Because, what is the purpose of this incident (not so courteously via Page Six of the New York Post), if not to spread terror?
September 27, 2006 — MSNBC loudmouth Keith Olbermann flipped out when he opened his home mail yesterday. The acerbic host of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” was terrified when he opened a suspicious-looking letter with a California postmark and a batch of white powder poured out. A note inside warned Olbermann, who’s a frequent critic of President Bush’s policies, that it was payback for some of his on-air shtick. The caustic commentator panicked and frantically called 911 at about 12:30 a.m., sources told The Post’s Philip Messing. An NYPD HazMat unit rushed to Olbermann’s pad on Central Park South, but preliminary tests indicated the substance was harmless soap powder. However, that wasn’t enough to satisfy Olbermann, who insisted on a checkup. He asked to be taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, where doctors looked him over and sent him home. Whether they gave him a lollipop on the way out isn’t known. Olbermann had no comment.
Just another harmless conservative joke? Despite the Post’s sarcastic mockery of Keith Olbermann’s panic upon receipt of this powdered letter, his distress was all too justified. People have received anthrax letters in the mail, and it isn’t beyond belief that someone could have sent something poisonous or deadly to him in that envelope. I would have had myself checked out. It was the smart thing to do under the circumstances.
Stunts like this aren’t funny. What they are is terrorism, American right wing terrorism. For that is what the person who sent this letter intended: to terrorize a critic of President Bush. I hope New York law enforcement officials are taking this seriously, and that they track down this criminal and arrest him or her. Because the next time Keith or some other critic of Republican misrule receives such a letter, it might not prove to be so harmless.
