Terrorist Use of Biological Weapons - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 292

The cultures were first used against individuals. On a routine visit to
Rajneeshpuram by the three county commissioners on 29 August 1984,
two of them were given glasses of water laced with Salmonella (the third
was given pure water, perhaps because he was less hostile to the Raj-
neesh, or perhaps to deflect suspicion). Both men became ill, one of them
requiring hospitalization.
There were several attempts to infect large numbers of community
members. In addition to the spectacularly successful September attacks
on restaurants in The Dalles, Salmonella cultures were used on several oc-
casions without apparent effect. They were apparently dumped into one
of the water systems in The Dalles, spread on produce in a local super-
market, and spread on doorknobs and urinal handles in the county court-
house. Only the restaurant contamination proved effective. 13
A few months after the election, the commune self-destructed. Sheela
and Puja had attempted to poison the Bagwan's personal physician with
arsenic. A large number of lawsuits were about to be lost, and Rajneesh-
puram's incorporation was being challenged. It looked as though a num-
ber of civil and criminal warrants would be issued imminently. Sheela,
Puja, and several others among the top leadership fled to Europe in Sep-
tember 1985. These events brought teams of state and federal agents to
investigate the commune, during which the Salmonella culture was found
and matched to the outbreak. Several participants in the food poisoning
program described their activities, confirming the deliberate nature of the
outbreak.
Puja and Sheela returned to the US and agreed to a plea bargain in
which Sheela got concurrent sentences of 20 years for attempted murder
(the arsenic poisoning), 20 years for first degree assault (the Salmonella
poisoning of one of the county commissioners), 10 years for second-de-
gree assault ( Salmonella poisoning of the other county commissioner), 4.5
years for product tampering (the Salmonella poisonings in The Dalles),
and several other sentences. Puja received slightly lighter sentences for
the same charges. In the end, both women served only 2.5 years in a
minimum-security federal prison and were released early for good be-
havior. 14 Such light sentences for such a major biological attack and such
early releases would almost certainly not occur now, given the wide-
spread concern about bioterrorism, and given the expanded federal crim-
inal laws addressing possession and use of biological agents. 15