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By United Press International
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ANTHRAX SCARES

Health authorities are focusing their attention on anthrax Tuesday as the total number of infections in the United States rose to four, one of whom died Oct.5th, and as a succession of scares -- but no confirmed incidents -- swept the rest of the world.

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U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said authorities had not ruled out a link between the anthrax incidents and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but "...do not have conclusive evidence that it (the spread of anthrax) is part of that (Sept. 11) incidence of terror."

There has been speculation in the United States and internationally that a foreign government might be involved in the series of incidents in which anthrax contaminated powder has been sent through the mail to two media organizations, the Microsoft Corporation and a senior U.S. senator.

Two Israeli specialists said alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden is a prime suspect in the anthrax attacks, but he is not the only suspect. A member of Tel Aviv University's Interdisciplinary Center for Technology Analysis and Forecasting, Yair Sharan, said a terrorist group alone could not have developed the inhaled form of anthrax -- which is most deadly -- that was used in Florida.

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"You need a very high technological capability (to make that form)," Sharan said. "(Without government help) even a bin Laden group cannot acquire a high quality capability."

A senior researcher at Israel's independent International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism, Ely Karmon, said an increasing number of specialists believe Iraq was involved because of the quality of anthrax used and Baghdad's motivation to make a strike against the United States.

An Arab newspaper reported in 1999 that bin Laden and Iraq agreed to jointly fight the United States and develop biological and chemical weapons, Karmon said.

-- Who do you think is responsible for the anthrax cases in the United States, and why?


CIVIL LIBERTIES

The former heads of U.S. and Israeli intelligence say the United States may have to curtail civil liberties to fight terrorism.

In appearances before influential members of New York's Jewish community Tuesday, former CIA chief John Deutch and Shabtai Shavit, who once ran the Mossad, urged a reexamination of America's security framework in light of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We are going to reexamine the balance between national security and public and private freedoms," Deutch said. "The security structure that we lived with until Sept. 11 was born of the Cold War. We are going to see a lot of changes in America as a result of Sept. 11."

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Shavit, meanwhile, urged that legal standards of proof in cases involving terrorism be relaxed to more closely reflect the rules of "intelligence proof" used by field operatives rather than the stringent criteria provided for by American law.

"The fight against terrorism is not on equal footing," Shavit said. "On one hand there is a democratic country which cherishes liberalism, human rights, human life and transparency. On the other hand there is an authoritarian entity, fundamentalist by nature, whose aims justify all means and which takes advantage of the democratic system.

"The only way to solve the problem of proving guilt is by closing the gap between intelligence and legal proof. The way of doing it is lowering the ceiling of legal requirements."

Shavit also thinks the United States should use profiling, a practice by which certain individuals are singled out for more intense security scrutiny because of their ethnicity or nationality.

The practice has been highly controversial in the United States because of its racial implications.

Deutch doesn't think terrorists will likely be deterred in the near future -- despite the U.S. war on terrorism --- and predicted "additional acts of catastrophic terrorism against the United States."

"I cannot think of any time when I ... have ever been so concerned about the safety and security of our country," he said.

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-- How much freedom are you willing to give up for national security in the fight against terrorism?


OSCARS/EMMYS

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is assuring movie fans around the world that the 74th Annual Academy Awards will go on as scheduled next March regardless of anxiety caused by terrorist attacks.

But the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences remains uncertain about the future of the 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

On Monday, the movie academy signed a deal to hold the Oscars telecast on March 24 at the new Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

The Academy's Frank Pierson told Daily Variety that the details -- perhaps even "the nature of the ceremonies" -- might be changed, but the Oscars show will go on.

"The world will see an American tradition continue, and will take notice," he said.

Meanwhile, the TV academy is still deciding whether to go through with plans to honor the outstanding TV shows from last year, and if so, where to do it.

The Sept. 16 ceremonies were called off following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. The Oct. 8 ceremonies were canceled on a few hours' notice, following the announcement that the United States and Britain had launched air strikes against military and terrorist targets in Afghanistan.

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Academy and TV network executives are said to be intent on holding some sort of ceremony. There have been various reports that they are considering presenting the Emmys at a military base in California, among other possibilities.

-- What do you think?

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