:44, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
Hi Cirt, re the water system -- Carus (Bioterrorism and Biocrimes) actually describes an attempt that was made (not just planned) to poison the water system: so this was not just planned, but executed (page 57). Flaccus has "The cult members had planned to contaminate The Dalles' water supply." but does not refer to any timing to coincide with Election Day (so then we would run afoul of WP:SYN). Carter has "this technique" (referring to the salmonella poisoning incidents that had occurred) "was to be used if the election appeared to be heading for a close race" as well as a reference to an election "wild card" (p. 225–226). So I think the version I had was accurate. Another thing, the wording I found in Phyllis Entis was "turning away a busload of the cult's followers, saying that they would have to return later and submit to an examination of their qualifications to register to vote" (p. 244). I couldn't find the wording "enforcing regulations and requesting that all new voters submit their qualifications to register to vote". Are you sure you have this from Entis? Cheers, Jayen 466 23:55, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
Re the removed/repositioned cites: This was a result of the discussion with SandyGeorgia ( talk · contribs) on the FA nomination page. Less of an issue to me now given that the article has since achieved FA. Jayen 466 00:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
This type of info is better suited for articles like Rajneeshpuram, or Osho movement, both articles need lots of work, and that info is more relevant to them. Let's keep any "sociological commentary" to that which directly discusses the bioterror attacks themselves, and their impact on society. Cirt ( talk) 20:46, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
No descriptive word is necessary here ( [4], [5]). That gets into POV interpretation. It is simply enough to present factually what was said by the author. Cirt ( talk) 03:21, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
The sections discussing the planning and execution of the attack eschew chronological order and frequently overlap. They require a total rewrite and/or the inclusion of a brief graphical timeline for clarity. ˉˉ anetode ╦╩ 20:28, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
[6] - Redheylin ( talk · contribs) has failed to explain why this source does not satisfy WP:RS. This article has been through WP:DYK, reviewed and passed as a Good Article, had a peer review, and was successfully promoted as a Featured Article. Cirt ( talk) 12:51, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
[7] - edits like these are inappropriate, and push a POV. Let's just state the facts. Cirt ( talk) 12:56, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
[8] = this edit by Rumiton ( talk · contribs) is inappropriate, as it removed sourced info and added a cite to the end of a sentence and could lead to the implication that the quoted text was backed up to that cite. Cirt ( talk) 13:45, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
But... = this sort of wording change is not NPOV. Best to just keep it to matter-of-fact statements. Cirt ( talk) 14:02, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Where did the search box go? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.171.155.245 ( talk) 01:05, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
The first sentence of the third paragraph, section "Salmonella poisoning", says, "Local residents suspected that Rajneesh's followers were behind the poisonings, and turned out in droves on election day to prevent the organization from winning any county positions, thus rendering the terrorist plot unsuccessful." However, the third sentence says, "Only 239 of the commune's 7,000 residents voted." Doesn't it contradict the previous statement? Was it "droves" or "only 239"? — Kpalion (talk) 08:45, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Are you sure? this document counts more. Moreover, this depends highly on your definition of terrorism versus partisan action -- always a shaky thing to talk about as this depends upon the context of the analyst. You might also want to cross check with the article on Well_poisoning. As I recall, and this is by no means my area of experties, the use of dead carcasses to poison water sources is reasonably common, historically speaking. User A1 ( talk) 09:00, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Also incorrect, according to the above document:
User A1 ( talk) 09:02, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
'bioterror attack'. hybeerbole alert! how on earth has this made featured article and the main page with that as a name!? 83.91.89.186 ( talk) 12:40, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
I agree with the previous comments. "Bioterror Attack" makes it sound like the Rajneeshies are affiliated with al Quaida and is really quite inappropriate. --Alan Hartley, a user from Oregon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.246.173.73 ( talk) 13:12, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
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Neither of which is true. User A1 ( talk) 15:10, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probable but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letters in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
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help)Right, so addressing the first point "the only known organisation" is fundamentally wrong, even according to your own source User A1 ( talk) 15:21, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article on Terrorism states "Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.", that is not what happened here, the article states "The commune leadership planned to sicken and incapacitate voters in The Dalles, where most of the voting public of the county resided, in continuation of their efforts to rig the election.". The article needs to be addressed to reflect this.-- Kitchen Knife ( talk) 14:36, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probable but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letters in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
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help)Even without Harvard getting involved, any reliable authoritative source that calls this a terrorist attack gets to define it. We do not. Our interpretations of what terrorism means are irrelevant. If the sources calls it terrorism, that's what makes it so. -- Moni3 ( talk) 01:15, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Please note that
Here is a sampling of quotations from published books, with bolded emphasis added to relevant portions of the quotes:
One relatively recent incident involving the use of a biological agent on a community scale very clearly fits the definition of bioterrorism and is an excellent demonstration of the difficulty associated with recognizing a covert bioterror attack. In an attempt to sway a countywide election by inhibiting the ability of voters to reach polling stations, members of a cult following Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh contaminated the salad bars of four different restaurants in the Dalles, Oregon, area with Salmonella typhimurium in 1984.
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help)Religious cults vary in sophistication and resources, but at least one group, the Rajneesh, successfully carried out what most consider the first biological terrorism attack on American soil.
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help)Although the anthrax letters were not intended to cause casualties, there have been two attacks that were intended to do so: a 1984 bioterrorist attack in The Dalles, Oregon, by the Rajneesh sect, and attempted bioterrorist attacks in Japan by the Aum Shinrikyo sect from 1990 to 1995.
This account is based on a longer paper, "A Case Study in Biological Terrorism: The Rajneesh in Oregon, 1984," prepared as part of a project on chemical and biological terrorism sponsored by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute for International Studies.
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help)Anthrax dispersal represents the latest in the history of bioterrorism in the U.S. The first reported event occurred in 1984 when members of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh attempted to poison several people in Dalles, Oregon in order to eliminate opposition and win local elections.
This history of bioterrorism shows that small groups and individuals cannot be ignored. ... In Oregon, members of the relatively large cult Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh poisoned food at 10 restaurants by spraying salmonella on salad bars, sickening 751 people.
It was there that Rajneesh and his followers attained their greatest notoriety: Rajneesh for amassing a fleet of twenty-nine Rolls Royces for his personal use and his followers for various escapades, including the first documented U.S. case of bioterrorism when they used salmonella bacteria to poison a salad bar.
Non-state sponsored bioterrorist attacks have also occurred. The first to be noted occurred in 1984 in The Dalles, Oregon. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, an Indian guru, and his followers had purchased land in the area, with the goal of developing an international headquarters.
members of an Oregon-based religious cult led by Bagwan Shree Rajneesh carried out the first bioterrrorism attack in America in 1984. The cult members, hoping to disrupt an upcoming county election, contaminated local salad bars with salmonella, infecting hundreds of Oregonians.
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In a bizarre plot to take over local government, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh poisoned salad bars in 10 restaurants in The Dalles in 1984, sickening 751 people with salmonella bacteria. Forty-five were hospitalized. It is still the largest germ warfare attack in U.S. history.
So when the Federal Bureau of Investigation needed a top expert to study the attack of the Rajneeshees and examine the cult's compound, it turned to Patrick. Flown out from Detrick to Oregon in late 1985, he sensed that the cult was to blame for the outbreak. For one thing, he found a germ incubator - an unusual piece of equipment for a health clinic. Patrick knew salmonella well. Scientists at Detrick had investigated the bug as a weapon, with at least one worker falling ill. As the evidence grew, Patrick could see that the people in The Dalles had been victims of crude bioterrorism.
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help)There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probable but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letters in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
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help)A 1984 Salmonella bacteria attack in Orego, and the attempts by Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo to use botulinum toxin and anthrax bacteria in the early 1990s, have been the most concerted efforts by nonstate actors to use biological agents in the pursuit of some political agenda – that is, bioterrorism. No one died as a direct result of these biological attacks, althought the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon was more successful in terms of actually carrying out a biological attack than Aum Shinrikyo.
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help)The Rajneesh group was in the news again in fall 2001 in relation to American's rekindled interest in bioterrorism. ... the Rajneesh group had been implicated in the first incident of biological warfare on U.S. soil. While trying to assert itself politically in rural Oregon, members of the group had deliberately poisoned about a dozen salad bars in nearby The Dalles with salmonella bacteria in order to debilitate the local populace and keep them from voting. No one died, but approximately 750 people were stricked with stomach ailments and other illnesses.
The first episode of bioterrorism in the United States occurred in 1984. The Rajneeshee cult was founded by an Indian guru named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the 1960s.
an incident in Oregon with a cult that practiced and promoted a philosophy based on New Age concepts shows that cults can twist and use any belief system to attract members to its group. More importantly, however, the following incident shows how some cults will use whatever means they have to, including bioterrorism, to take and keep control.
In September 1984, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a cult that had bought a 64,000 acre ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, committed the first large-scale act of bioterrorism in U.S. history.
In 1984, the Rajneesh cult spread Salmonella typhimurium on salad bars in The Dalles, Oregon, in an attempt to influence the outcome of an election by making the opposition ill and unable to vote. The resulting illnesses initially were thought to be a case of natural foodborne disease, but later the event was recognized as an act of bioterrorism.
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help)One of these major issues is bioterrorism because terrorists have the ability to use recent advances in technology to disseminate disease, to cause illness, and to inflict mass death. In 1984 the first documented case of bioterrorism occurred in The Dalles, Oregon, a quiet town along the banks of the Columbia River. Followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh spiked salad bars with salmonella at 10 restaurants and sickened about 750 people. Fear was widespread in the area as many residents thought cult members would try to spread the AIDS virus and to contaminate the water supply. Scared people would not go out alone, becoming prisoners in their own homes. The cult's motivation was to keep voters from the polls so that their candidates would win county elections. This incident received little national attention because it was perpetrated by a local fanatical fringe cult. Cult members fled to Europe; their leader died in India in 1990.
Thank you for your time, -- Cirt ( talk) 18:20, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
This is a frustrating conversation, because each of the books you've cited is an example of the creeping overuse of the term "terrorism" to refer to any act of violence committed by an individual or non-government organization with the intent to influence or control the behavior of a populace. If you look for pre-9/11 books or articles referring to the Rajneeshee attack as bioterrorism, I think you will have trouble coming up with a similar degree of support for your position. All but one of the books you've cited is a book about terrorism. Naturally they will call the Rajneeshee attack "terrorism," because, post-9/11, it became popular to refer to anything negative as terrorism, and there was money to be made inciting hysteria about it. Even the genuinely scholarly or practical works, like the book on decontamination, use the term, because that is the term that gets people to read the book.
Unfortunately, this leaves us at an impasse. The use of the term terrorism here is in fact inaccurate, according to the U.S. Department of Defense' own definition of terrorism. Yet because you have sources that use the term, and seem committed to the use of the term, it seems unlikely that we will be able to fix this article.
That being the case, I would propose the addition of the following section:
Use of the term "Bioterrorism"
The U.S. Department of Defense defines terrorism as "the calculated use of unlawful violence or the threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." Although many sources can be cited that refer to the Rajneeshee attack as an example of bioterrorism, other sources refer to it as a germ-warfare attack, or a biological attack, without using the term "terrorism" or "bioterrorism" to describe it.
While this does not really satisfy my objection, it at least documents the inaccuracy. Abhayakara ( talk) 19:16, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
Suggestion to Abhayakara ( talk · contribs) and Kitchen Knife ( talk · contribs): You two may not be as familiar with research on this topic, having never contributed to this talk page prior to the article's appearance on the Main Page. How about we take a break from this for one week, we can allow some time for you to research and review scholarly and academic coverage of this historical incident in WP:RS secondary sources (please list them here as you peruse them) - and come back and revisit and discuss those sources at that point in time? -- Cirt ( talk) 19:33, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
Comment: It appears that despite the helpful clarifying comments from experienced FA contributors including Ling.Nut [11] and Moni3 [12], and a report to ANI for issues of comportment during discussion on this page [13], user Kitchen Knife ( talk · contribs) is unwilling to listen to reason or understand Wikipedia policy with regard to this issue. At this point, if desired, Kitchen Knife ( talk · contribs) can file a requested move of this page through the appropriate process, and then subsequently that proposal may be discussed here at this talk page, to assess consensus and/or opposition to such a proposal. -- Cirt ( talk) 19:13, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Speaking as someone who had a front-row seat for this bizarre affair, this article omits a few points:
I know the media of the time expressed these points. It would only take some digging thru the archives of the local newspapers to verify these assertions. -- llywrch ( talk) 04:19, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Not appropriate additions. -- Cirt ( talk) 19:25, 2 June 2011 (UTC)
Since my first edit got reverted I'm noting it here. The Rajneeshee's weren't the only terrorist group to culture a pathogen the Aum Shinrikyo group did as well, though they didn't end up using it. The Anthrax attacks of 2001 might also fall under this category, though it was an individual and I'm not certain he cultured the agent himself. Polyquest ( talk) 19:27, 2 June 2011 (UTC)
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From the description in the article there was no intention to terrorize anyone, only to sway the election. By what definition is it appropriate to call this terrorism? As Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly written, the word "terrorism" has become a political term without clear definition. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.211.69.239 ( talk) 23:40, 27 August 2016 (UTC)
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The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the page to any particular title at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 20:19, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack → Rajneeshee food poisoning attacks – or Rajneesh movement Salmonella poisoning attacks – There aren't any articles about Rajneeshee food poisoning attacks in other years that we need to disambiguate, and having "bioterror" in the article title seems a bit extreme and tabloidish. As far as I know, the attacks were intended to temporarily incapacitate and confuse and suppress voting, not to kill (and no one was killed, although that was certainly a possibility). The perpetrators had considered and rejected the idea of using a more deadly pathogen. Also please note the suggested change from "attack" to "attacks". This involved multiple incidents that were not simultaneous (glasses of water given to two people on August 29, produce in grocery stores and doorknobs and urinal handles in the county courthouse at some point, and ten restaurant salad bars in September and October, and possibly some attempt to contaminate the public water supply, which the article mentions but doesn't give any detail about). — BarrelProof ( talk) 00:45, 12 June 2018 (UTC)--Relisting. Dekimasu よ! 01:03, 19 June 2018 (UTC)
Regarding the aforementioned sentence, which appears at the end of the first paragraph, both sources cited state that this was the first bioterrorism attack in the US carried out at all, and make no distinction regarding Native Americans. I'm fairly certain the segment "...not targeting Native Americans..." ought to be removed, or other sources provided that support this claim. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.14.106.6 ( talk) 20:54, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
The article on Sheela says 39 months. Which is it? -- 142.163.195.93 ( talk) 15:22, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article on bioterrorism linked to from here currently says in its history section,
"Shortly after the start of World War I, Germany launched a biological sabotage campaign in the United States, Russia, Romania, and France. At that time, Anton Dilger lived in Germany, but in 1915 he was sent to the United States carrying cultures of glanders, a virulent disease of horses and mules. Dilger set up a laboratory in his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He used stevedores working the docks in Baltimore to infect horses with glanders while they were waiting to be shipped to Britain."
so the reasoning used above to remove mention of bioterrorism attacks against Native Americans from this article, that no sources contradicted the claim that this is the first bioterrorist attack in U.S. history, appears to be incorrect. One very well-known incident,
/info/en/?search=Siege_of_Fort_Pitt#Biological_warfare
is also documented in an article and categorized by Wikipedia as a biological warfare incident, like this article. Thank you 73.142.68.213 ( talk) 04:30, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
How in the bloody hell did she walk after only 2 1/2 years after masterminding this and half a dozens other attacks? 200.119.184.108 ( talk) 05:57, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 |
I believe that the US authorities were not aware of sannyasins' involvement in this matter until Osho's press conferences on September 16 and 17. IIRC, the 1984 enquiry had concluded that the outbreak had been due to a food hygiene problem. As is documented by Frances FitzGerald (writing in The New Yorker – the article later also appeared in her book Cities on a Hill, p. 360/361), at the September 85 press conferences Osho
... said that Sheela and a dozen other commune leaders, including Puja, had left the commune over the weekend and gone to Europe. Calling them a "gang of fascists", he charged them with attempting to poison his doctor, his female companion as well as the Jefferson County district attorney and the water system in The Dalles. He also said that Sheela had mismanaged the commune's finances, stolen money, and left the commune $55 million in debt. ... The next day and then later on in the week, he added a number of new charges to the list: Sheela and her gang had robbed and set fire to the Wasco County planning office and had planned to crash an explosives-laden plane into The Dalles courthouse; they had engineered the bombing of the hotel in Portland; they had poisoned the county commissioner, Judge William Hulse, and quite possibly they had been responsible for the salmonella outbreak in The Dalles.
IIRC, it was only at this point that the enquiry into the salmonella incident was reopened, and investigations of the other specific issues Osho mentioned commenced. The subsequent enquiry confirmed the accuracy of most of his allegations (with the notable exception of the Portland bombing, I believe, which AFAIR was not found to have been instigated by sannyasins). I don't know where in the article that should go, perhaps after the sentence reporting the initial findings, but I think it should be mentioned somewhere, since it was a crucial point in the chain of events leading to the discovery of the plot. -- Jayen 466 13:33, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
It seems like we have conflicting viewpoints in multiple secondary sources, with some writing about the bioterrorist attack, and Osho's implicit involvement, and others writing about his seeming double-crossing to other followers and perpetrators, in statements to the press. In order to provide balance, we should talk about this here on the talk page, and then probably add in information from more sources, but with attribution given to who said what in which particular source. Cirt ( talk) 00:45, 20 November 2007 (UTC).
Obviously, there are sources and individuals already noted in the article that say otherwise, so I will continue doing a bit more research before adding the above stuff in to the article, but most of what you mentioned above from WP:RS sources will be added soon, I just want to double-check some stuff and check some additional other sources. Cirt ( talk) 21:31, 20 November 2007 (UTC).
One weakness of the – otherwise solidly researched – article is that it presents "Osho's followers" as one homogeneous block, using phrases such as "Followers of Osho had hoped to incapacitate the voting population", "Osho's followers sought after two of three county seats (and) they decided to incapacitate voters", "clinical laboratory operated by the Rajneeshee movement", etc. These were not the "actions of the Rajneeshee movement" any more than the Nixon administration's crimes were the "actions of the American people". As in that case, the criminal activities committed were a strongly guarded secret within Rajneeshpuram, and the reason they were kept secret was that the vast majority of residents there (including a recent Indian secretary of state, as well as a chairman of a White House commission) would have had no truck with any of these shenanigans. I would welcome a discussion as to how we could remedy this. -- Jayen 466 20:42, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
Let's take a look at how other secondary sources refer to the incident, and the group involved:
I think we can safely say that this sort of wording is used in reliable secondary sources as well. Cirt ( talk) 06:02, 21 November 2007 (UTC).
Sorry, I don't really know how to use this, and I edited the article, so you might want to put it back. But I do think it's based on very faulty claims. As you point out, the original investigators believed that the outbreak was caused by poor food handling. This was largely because there were other outbreaks about the same time in other areas of Oregon and Washington that no one claimed was related to sannyasins. No one has ever been convicted of the crime and no evidence has ever been presented in a court linking the outbreak in The Dalles to the Ranch. So your article as it stands is defamatory to a lot of people. The story of a discovery of the guitly sample, for example, is pure fabrication. I have a copy of the actual police report of the search. The sample was found in the medical lab where it was being used to conduct tests. This was what it was sold for. There was no evidence that salmonella had ever been cultured so it could be used for contamination purposes. Searces were done, powder was scraped off of lab equipment, but no traces of salmonella was ever found. I have those reports too. The story about salmonellla that came through Osho was a report by one woman that she had been asked to contaminate the water supply in The Dalles, but that she didn't do it. Her claim was never verified. (I know her, and she is a bit emotionally challenged.) There were no claims at that point that this was connected to the salad bar contaminations. Those claims didn't arise till two people, David Knapp and Ava (something) turned state's evidence and tried to get off by testifying to what they thought was wanted. Ava, I believe, managed to get off completely, but Knapp still had to serve some time. Given Weaver's insistence that sannayasins were responsible for the poisonings, it's no suprise that these two offered to confess to this very politicized incident. A close examination of the two stories however shows that they both contradict each other and are inconsistent with the evidence. Ava, for example, claimed to have poisoned the milk in a restaurant. The fact that milk had been contaminated had been reported in the press, but Ava got the restaurant wrong. The original investigator said, I believe in the JAMA article, that he wouldn't have believed it if there hadn't been these confessions. But, since these two had a good reason to lie--to get deals with the prosecution--that wasn't a good reason to change his opinion. Their very faulty testimony is the only evidence existing that any intentional contamination occurred. It isn't illegal for a legal medical lab to own an openly purchased sample of salmonella for a strain that had cause recent outbreaks. It would have been negligent for the lab not to have been testing for that strain. Most importantly, these incidents never happened around election time. This was explained by saying they were dry runs, but since they actually worked, why weren't they done around the time of the elections? It is hardly fair to smear an entire community on this kind of nonproof. Two very dishonest people (remember, they were involved in crimnal activity) tried to save themselves by slandering the community they had already betrayed. If you want to write about them, write about them, but don't write about a community whose main activiy was ecological reclamation and an attempt to build something beautiful. SangeetD ( talk) 23:03, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
Please note that Wikipedia is not a discussion forum to discuss personal opinions about articles and historical events. If you have a specific point about a sentence or source used in the article, by all means, please discuss it on the talk page. Thanks. Cirt ( talk) 03:11, 21 November 2007 (UTC).
This article is a great addition to WP. I think the title should be Rajneeshee bioterror attack (1984), however I've experienced the frustration of articles getting renamed multiple times, so I won't change it myself unless there's a broad consensus. Thanks for adding an important event in Oregon's history to the encyclopedia. - Pete ( talk) 19:20, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
As for renaming the article, you're right, I had already renamed it once from 1984 Rajneeshee bioterrorism attack, so unless there is overwhelming consensus to do this, I'd rather the title stay the same. Cirt ( talk) 21:28, 20 November 2007 (UTC).
I am aware that we are currently switching from "Bhagwan (Shree Rajneesh)" to "Osho" and back. We should standardise on one name and use this consistently throughout, except for the intro, where both names should be mentioned. -- Jayen 466 11:32, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
"According to Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, these are the only two confirmed uses of biological weapons for terrorist purposes to harm humans."
This sentence is accurate, as per this text from this source:
There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probably but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letter attacks in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
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By all accounts, sarin is a chemical weapon (a nerve gas), not a biological weapon; hence I've deleted, for now, the references describing this incident and the Tokyo subway attack as the "only two" bioterror incidents. -- Jayen 466 18:10, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
"Osho's followers had previously moved into the city of Antelope, Oregon in Wasco County, and had taken over political control, establishing a main presence at the Big Muddy Ranch, which was legally incorporated as the city of Rajneeshpuram.[6][7] The organization sought to gain political control over the rest of Wasco County by influencing the November 1984 county election." Could you double-check your sources there? This sounds a bit as though Rajneeshees had first moved into Antelope, taken control there, and then moved to the Big Muddy Ranch. What happened was, IIRC, that they bought the Big Muddy Ranch for $6 million, but soon ran into problems with zoning and construction permits, which prevented their erecting buildings on their land. I believe it was at that point that they started buying up empty houses in Antelope, until they actually represented the majority of the (very small, just a few dozen) Antelope population, and started to set up various offices or functions there which they were not permitted to have on their own land. -- Jayen 466 23:31, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
Curt, please have a look at the "Salmonella poisoning" section. I took out a sentence that did not seem to belong there -- you may accidentally have inserted it there when trying to source the preceding sentence. If so, the source needs to be reinserted (at present, the first sentences of the section are unsourced). Thanks. -- Jayen 466 13:43, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
According to Rajneesh's biography in Thomson Gale :
Nevertheless, Rajneesh's activities were brought to the attention of the federal government. The religious leader was soon charged with 35 counts of deliberate violations against immigration laws. On a plea bargain, he admitted his guilt in two of the charges and was deported back to his native India in 1985.
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help)This is not the same as being "allowed to leave the United States" and if acceptable sources say he was "deported" then that should be present in the article. Cirt ( talk) 17:32, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the wording in Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology :
The authorities were never able to connect him with crimes on the ranch, but he was found guilty of immigration violation and conspiracy to evade visa regulations (charges his followers claimed were entirely bogus). He was fined $400,000, given a suspended prison sentence of ten years, and ordered to leave the United States for a minimum of five years.
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help)Cirt ( talk) 17:39, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the wording of his being "deported", in Newsmakers 1990 :
Rajneesh arranged a plea bargain and was deported as a result. After being rejected from 21 other countries, Rajneesh settled again in Poona. He had changed his name in 1988 from "Bhagwan," which is a deity's title in Hindi, to "Osho," a Buddhist term meaning "On whom the heavens shower flowers."
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help)Cirt ( talk) 17:43, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the wording of his being "deported", in Almanac of Famous People :
Cult leader known for preaching blend of Eastern religion, pop psychology, free love; deported from US, 1985, for immigration violations.
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help)Cirt ( talk) 17:53, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Osho may have been both "allowed" to leave the United States, and "deported" as well. And no, just because some sources were written after others, does not give them any less credibility. The fact that multiple biographical articles in other encyclopedias about Osho contradict Carter should either be noted in the article, or simply used instead of the Carter source. Cirt ( talk) 18:02, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Here is the "deportation" of Rajneesh, as per a Forbes article from 1991 :
Rancho Rajneesh collapsed following the deportation of the guru to India in 1985 and the subsequent guilty pleas of top lieutenants on charges including arson, attempted murder, wiretapping and immigration fraud. Several Rajneeshee leaders are wanted for conspiracy to murder a U.S. Attorney. Rajneesh died in India last year.
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help)Cirt ( talk) 18:10, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Okay, so on the one hand we have two sources saying he agreed to leave the United States (though they do not say he was not deported, they simply don't mention it) and then we have these, that do say he was "deported" :
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help)Are you saying that they are all wrong? Cirt ( talk) 18:16, 22 November 2007 (UTC).
Bolding is emphasis added to quotes :
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There is an ambiguity in our sentence,
He claimed that Sheela said "she had talked with Bhagwan about the plot to decrease voter turnout in The Dalles by making people sick. Sheela said that Bhagwan commented that it was best not to hurt people, but if a few died not to worry."
The ambiguity lies in who said "not to worry", Sheela or Bhagwan. There is another version of these events on page 30 of Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War. This describes that Sheela played doubters a tape to "prove" that Bhagwan would be fine with poisonings:
"If it was necessary to do things to preserve (the Bhagwan's) vision, then do it," KD reported the guru as saying on the muffled tape. Sheela had interpreted this to mean that killing people in the name of the guru was fine. If a few people had to die so that the Bhagwan's message could prevail, the disciples were "not to worry," Sheela told doubters at the meeting.
This source clearly attributes the words "not to worry" to Sheela, and not to Bhagwan. I wonder if there is an elegant way we could reflect this in our text, and remove this ambiguity.
We also now have rather a lot of statements that "most sannyasins" believed that Osho knew about or condoned Sheela's actions. I would like to point out that there are equally reputable statements to the contrary in the literature, e.g. FitzGerald, p. 378,
"They (sannyasins) also believed that they themselves would never have done violence to anyone on Sheela's orders. The open question was how many of them would have committed crimes if they thought the guru wanted them to. For most of them this was a nonquestion, as they believed Rajneesh incapable of doing, or willing, violence against another person.
However, rather than adding counterbalancing statements of this sort, I think the article would benefit more from removing some of the srecently added statements to the opposite effect, to restore balance. Would appreciate your thoughts on this. -- Jayen 466 21:58, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
The following passage seems questionable to me: "Nuclear Terrorism After 9/11 and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism cite a report which suggests that Osho had initially vetoed the idea of using Salmonella typhi instead of Salmonella typhimurium.[32][33] Salmonella typhi causes typhoid fever, and the report stated that Osho had indicated that although a few fatalities would have been acceptable, the end goal was only to incapacitate people in order to influence voter turnout."
Again, these two sources do not pretend to be authoritative, in-depth studies of this incident, and one of them in fact cites the other as a reference for this statement. Parachini directs his readers to the much more authoritative Carus chapter in Tucker for a more complete account of this case (footnote 4), and Carus writing in Tucker states clearly on page 125:
No information exists in the available records about why Puna decided not to use Salmonella typhi.
He also makes it clear that there was no evidence in the FBI testimony files that would confirm that Rajneesh was involved in the planning of these incidents.
While I can understand the idea to have as many damning statements in the article as we can find, we should not disregard the reliability of sources altogether, and emend less reputable sources where they are in blatant contradiction to the more authoritative ones. -- Jayen 466 14:09, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
No, I am pointing out that this statment about Rajneesh objecting to the use of S. typhi
I did not bring FitzGerald or Carter in at all. :-) Note also that Parachini does not "cite a report", as our article says, he simply states this without giving a source (p.390). -- Jayen 466 14:29, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
Hi, your delinquent GA reviewer here. Perhaps luckily for the article, I was occupied with other duties for too long a time to get to the review in an expedient fashion. I just want to confirm that the RFC truly is agreed to be finished, and that the article is stable enough for review. Please let me know, and I'll get to it right away. Regards, VanTucky talk 20:49, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria
Needless to say, this is review long overdue. Accordingly, I'll keep it short and to the point.
I removed the italics from the serovar. Left it when it is used as the specific epithet. I think this is standard. ( Amaltheus ( talk) 05:48, 2 January 2008 (UTC))
Cirt, if it's of interest to you, Sheela now runs a nursing home in Switzerland: http://www.matrusaden.ch/ Puja I don't know anything about. Jayen 466 00:29, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
I'll be making more than a few edits here... as I see things that look a bit out of place... for example (this may be confusing... sorry):
Some more details on the new-born victim that would be worth including: Carter has "... an infant born two days after his mother's infection survived only after "emergency, continuous and specialized care". He was initially given a 5 percent chance of survival." Jayen 466 10:59, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
The sentence "The Rajneeshees eventually withdrew their candidate from the November 1984 ballot, and the salmonella poisoning did not have the desired effect on the election" does not quite hit the mark. As we state elsewhere in the article, the two poisonings appear to have been test runs (Carter pp. 225–226); as such they were not meant to affect the election, but were meant to establish feasibility. The commune decided on October 25 to boycott the election, following the emergency changes in voter registration (initiated by secretary of state Norma Paulus, according to Carter, p. 220–221) that ensured that the street people would not be certified to vote, rendering the whole issue moot (and probably saving The Dalles from another attack nearer election day). Carter quotes a ranch resident who claimed he ran a computer simulation of the election; even with the street people voting, they thought they would be 700 votes shy of winning; another salmonella attack was considered a potential means to incapacitate the balance (p. 226). Jayen 466 13:44, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
I am not impressed with the [http://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Trust-Collapse-Global-Public/dp/0786884401/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product Garrett] as an encyclopedic source. The narrative seems unreliable; the text states e.g. the salmonella were placed on the eve of the county election (!). That might sound logical, but is not what happened. The cover says, "Reads like a Robert Ludlum thriller" ... Jayen 466 18:44, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
Hi Cirt, re the water system -- Carus (Bioterrorism and Biocrimes) actually describes an attempt that was made (not just planned) to poison the water system: so this was not just planned, but executed (page 57). Flaccus has "The cult members had planned to contaminate The Dalles' water supply." but does not refer to any timing to coincide with Election Day (so then we would run afoul of WP:SYN). Carter has "this technique" (referring to the salmonella poisoning incidents that had occurred) "was to be used if the election appeared to be heading for a close race" as well as a reference to an election "wild card" (p. 225–226). So I think the version I had was accurate. Another thing, the wording I found in Phyllis Entis was "turning away a busload of the cult's followers, saying that they would have to return later and submit to an examination of their qualifications to register to vote" (p. 244). I couldn't find the wording "enforcing regulations and requesting that all new voters submit their qualifications to register to vote". Are you sure you have this from Entis? Cheers, Jayen 466 23:55, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
Re the removed/repositioned cites: This was a result of the discussion with SandyGeorgia ( talk · contribs) on the FA nomination page. Less of an issue to me now given that the article has since achieved FA. Jayen 466 00:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
This type of info is better suited for articles like Rajneeshpuram, or Osho movement, both articles need lots of work, and that info is more relevant to them. Let's keep any "sociological commentary" to that which directly discusses the bioterror attacks themselves, and their impact on society. Cirt ( talk) 20:46, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
No descriptive word is necessary here ( [4], [5]). That gets into POV interpretation. It is simply enough to present factually what was said by the author. Cirt ( talk) 03:21, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
The sections discussing the planning and execution of the attack eschew chronological order and frequently overlap. They require a total rewrite and/or the inclusion of a brief graphical timeline for clarity. ˉˉ anetode ╦╩ 20:28, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
[6] - Redheylin ( talk · contribs) has failed to explain why this source does not satisfy WP:RS. This article has been through WP:DYK, reviewed and passed as a Good Article, had a peer review, and was successfully promoted as a Featured Article. Cirt ( talk) 12:51, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
[7] - edits like these are inappropriate, and push a POV. Let's just state the facts. Cirt ( talk) 12:56, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
[8] = this edit by Rumiton ( talk · contribs) is inappropriate, as it removed sourced info and added a cite to the end of a sentence and could lead to the implication that the quoted text was backed up to that cite. Cirt ( talk) 13:45, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
But... = this sort of wording change is not NPOV. Best to just keep it to matter-of-fact statements. Cirt ( talk) 14:02, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Where did the search box go? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.171.155.245 ( talk) 01:05, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
The first sentence of the third paragraph, section "Salmonella poisoning", says, "Local residents suspected that Rajneesh's followers were behind the poisonings, and turned out in droves on election day to prevent the organization from winning any county positions, thus rendering the terrorist plot unsuccessful." However, the third sentence says, "Only 239 of the commune's 7,000 residents voted." Doesn't it contradict the previous statement? Was it "droves" or "only 239"? — Kpalion (talk) 08:45, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Are you sure? this document counts more. Moreover, this depends highly on your definition of terrorism versus partisan action -- always a shaky thing to talk about as this depends upon the context of the analyst. You might also want to cross check with the article on Well_poisoning. As I recall, and this is by no means my area of experties, the use of dead carcasses to poison water sources is reasonably common, historically speaking. User A1 ( talk) 09:00, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Also incorrect, according to the above document:
User A1 ( talk) 09:02, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
'bioterror attack'. hybeerbole alert! how on earth has this made featured article and the main page with that as a name!? 83.91.89.186 ( talk) 12:40, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
I agree with the previous comments. "Bioterror Attack" makes it sound like the Rajneeshies are affiliated with al Quaida and is really quite inappropriate. --Alan Hartley, a user from Oregon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.246.173.73 ( talk) 13:12, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
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Neither of which is true. User A1 ( talk) 15:10, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probable but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letters in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
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help)Right, so addressing the first point "the only known organisation" is fundamentally wrong, even according to your own source User A1 ( talk) 15:21, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article on Terrorism states "Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.", that is not what happened here, the article states "The commune leadership planned to sicken and incapacitate voters in The Dalles, where most of the voting public of the county resided, in continuation of their efforts to rig the election.". The article needs to be addressed to reflect this.-- Kitchen Knife ( talk) 14:36, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probable but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letters in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
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help)Even without Harvard getting involved, any reliable authoritative source that calls this a terrorist attack gets to define it. We do not. Our interpretations of what terrorism means are irrelevant. If the sources calls it terrorism, that's what makes it so. -- Moni3 ( talk) 01:15, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Please note that
Here is a sampling of quotations from published books, with bolded emphasis added to relevant portions of the quotes:
One relatively recent incident involving the use of a biological agent on a community scale very clearly fits the definition of bioterrorism and is an excellent demonstration of the difficulty associated with recognizing a covert bioterror attack. In an attempt to sway a countywide election by inhibiting the ability of voters to reach polling stations, members of a cult following Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh contaminated the salad bars of four different restaurants in the Dalles, Oregon, area with Salmonella typhimurium in 1984.
{{
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help)Religious cults vary in sophistication and resources, but at least one group, the Rajneesh, successfully carried out what most consider the first biological terrorism attack on American soil.
{{
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help)Although the anthrax letters were not intended to cause casualties, there have been two attacks that were intended to do so: a 1984 bioterrorist attack in The Dalles, Oregon, by the Rajneesh sect, and attempted bioterrorist attacks in Japan by the Aum Shinrikyo sect from 1990 to 1995.
This account is based on a longer paper, "A Case Study in Biological Terrorism: The Rajneesh in Oregon, 1984," prepared as part of a project on chemical and biological terrorism sponsored by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute for International Studies.
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help)Anthrax dispersal represents the latest in the history of bioterrorism in the U.S. The first reported event occurred in 1984 when members of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh attempted to poison several people in Dalles, Oregon in order to eliminate opposition and win local elections.
This history of bioterrorism shows that small groups and individuals cannot be ignored. ... In Oregon, members of the relatively large cult Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh poisoned food at 10 restaurants by spraying salmonella on salad bars, sickening 751 people.
It was there that Rajneesh and his followers attained their greatest notoriety: Rajneesh for amassing a fleet of twenty-nine Rolls Royces for his personal use and his followers for various escapades, including the first documented U.S. case of bioterrorism when they used salmonella bacteria to poison a salad bar.
Non-state sponsored bioterrorist attacks have also occurred. The first to be noted occurred in 1984 in The Dalles, Oregon. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, an Indian guru, and his followers had purchased land in the area, with the goal of developing an international headquarters.
members of an Oregon-based religious cult led by Bagwan Shree Rajneesh carried out the first bioterrrorism attack in America in 1984. The cult members, hoping to disrupt an upcoming county election, contaminated local salad bars with salmonella, infecting hundreds of Oregonians.
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help)in 1984 an instance of mass food poisoining that sickened 751 people in The Dalles; it was perhaps the first instance of mass bioterrorism in the United States.
In a bizarre plot to take over local government, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh poisoned salad bars in 10 restaurants in The Dalles in 1984, sickening 751 people with salmonella bacteria. Forty-five were hospitalized. It is still the largest germ warfare attack in U.S. history.
So when the Federal Bureau of Investigation needed a top expert to study the attack of the Rajneeshees and examine the cult's compound, it turned to Patrick. Flown out from Detrick to Oregon in late 1985, he sensed that the cult was to blame for the outbreak. For one thing, he found a germ incubator - an unusual piece of equipment for a health clinic. Patrick knew salmonella well. Scientists at Detrick had investigated the bug as a weapon, with at least one worker falling ill. As the evidence grew, Patrick could see that the people in The Dalles had been victims of crude bioterrorism.
{{
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help)There have been only two confirmed attempts to use BW for terrorist purposes targeting humans: the 1984 use of Salmonella by the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and the 1990-1995 attempted use of anthrax and botulinum toxin by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo. A third incident, the alleged use of a variety of infectious diseases against Native Americans in the Amazon basin during the 1950s and 1960s, is probable but not yet firmly established. A fourth incident, the 2001 anthrax letters in the US, may be bioterrorism or biocriminality, determination of which must await the identification of the perpetrator(s) and motive.
{{
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help)A 1984 Salmonella bacteria attack in Orego, and the attempts by Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo to use botulinum toxin and anthrax bacteria in the early 1990s, have been the most concerted efforts by nonstate actors to use biological agents in the pursuit of some political agenda – that is, bioterrorism. No one died as a direct result of these biological attacks, althought the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon was more successful in terms of actually carrying out a biological attack than Aum Shinrikyo.
{{
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help)The Rajneesh group was in the news again in fall 2001 in relation to American's rekindled interest in bioterrorism. ... the Rajneesh group had been implicated in the first incident of biological warfare on U.S. soil. While trying to assert itself politically in rural Oregon, members of the group had deliberately poisoned about a dozen salad bars in nearby The Dalles with salmonella bacteria in order to debilitate the local populace and keep them from voting. No one died, but approximately 750 people were stricked with stomach ailments and other illnesses.
The first episode of bioterrorism in the United States occurred in 1984. The Rajneeshee cult was founded by an Indian guru named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the 1960s.
an incident in Oregon with a cult that practiced and promoted a philosophy based on New Age concepts shows that cults can twist and use any belief system to attract members to its group. More importantly, however, the following incident shows how some cults will use whatever means they have to, including bioterrorism, to take and keep control.
In September 1984, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a cult that had bought a 64,000 acre ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, committed the first large-scale act of bioterrorism in U.S. history.
In 1984, the Rajneesh cult spread Salmonella typhimurium on salad bars in The Dalles, Oregon, in an attempt to influence the outcome of an election by making the opposition ill and unable to vote. The resulting illnesses initially were thought to be a case of natural foodborne disease, but later the event was recognized as an act of bioterrorism.
{{
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help)One of these major issues is bioterrorism because terrorists have the ability to use recent advances in technology to disseminate disease, to cause illness, and to inflict mass death. In 1984 the first documented case of bioterrorism occurred in The Dalles, Oregon, a quiet town along the banks of the Columbia River. Followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh spiked salad bars with salmonella at 10 restaurants and sickened about 750 people. Fear was widespread in the area as many residents thought cult members would try to spread the AIDS virus and to contaminate the water supply. Scared people would not go out alone, becoming prisoners in their own homes. The cult's motivation was to keep voters from the polls so that their candidates would win county elections. This incident received little national attention because it was perpetrated by a local fanatical fringe cult. Cult members fled to Europe; their leader died in India in 1990.
Thank you for your time, -- Cirt ( talk) 18:20, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
This is a frustrating conversation, because each of the books you've cited is an example of the creeping overuse of the term "terrorism" to refer to any act of violence committed by an individual or non-government organization with the intent to influence or control the behavior of a populace. If you look for pre-9/11 books or articles referring to the Rajneeshee attack as bioterrorism, I think you will have trouble coming up with a similar degree of support for your position. All but one of the books you've cited is a book about terrorism. Naturally they will call the Rajneeshee attack "terrorism," because, post-9/11, it became popular to refer to anything negative as terrorism, and there was money to be made inciting hysteria about it. Even the genuinely scholarly or practical works, like the book on decontamination, use the term, because that is the term that gets people to read the book.
Unfortunately, this leaves us at an impasse. The use of the term terrorism here is in fact inaccurate, according to the U.S. Department of Defense' own definition of terrorism. Yet because you have sources that use the term, and seem committed to the use of the term, it seems unlikely that we will be able to fix this article.
That being the case, I would propose the addition of the following section:
Use of the term "Bioterrorism"
The U.S. Department of Defense defines terrorism as "the calculated use of unlawful violence or the threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." Although many sources can be cited that refer to the Rajneeshee attack as an example of bioterrorism, other sources refer to it as a germ-warfare attack, or a biological attack, without using the term "terrorism" or "bioterrorism" to describe it.
While this does not really satisfy my objection, it at least documents the inaccuracy. Abhayakara ( talk) 19:16, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
Suggestion to Abhayakara ( talk · contribs) and Kitchen Knife ( talk · contribs): You two may not be as familiar with research on this topic, having never contributed to this talk page prior to the article's appearance on the Main Page. How about we take a break from this for one week, we can allow some time for you to research and review scholarly and academic coverage of this historical incident in WP:RS secondary sources (please list them here as you peruse them) - and come back and revisit and discuss those sources at that point in time? -- Cirt ( talk) 19:33, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
Comment: It appears that despite the helpful clarifying comments from experienced FA contributors including Ling.Nut [11] and Moni3 [12], and a report to ANI for issues of comportment during discussion on this page [13], user Kitchen Knife ( talk · contribs) is unwilling to listen to reason or understand Wikipedia policy with regard to this issue. At this point, if desired, Kitchen Knife ( talk · contribs) can file a requested move of this page through the appropriate process, and then subsequently that proposal may be discussed here at this talk page, to assess consensus and/or opposition to such a proposal. -- Cirt ( talk) 19:13, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Speaking as someone who had a front-row seat for this bizarre affair, this article omits a few points:
I know the media of the time expressed these points. It would only take some digging thru the archives of the local newspapers to verify these assertions. -- llywrch ( talk) 04:19, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Not appropriate additions. -- Cirt ( talk) 19:25, 2 June 2011 (UTC)
Since my first edit got reverted I'm noting it here. The Rajneeshee's weren't the only terrorist group to culture a pathogen the Aum Shinrikyo group did as well, though they didn't end up using it. The Anthrax attacks of 2001 might also fall under this category, though it was an individual and I'm not certain he cultured the agent himself. Polyquest ( talk) 19:27, 2 June 2011 (UTC)
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From the description in the article there was no intention to terrorize anyone, only to sway the election. By what definition is it appropriate to call this terrorism? As Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly written, the word "terrorism" has become a political term without clear definition. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.211.69.239 ( talk) 23:40, 27 August 2016 (UTC)
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The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the page to any particular title at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 20:19, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack → Rajneeshee food poisoning attacks – or Rajneesh movement Salmonella poisoning attacks – There aren't any articles about Rajneeshee food poisoning attacks in other years that we need to disambiguate, and having "bioterror" in the article title seems a bit extreme and tabloidish. As far as I know, the attacks were intended to temporarily incapacitate and confuse and suppress voting, not to kill (and no one was killed, although that was certainly a possibility). The perpetrators had considered and rejected the idea of using a more deadly pathogen. Also please note the suggested change from "attack" to "attacks". This involved multiple incidents that were not simultaneous (glasses of water given to two people on August 29, produce in grocery stores and doorknobs and urinal handles in the county courthouse at some point, and ten restaurant salad bars in September and October, and possibly some attempt to contaminate the public water supply, which the article mentions but doesn't give any detail about). — BarrelProof ( talk) 00:45, 12 June 2018 (UTC)--Relisting. Dekimasu よ! 01:03, 19 June 2018 (UTC)
Regarding the aforementioned sentence, which appears at the end of the first paragraph, both sources cited state that this was the first bioterrorism attack in the US carried out at all, and make no distinction regarding Native Americans. I'm fairly certain the segment "...not targeting Native Americans..." ought to be removed, or other sources provided that support this claim. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.14.106.6 ( talk) 20:54, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
The article on Sheela says 39 months. Which is it? -- 142.163.195.93 ( talk) 15:22, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article on bioterrorism linked to from here currently says in its history section,
"Shortly after the start of World War I, Germany launched a biological sabotage campaign in the United States, Russia, Romania, and France. At that time, Anton Dilger lived in Germany, but in 1915 he was sent to the United States carrying cultures of glanders, a virulent disease of horses and mules. Dilger set up a laboratory in his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He used stevedores working the docks in Baltimore to infect horses with glanders while they were waiting to be shipped to Britain."
so the reasoning used above to remove mention of bioterrorism attacks against Native Americans from this article, that no sources contradicted the claim that this is the first bioterrorist attack in U.S. history, appears to be incorrect. One very well-known incident,
/info/en/?search=Siege_of_Fort_Pitt#Biological_warfare
is also documented in an article and categorized by Wikipedia as a biological warfare incident, like this article. Thank you 73.142.68.213 ( talk) 04:30, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
How in the bloody hell did she walk after only 2 1/2 years after masterminding this and half a dozens other attacks? 200.119.184.108 ( talk) 05:57, 22 December 2022 (UTC)