Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
someone would recognize the content or style in the manifesto and alert
the police. This is exactly what happened; Kaczynski's brother turned him
in after reading the published piece. The recent anthrax scare has yet to
be solved. Five people died as a result of exposure to anthrax spores sent
through the mail. While their deaths were tragic, the number of dead
could have been much greater. This type of attack will continue to be used
to inflict terror for as long as there is a system of mail delivery.
BASIC PROTECTIVE MEASURES
How can individuals protect themselves against this type of attack? Within
the borders of the United States, there are postal inspectors dedicated to
helping police the mail system. The government is working hard to pro-
cure the necessary technical equipment to monitor the mail and detect
explosives, poisons, or biohazards before they are delivered. While you are
living overseas, unless you live in a country like Israel, such safeguards are
unlikely. Once again, you are left with the necessity of taking personal
responsibility for safeguarding yourself from attacks that use this delivery
system.
Let's talk about some of the basic commonsense measures that are
the first level of defense against a letter attack. First of all, while living
abroad you should make every effort not to receive mail, packages, or
deliveries at home. We discuss the issue of deliveries later on, but when-
ever possible, have mail and packages delivered to an alternate location,
such as your place of business. For government employees this is auto-
matic. Each member of the embassy staff uses the Army Post Office (APO)
as a mailing address. Mail is scanned with x-rays and, in some cases, ex-
plosive detection equipment and is sorted within the embassy. The mail-
room staff is trained in proper handling procedures and is better able to
identify suspicious items. However, individuals in the private sector do not
have the luxury of having trained governmental employees screen their
mail. Private industry is beginning to realize just how vulnerable it is
to this type of attack and has begun to address some of these issues in
private mailrooms. We encourage this trend. If, during a threat assess-
ment, we see flaws in a company's mail-handling procedures, we design
company-specific measures to fix them. Still, companies are slow to imple-
ment necessary security changes. And, unfortunately, security is often
ratcheted up after an attack occurs but usually slackens as the memory of
