1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
Encyclopedia
The 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the food poisoning of 751 individuals in The Dalles, Oregon
, United States, through the deliberate contamination of salad bar
s at ten local restaurants with salmonella
. A leading group of followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
(now known as Osho) had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County
elections. The incident was the first, and single largest bioterrorist
attack in United States history. The attack is one of only two confirmed terrorist uses of biological weapons to harm humans.
Having previously gained political control of Antelope, Oregon
, Rajneesh's followers based in nearby Rajneeshpuram
, Oregon, sought election to two of the three seats on the Wasco County Circuit Court that were up for election in November 1984. Fearing they would not gain enough votes, Rajneeshpuram officials decided to incapacitate voters in The Dalles, the largest population center in Wasco County. The chosen biological agent was Salmonella enterica
Typhimurium, which was first delivered through glasses of water to two County Commissioners and then, on a larger scale, at salad bars and in salad dressing.
751 people contracted salmonellosis
as a result of the attack; 45 of whom were hospitalized. There were no fatalities. Although an initial investigation by the Oregon Public Health Division
and the Centers for Disease Control did not rule out deliberate contamination, the actual source of the contamination was only discovered a year later. On February 28, 1985, Congressman James H. Weaver
gave a speech in the United States House of Representatives
in which he "accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants". At a press conference in September 1985, Rajneesh accused several of his followers of involvement in this and other crimes, including an aborted plan
to assassinate
a United States Attorney
; and he asked State and Federal authorities to investigate. Oregon Attorney General
David B. Frohnmayer
set up an Interagency Task Force, composed of Oregon State Police
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
, and executed search warrant
s in Rajneeshpuram
. A sample of bacteria
matching the contaminant that had sickened the town residents was found in a Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory. Two leading Rajneeshpuram officials were indicted
and served 29 months in a minimum-security federal prison
.
Several thousand of Rajneesh's followers had moved onto the "Big Muddy Ranch" in rural Wasco County
, and established a city called Rajneeshpuram
. They had taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope
, Oregon
(population: 75), whose name they changed to "Rajneesh". The group had started on friendly terms with the local population, but relations soon turned negative because of the unenthusiastic response from locals to the commune's expansion. After being denied building permits for Rajneeshpuram, the commune leadership sought to gain political control over the rest of the County by influencing the November 1984 County election. Their aim was to win two of three seats on the Wasco County Circuit Court, and the Sheriff's Office. Their attempts to influence the election included the "Share-a-Home" program, in which thousands of homeless people were transported to Rajneeshpuram to inflate the constituency of voters for the group's candidates. The Wasco County Clerk countered this attempt by enforcing a regulation that required all new voters to submit their qualifications when registering to vote.
The commune leadership planned to sicken and incapacitate voters in The Dalles
, where most of the voters resided, in continuation of their efforts to rig the election. Approximately twelve people were involved in the plots to employ biological agents, and at least eleven were involved in the planning process. No more than four appear to have been involved in development at the Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory, although not all of them were necessarily aware of the objectives their work served. At least eight individuals were involved with the actual distribution of the bacteria. The main planners of the attack included Sheela Silverman
(Ma Anand Sheela), Rajneesh's chief lieutenant, and Diane Yvonne Onang (Ma Anand Puja), a nurse practitioner
and secretary-treasurer of the Rajneesh Medical Corporation. Salmonella bacteria were purchased from a medical supply company in Seattle, Washington, and cultured in labs located inside the commune. Contamination of the salad bars was considered a "trial run". The group also attempted to introduce pathogen
s into The Dalles' water system. If successful, the same techniques were to be used closer to Election Day
. This second part of the plan was never implemented because the commune decided to boycott the election when it became clear that those brought in through the "Share-a-Home" program would not be allowed to vote.
Two visiting Wasco County commissioners were poisoned with glasses of water containing salmonella bacteria during a visit to Rajneeshpuram on August 29, 1984. Both men fell ill as a result, and one was hospitalized. Afterward, members of Sheela's team spread salmonella on produce
in grocery stores and on doorknobs and urinal handles in the county courthouse, but this did not produce the desired effects. In September and October 1984, they contaminated the salad bars of 10 local restaurants with salmonella, infecting 751 people. Forty-five people received hospital treatment; all survived.
The primary delivery tactic involved one member concealing a plastic bag containing a light brown liquid with the salmonella bacteria, and either spreading it over the food at a salad bar, or pouring its contents into salad dressing. The perpetrators referred to the contaminated liquid as "salsa". By September 24, 1984, more than 150 people were violently ill. By the end of September, 751 cases of acute gastroenteritis
were documented; lab results showed that all of the victims were infected with Salmonella enterica Typhimurium. Symptoms included diarrhea, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, headaches, abdominal pain, and bloody stools. Victims ranged in age from an infant, born two days after his mother's infection and initially given a five-percent chance of survival, to an 87-year-old.
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. The Rajneeshees eventually withdrew their candidate from the November 1984 ballot. Only 239 of the commune's 7,000 residents voted. The outbreak cost local restaurants hundreds of thousands of dollars and health officials shut down the salad bars of the affected establishments. Some residents would not go out alone out of fear of further attacks. One resident stated: "People were so horrified and scared. People wouldn't go out, they wouldn't go out alone. People were becoming prisoners."
Typhimurium and concluded that the outbreak had been due to food handlers' poor personal hygiene, as workers preparing food at the affected restaurants had fallen ill before most patrons had.
Oregon Democratic
Congressman James H. Weaver
continued to investigate because he felt the officials' conclusion did not adequately explain the facts. He contacted physicians at the CDC
and other agencies and urged them to investigate Rajneeshpuram. According to Lewis F. Carter's Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram, "many treated his concern" as paranoid or as an example of "Rajneeshee bashing". On February 28, 1985, Weaver gave a speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives
in which he accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants. As events later showed, Weaver had presented a well-reasoned, if only circumstantial, case, whose circumstantial elements were confirmed by evidence when investigators gained access to Rajneeshpuram several months later.
In the week starting Monday, September 16, 1985, Rajneesh, who had recently emerged from a four-year period of public silence and self-imposed isolation at the commune, convened press conferences where he stated that Sheela and 19 other commune leaders, including Puja, had left Rajneeshpuram over the weekend and gone to Europe. Following their departure, he said, he had received information from residents that Sheela and her team had committed a number of serious crimes. Calling them a "gang of fascists", he said they had attempted to poison his doctor and his female companion, as well as the Jefferson County
district attorney and the water system in The Dalles. He added that he believed they had poisoned a county commissioner and Judge William Hulse, that they may have been responsible for the salmonella outbreak in The Dalles, and invited state and federal law enforcement officials to come to the Ranch and investigate. His allegations were initially greeted with skepticism by outside observers.
Oregon Attorney General
Dave Frohnmayer
established a task force among local and Oregon State Police
, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
, the Sheriff's office, the Immigration and Naturalization Service
and the National Guard that set up headquarters on the Ranch to investigate the allegations. Feeling they would need greater authority to perform an effective search, and fearing that evidence might be destroyed, they obtained search warrant
s and subpoenas; 50 investigators entered the Ranch on October 2, 1985. Dr. Skeels found glass vials containing salmonella "bactrol disks" in the laboratory of a Rajneeshpuram medical clinic. Analysis by the CDC lab in Atlanta confirmed that the bacteria at the Rajneesh laboratory were an exact match to those that sickened individuals who had eaten at local restaurants. The investigation also revealed prior experimentation at Rajneeshpuram with poisons, chemicals and bacteria, in 1984 and 1985. Dr. Skeels described the scene at the Rajneesh laboratory as "a bacteriological freezer-dryer for large-scale production" of microbes. Investigators found a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook
, and literature on the manufacture and usage of explosives and military biowarfare. Investigators also believed that similar attacks had previously been carried out in Salem
, Portland
, and other cities in Oregon. According to testimony, the plotters boasted that they had attacked a nursing home and a salad bar at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center
, but no such attempts were ever proven in court. As a result of the bioterrorism investigation, law enforcement officials discovered that there had been an aborted plot
by Rajneeshees to murder Charles Turner
, a former United States Attorney
for Oregon.
The mayor of Rajneeshpuram, David Berry Knapp (known as Swami Krishna Deva or KD), turned state's evidence
and gave an account of his knowledge of the salmonella attack to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
. He claimed that Sheela said "she had talked with [Rajneesh] about the plot to decrease voter turnout in The Dalles by making people sick. Sheela said that [Rajneesh] commented that it was best not to hurt people, but if a few died not to worry." In Miller's Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
, this statement is attributed to Sheela: According to KD's testimony, she played doubters a muffled tape of Rajneesh's voice saying that "if it was necessary to do things to preserve [his] vision, then do it" and interpreted this to mean that killing people in his name was fine, telling doubters "not to worry" if a few people had to die. The investigation uncovered a September 25, 1984, invoice from the American Type Culture Collection
of microbes, showing an order received by the Rajneeshpuram laboratory for Salmonella Typhi, the bacterium that causes the life-threatening illness typhoid fever
.
According to a 1994 study published in the journal Sociology of Religion, "[m]ost sannyasins indicated that they believed that [Rajneesh] knew about Ma Anand Sheela's illegal activities." Frances FitzGerald writes in Cities on a Hill that most of Rajneesh's followers "believed [him] incapable of doing, or willing, violence against another person", and that almost all of them thought the responsibility for the criminality was Sheela's – according to FitzGerald they believed he had not known anything about it. Carus writes in Toxic Terror that "There is no way to know to what extent [Rajneesh] participated in actual decision-making. His followers believed he was involved in every important decision that Sheela made, but those allegations were never proven." Rajneesh insisted that Sheela, who he said was his only source of information during his period of isolation, used her position to impose "a fascist state" on the commune. He acknowledged that the key to her actions was his silence.
Rajneesh left Oregon by plane on October 27, 1985, and was arrested
when he landed in Charlotte
, North Carolina
, and charged with 35 counts of deliberate violations of immigration laws
. As part of a plea bargain arrangement, he pled guilty to two counts of making false statements to immigration officials. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and a fine of US$
400,000, and was deported and barred from reentering the United States for a period of five years. He was never prosecuted for crimes related to the salmonella poisoning.
Sheela and Puja were arrested in Germany on October 28, 1985. After protracted negotiations, they were extradited to the United States and arrived in Portland on February 6, 1986. They were charged with attempting to murder Rajneesh's personal physician, first-degree assault for poisoning Judge William Hulse, second-degree assault for poisoning The Dalles Commissioner Raymond Matthews, and product tampering for the poisonings in The Dalles, as well as wiretapping and immigration offenses. The U.S. Attorney's office handled the prosecution of the poisoning cases related to the 10 restaurants, and the Oregon Attorney General's office prosecuted the poisoning cases of Commissioner Matthews and Judge Hulse.
On July 22, 1986, both women entered no-contest ("Alford
") pleas for the salmonella poisoning and the other charges, and received sentences ranging from three to 20 years, to be served concurrently. Sheela received 20 years for the attempted murder of Rajneesh's physician, 20 years for first-degree assault in the poisoning of Judge Hulse, 10 years for second-degree assault in the poisoning of Commissioner Matthews, four and a half years for her role in the salmonella poisoning, four and a half years for the wiretapping conspiracy, and five years' probation for immigration fraud; Puja received 15, 15, seven and a half, and four and a half years, respectively, for her role in the first four of these crimes, as well as three years' probation for the wiretapping conspiracy. Both Sheela and Puja were released early for good behavior, after serving 29 months of their sentences in a minimum-security federal prison
. Sheela was deported, and went on to run two nursing home
s in Switzerland.
ran a 20-part series on Rajneesh's movement, beginning in June 1985, which included an investigation into the salmonella incident. As a result of a follow-up investigation, The Oregonian learned that Leslie L. Zaitz, one of their investigative journalists
, had been placed as number three on a top-ten hit list by Sheela's group. Then-Oregon Attorney General
Dave Frohnmayer
commented on the poisoning incident and other acts perpetrated by the group, stating: "The Rajneeshees committed the most significant crimes of their kind in the history of the United States ... The largest single incident of fraudulent marriages, the most massive scheme of wiretapping and bugging, and the largest mass poisoning." Looking back on the incident, Skeels stated, "We lost our innocence over this ... We really learned to be more suspicious ... The first significant biological attack on a U.S. community was not carried out by foreign terrorists smuggled into New York, but by legal residents of a U.S. community. The next time it happens it could be with more lethal agents ... We in public health are really not ready to deal with that."
Milton Leitenberg noted in the 2005 work Assessing the Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism Threat, "there is apparently no other 'terrorist' group that is known to have successfully cultured any pathogen." Federal and state investigators requested that details of the incident not be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA) for 12 years, for they feared a description of the events could spark copycat crimes, and JAMA complied. No repeat attacks or hoax
es subsequently occurred, and a detailed account of the incident and investigation was published in JAMA in 1997. A 1999 empirical analysis in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases published by the CDC
described six motivational factors associated with bioterrorism, including: charismatic leadership, no outside constituency, apocalyptic ideology, loner or splinter group, sense of paranoia and grandiosity, and defensive aggression. According to the article, the "Rajneesh Cult" satisfied all motivational factors except for an "apocalyptic ideology". An analysis in the book Cults, Religion and Violence disputes the link to charismatic leadership
, pointing out that in this and other cases, it was organizational lieutenants who played a pivotal role in the initiation of violence. Arguing for a contextual rather than decisive view of charisma, the authors state that the attribution of outcomes to the personality of a single individual, even a charismatic leader, usually camouflages a far more complex field of social relationships.
The media revisited the incident during the 2001 anthrax attacks
in the United States. The 2001 publication of Judith Miller
's Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, which contained an analysis and detailed description of the events, also brought discussion of the incident back into the news. Residents of The Dalles commented that they have an understanding of how bioterrorism can occur in the United States. The incident had spread fear in the community, and drained the local economy. All but one of the restaurants affected went out of business. In 2005, the Oregon State Land Board
agreed to sell 480 acres (1.9 km²) of Wasco County, including Rajneeshpuram, to the Colorado-based youth ministry Young Life
. On February 18, 2005, Court TV
aired an episode of Forensic Files
about the incident, entitled: "'Bio-Attack' – Oregon Cult Poisonings". The salmonellosis outbreak was also discussed in the media within the context of the 2006 North American E. coli outbreak
.
The book Emerging Infectious Diseases: Trends and Issues cites the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack, along with the Aum Shinrikyo
group's attempts to use anthrax and other agents, as exceptions to the belief "that only foreign-state supported groups have the resources to execute a credible bioterrorism event". According to Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, these are the only two confirmed uses of biological weapons for terrorist purposes to harm humans. The incident was the single largest bioterrorist attack in United States history. In the chapter titled: "Influencing An Election: America's First Modern Bioterrorist Attack" in his 2006 book Terrorism on American Soil: A Concise History of Plots and Perpetrators from the Famous to the Forgotten, author Joseph T. McCann concludes: "In every respect, the salmonella poisoning carried out by the cult members was a major bioterrorist attack that fortunately failed to achieve its ultimate goal and resulted in no fatalities."
The Dalles, Oregon
The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is...
, United States, through the deliberate contamination of salad bar
Salad bar
A salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant or food market on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates...
s at ten local restaurants with salmonella
Salmonella
Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with diameters around 0.7 to 1.5 µm, lengths from 2 to 5 µm, and flagella which grade in all directions . They are chemoorganotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction...
. A leading group of followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
Osho , born Chandra Mohan Jain , and also known as Acharya Rajneesh from the 1960s onwards, as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during the 1970s and 1980s and as Osho from 1989, was an Indian mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher who garnered an international following.A professor of philosophy, he travelled...
(now known as Osho) had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County
Wasco County, Oregon
Wasco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who lived on the south side of the Columbia River. In 2010, its population was 25,213...
elections. The incident was the first, and single largest bioterrorist
Bioterrorism
Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents are bacteria, viruses, or toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form. For the use of this method in warfare, see biological warfare.-Definition:According to the...
attack in United States history. The attack is one of only two confirmed terrorist uses of biological weapons to harm humans.
Having previously gained political control of Antelope, Oregon
Antelope, Oregon
Antelope is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 46.-History:The Antelope Valley was probably named by members of Joseph Sherar's party who were packing supplies to mines in the John Day area. Sherar became known as the operator of a toll bridge...
, Rajneesh's followers based in nearby Rajneeshpuram
Rajneeshpuram
Rajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.- History :...
, Oregon, sought election to two of the three seats on the Wasco County Circuit Court that were up for election in November 1984. Fearing they would not gain enough votes, Rajneeshpuram officials decided to incapacitate voters in The Dalles, the largest population center in Wasco County. The chosen biological agent was Salmonella enterica
Salmonella enterica
Salmonella enterica is a rod-shaped flagellated, facultative anaerobic, Gram-negative bacterium, and a member of the genus Salmonella.- Epidemiology :...
Typhimurium, which was first delivered through glasses of water to two County Commissioners and then, on a larger scale, at salad bars and in salad dressing.
751 people contracted salmonellosis
Salmonellosis
Salmonellosis is an infection with Salmonella bacteria. Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. In most cases, the illness lasts four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment...
as a result of the attack; 45 of whom were hospitalized. There were no fatalities. Although an initial investigation by the Oregon Public Health Division
Oregon Department of Human Services
The Oregon Department of Human Services is the primary health and human services agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The ODHS was established in 1971 as the Oregon Department of Human Resources but renamed in 1999...
and the Centers for Disease Control did not rule out deliberate contamination, the actual source of the contamination was only discovered a year later. On February 28, 1985, Congressman James H. Weaver
James H. Weaver
James Howard "Jim" Weaver is a former Democratic U.S. congressman from Oregon.-Early life:Weaver enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of seventeen and served in World War II on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific...
gave a speech in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in which he "accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants". At a press conference in September 1985, Rajneesh accused several of his followers of involvement in this and other crimes, including an aborted plan
1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot
The 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot was a conspiracy by a group of high-ranking followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon...
to assassinate
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
a United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
; and he asked State and Federal authorities to investigate. Oregon Attorney General
Oregon Attorney General
The Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The Attorney General is chosen by statewide partisan election to serve a term...
David B. Frohnmayer
David B. Frohnmayer
Dave Frohnmayer was the 15th President of the University of Oregon. He was appointed president on July 1, 1994. His last day as president was June 30, 2009. His tenure as president is the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He is the first native of the U.S. state of Oregon to run the...
set up an Interagency Task Force, composed of Oregon State Police
Oregon State Police
The Oregon State Police is the main state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of Oregon. They have been charged to enforce all of Oregon's criminal laws and to help local law enforcement agencies with their duties...
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, and executed search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
s in Rajneeshpuram
Rajneeshpuram
Rajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.- History :...
. A sample of bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
matching the contaminant that had sickened the town residents was found in a Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory. Two leading Rajneeshpuram officials were indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
and served 29 months in a minimum-security federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...
.
Planning
Wasco County, Oregon
Wasco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who lived on the south side of the Columbia River. In 2010, its population was 25,213...
, and established a city called Rajneeshpuram
Rajneeshpuram
Rajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.- History :...
. They had taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope
Antelope, Oregon
Antelope is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 46.-History:The Antelope Valley was probably named by members of Joseph Sherar's party who were packing supplies to mines in the John Day area. Sherar became known as the operator of a toll bridge...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
(population: 75), whose name they changed to "Rajneesh". The group had started on friendly terms with the local population, but relations soon turned negative because of the unenthusiastic response from locals to the commune's expansion. After being denied building permits for Rajneeshpuram, the commune leadership sought to gain political control over the rest of the County by influencing the November 1984 County election. Their aim was to win two of three seats on the Wasco County Circuit Court, and the Sheriff's Office. Their attempts to influence the election included the "Share-a-Home" program, in which thousands of homeless people were transported to Rajneeshpuram to inflate the constituency of voters for the group's candidates. The Wasco County Clerk countered this attempt by enforcing a regulation that required all new voters to submit their qualifications when registering to vote.
The commune leadership planned to sicken and incapacitate voters in The Dalles
The Dalles, Oregon
The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is...
, where most of the voters resided, in continuation of their efforts to rig the election. Approximately twelve people were involved in the plots to employ biological agents, and at least eleven were involved in the planning process. No more than four appear to have been involved in development at the Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory, although not all of them were necessarily aware of the objectives their work served. At least eight individuals were involved with the actual distribution of the bacteria. The main planners of the attack included Sheela Silverman
Ma Anand Sheela
Ma Anand Sheela is a former follower, secretary and spokeswoman for the Indian mystic and spiritual teacher Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, now commonly known as Osho...
(Ma Anand Sheela), Rajneesh's chief lieutenant, and Diane Yvonne Onang (Ma Anand Puja), a nurse practitioner
Nurse practitioner
A Nurse Practitioner is an Advanced practice registered nurse who has completed graduate-level education . Additional APRN roles include the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist s, CNMs, and CNSs...
and secretary-treasurer of the Rajneesh Medical Corporation. Salmonella bacteria were purchased from a medical supply company in Seattle, Washington, and cultured in labs located inside the commune. Contamination of the salad bars was considered a "trial run". The group also attempted to introduce pathogen
Pathogen
A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...
s into The Dalles' water system. If successful, the same techniques were to be used closer to Election Day
Election Day (United States)
Election Day in the United States is the day set by law for the general elections of public officials. It occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest possible date is November 8...
. This second part of the plan was never implemented because the commune decided to boycott the election when it became clear that those brought in through the "Share-a-Home" program would not be allowed to vote.
Salmonella poisoning
Produce
Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...
in grocery stores and on doorknobs and urinal handles in the county courthouse, but this did not produce the desired effects. In September and October 1984, they contaminated the salad bars of 10 local restaurants with salmonella, infecting 751 people. Forty-five people received hospital treatment; all survived.
The primary delivery tactic involved one member concealing a plastic bag containing a light brown liquid with the salmonella bacteria, and either spreading it over the food at a salad bar, or pouring its contents into salad dressing. The perpetrators referred to the contaminated liquid as "salsa". By September 24, 1984, more than 150 people were violently ill. By the end of September, 751 cases of acute gastroenteritis
Gastroenteritis
Gastroenteritis is marked by severe inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract involving both the stomach and small intestine resulting in acute diarrhea and vomiting. It can be transferred by contact with contaminated food and water...
were documented; lab results showed that all of the victims were infected with Salmonella enterica Typhimurium. Symptoms included diarrhea, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, headaches, abdominal pain, and bloody stools. Victims ranged in age from an infant, born two days after his mother's infection and initially given a five-percent chance of survival, to an 87-year-old.
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. The Rajneeshees eventually withdrew their candidate from the November 1984 ballot. Only 239 of the commune's 7,000 residents voted. The outbreak cost local restaurants hundreds of thousands of dollars and health officials shut down the salad bars of the affected establishments. Some residents would not go out alone out of fear of further attacks. One resident stated: "People were so horrified and scared. People wouldn't go out, they wouldn't go out alone. People were becoming prisoners."
Investigation
Officials and investigators from a number of different agencies were dispatched to The Dalles to investigate the cause of the outbreak. Dr. Michael Skeels, Director of the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory at the time, explained that the incident provoked such a large public health investigation because "it was the largest food-related outbreak in the U.S. in 1984". The investigation identified the bacteria responsible as Salmonella entericaSalmonella enterica
Salmonella enterica is a rod-shaped flagellated, facultative anaerobic, Gram-negative bacterium, and a member of the genus Salmonella.- Epidemiology :...
Typhimurium and concluded that the outbreak had been due to food handlers' poor personal hygiene, as workers preparing food at the affected restaurants had fallen ill before most patrons had.
Oregon Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Congressman James H. Weaver
James H. Weaver
James Howard "Jim" Weaver is a former Democratic U.S. congressman from Oregon.-Early life:Weaver enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of seventeen and served in World War II on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific...
continued to investigate because he felt the officials' conclusion did not adequately explain the facts. He contacted physicians at the CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
and other agencies and urged them to investigate Rajneeshpuram. According to Lewis F. Carter's Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram, "many treated his concern" as paranoid or as an example of "Rajneeshee bashing". On February 28, 1985, Weaver gave a speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in which he accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants. As events later showed, Weaver had presented a well-reasoned, if only circumstantial, case, whose circumstantial elements were confirmed by evidence when investigators gained access to Rajneeshpuram several months later.
In the week starting Monday, September 16, 1985, Rajneesh, who had recently emerged from a four-year period of public silence and self-imposed isolation at the commune, convened press conferences where he stated that Sheela and 19 other commune leaders, including Puja, had left Rajneeshpuram over the weekend and gone to Europe. Following their departure, he said, he had received information from residents that Sheela and her team had committed a number of serious crimes. Calling them a "gang of fascists", he said they had attempted to poison his doctor and his female companion, as well as the Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Oregon
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. In 2010, its population was 21,720. It is named after Mount Jefferson. The seat of the county is Madras.-History:...
district attorney and the water system in The Dalles. He added that he believed they had poisoned a county commissioner and Judge William Hulse, that they may have been responsible for the salmonella outbreak in The Dalles, and invited state and federal law enforcement officials to come to the Ranch and investigate. His allegations were initially greeted with skepticism by outside observers.
Oregon Attorney General
Oregon Attorney General
The Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The Attorney General is chosen by statewide partisan election to serve a term...
Dave Frohnmayer
David B. Frohnmayer
Dave Frohnmayer was the 15th President of the University of Oregon. He was appointed president on July 1, 1994. His last day as president was June 30, 2009. His tenure as president is the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He is the first native of the U.S. state of Oregon to run the...
established a task force among local and Oregon State Police
Oregon State Police
The Oregon State Police is the main state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of Oregon. They have been charged to enforce all of Oregon's criminal laws and to help local law enforcement agencies with their duties...
, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, the Sheriff's office, the Immigration and Naturalization Service
Immigration and Naturalization Service
The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service , now referred to as Legacy INS, ceased to exist under that name on March 1, 2003, when most of its functions were transferred from the Department of Justice to three new components within the newly created Department of Homeland Security, as...
and the National Guard that set up headquarters on the Ranch to investigate the allegations. Feeling they would need greater authority to perform an effective search, and fearing that evidence might be destroyed, they obtained search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
s and subpoenas; 50 investigators entered the Ranch on October 2, 1985. Dr. Skeels found glass vials containing salmonella "bactrol disks" in the laboratory of a Rajneeshpuram medical clinic. Analysis by the CDC lab in Atlanta confirmed that the bacteria at the Rajneesh laboratory were an exact match to those that sickened individuals who had eaten at local restaurants. The investigation also revealed prior experimentation at Rajneeshpuram with poisons, chemicals and bacteria, in 1984 and 1985. Dr. Skeels described the scene at the Rajneesh laboratory as "a bacteriological freezer-dryer for large-scale production" of microbes. Investigators found a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook
The Anarchist Cookbook
The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1971, is a book that contains instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and other items...
, and literature on the manufacture and usage of explosives and military biowarfare. Investigators also believed that similar attacks had previously been carried out in Salem
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
, Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, and other cities in Oregon. According to testimony, the plotters boasted that they had attacked a nursing home and a salad bar at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center
Mid-Columbia Medical Center
Mid-Columbia Medical Center is a hospital complex in The Dalles, Oregon. In June 1992, Mid-Columbia Medical Center became the first hospital in the world to implement the Planetree concept of patient-centered care facility wide and in 2007 the hospital was recognised as a "Designated...
, but no such attempts were ever proven in court. As a result of the bioterrorism investigation, law enforcement officials discovered that there had been an aborted plot
1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot
The 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot was a conspiracy by a group of high-ranking followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon...
by Rajneeshees to murder Charles Turner
Charles H. Turner (attorney)
Charles H. Turner is a former United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Prior to his presidential appointment as U.S. Attorney, Turner worked under his predecessor, Sidney I. Lezak, for 14 years. He was appointed as Lezak's replacement by President Ronald Reagan.As U.S...
, a former United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for Oregon.
Prosecution
Turn state's evidence
To turn state's evidence is when an accused or convicted criminal testifies as a witness for the state against his associates or accomplices. Turning state's evidence is occasionally a result of a change of heart or feelings of guilt, but more often is done in response to a generous offer from the...
and gave an account of his knowledge of the salmonella attack to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
. He claimed that Sheela said "she had talked with [Rajneesh] about the plot to decrease voter turnout in The Dalles by making people sick. Sheela said that [Rajneesh] commented that it was best not to hurt people, but if a few died not to worry." In Miller's Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War is a #1 New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller. It was written by The New York Times journalists Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad...
, this statement is attributed to Sheela: According to KD's testimony, she played doubters a muffled tape of Rajneesh's voice saying that "if it was necessary to do things to preserve [his] vision, then do it" and interpreted this to mean that killing people in his name was fine, telling doubters "not to worry" if a few people had to die. The investigation uncovered a September 25, 1984, invoice from the American Type Culture Collection
American Type Culture Collection
The American Type Culture Collection is a private, not-for-profit biological resource center whose mission focuses on the acquisition, authentication, production, preservation, development and distribution of standard reference microorganisms, cell lines and other materials for research in the...
of microbes, showing an order received by the Rajneeshpuram laboratory for Salmonella Typhi, the bacterium that causes the life-threatening illness typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
.
According to a 1994 study published in the journal Sociology of Religion, "[m]ost sannyasins indicated that they believed that [Rajneesh] knew about Ma Anand Sheela's illegal activities." Frances FitzGerald writes in Cities on a Hill that most of Rajneesh's followers "believed [him] incapable of doing, or willing, violence against another person", and that almost all of them thought the responsibility for the criminality was Sheela's – according to FitzGerald they believed he had not known anything about it. Carus writes in Toxic Terror that "There is no way to know to what extent [Rajneesh] participated in actual decision-making. His followers believed he was involved in every important decision that Sheela made, but those allegations were never proven." Rajneesh insisted that Sheela, who he said was his only source of information during his period of isolation, used her position to impose "a fascist state" on the commune. He acknowledged that the key to her actions was his silence.
Rajneesh left Oregon by plane on October 27, 1985, and was arrested
Arrest warrant
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under the Criminal Code of Canada....
when he landed in Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, and charged with 35 counts of deliberate violations of immigration laws
Illegal immigration to the United States
An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....
. As part of a plea bargain arrangement, he pled guilty to two counts of making false statements to immigration officials. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and a fine of US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
400,000, and was deported and barred from reentering the United States for a period of five years. He was never prosecuted for crimes related to the salmonella poisoning.
Sheela and Puja were arrested in Germany on October 28, 1985. After protracted negotiations, they were extradited to the United States and arrived in Portland on February 6, 1986. They were charged with attempting to murder Rajneesh's personal physician, first-degree assault for poisoning Judge William Hulse, second-degree assault for poisoning The Dalles Commissioner Raymond Matthews, and product tampering for the poisonings in The Dalles, as well as wiretapping and immigration offenses. The U.S. Attorney's office handled the prosecution of the poisoning cases related to the 10 restaurants, and the Oregon Attorney General's office prosecuted the poisoning cases of Commissioner Matthews and Judge Hulse.
On July 22, 1986, both women entered no-contest ("Alford
Alford plea
An Alford plea in United States law is a guilty plea in criminal court, where the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence...
") pleas for the salmonella poisoning and the other charges, and received sentences ranging from three to 20 years, to be served concurrently. Sheela received 20 years for the attempted murder of Rajneesh's physician, 20 years for first-degree assault in the poisoning of Judge Hulse, 10 years for second-degree assault in the poisoning of Commissioner Matthews, four and a half years for her role in the salmonella poisoning, four and a half years for the wiretapping conspiracy, and five years' probation for immigration fraud; Puja received 15, 15, seven and a half, and four and a half years, respectively, for her role in the first four of these crimes, as well as three years' probation for the wiretapping conspiracy. Both Sheela and Puja were released early for good behavior, after serving 29 months of their sentences in a minimum-security federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...
. Sheela was deported, and went on to run two nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s in Switzerland.
Aftermath
The OregonianThe Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
ran a 20-part series on Rajneesh's movement, beginning in June 1985, which included an investigation into the salmonella incident. As a result of a follow-up investigation, The Oregonian learned that Leslie L. Zaitz, one of their investigative journalists
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
, had been placed as number three on a top-ten hit list by Sheela's group. Then-Oregon Attorney General
Oregon Attorney General
The Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The Attorney General is chosen by statewide partisan election to serve a term...
Dave Frohnmayer
David B. Frohnmayer
Dave Frohnmayer was the 15th President of the University of Oregon. He was appointed president on July 1, 1994. His last day as president was June 30, 2009. His tenure as president is the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He is the first native of the U.S. state of Oregon to run the...
commented on the poisoning incident and other acts perpetrated by the group, stating: "The Rajneeshees committed the most significant crimes of their kind in the history of the United States ... The largest single incident of fraudulent marriages, the most massive scheme of wiretapping and bugging, and the largest mass poisoning." Looking back on the incident, Skeels stated, "We lost our innocence over this ... We really learned to be more suspicious ... The first significant biological attack on a U.S. community was not carried out by foreign terrorists smuggled into New York, but by legal residents of a U.S. community. The next time it happens it could be with more lethal agents ... We in public health are really not ready to deal with that."
Milton Leitenberg noted in the 2005 work Assessing the Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism Threat, "there is apparently no other 'terrorist' group that is known to have successfully cultured any pathogen." Federal and state investigators requested that details of the incident not be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
Journal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...
(JAMA) for 12 years, for they feared a description of the events could spark copycat crimes, and JAMA complied. No repeat attacks or hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
es subsequently occurred, and a detailed account of the incident and investigation was published in JAMA in 1997. A 1999 empirical analysis in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases published by the CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
described six motivational factors associated with bioterrorism, including: charismatic leadership, no outside constituency, apocalyptic ideology, loner or splinter group, sense of paranoia and grandiosity, and defensive aggression. According to the article, the "Rajneesh Cult" satisfied all motivational factors except for an "apocalyptic ideology". An analysis in the book Cults, Religion and Violence disputes the link to charismatic leadership
Charismatic authority
The sociologist Max Weber defined charismatic authority as "resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him." Charismatic authority is one of three forms of authority laid out...
, pointing out that in this and other cases, it was organizational lieutenants who played a pivotal role in the initiation of violence. Arguing for a contextual rather than decisive view of charisma, the authors state that the attribution of outcomes to the personality of a single individual, even a charismatic leader, usually camouflages a far more complex field of social relationships.
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
in the United States. The 2001 publication of Judith Miller
Judith Miller (journalist)
Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy...
's Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, which contained an analysis and detailed description of the events, also brought discussion of the incident back into the news. Residents of The Dalles commented that they have an understanding of how bioterrorism can occur in the United States. The incident had spread fear in the community, and drained the local economy. All but one of the restaurants affected went out of business. In 2005, the Oregon State Land Board
Oregon Department of State Lands
The Department of State Lands , one of the oldest agencies of government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is principally responsible for the management of lands under state ownership, as its name implies. Unlike most other department-level state agencies, it is not headed by a sole elected official,...
agreed to sell 480 acres (1.9 km²) of Wasco County, including Rajneeshpuram, to the Colorado-based youth ministry Young Life
Young Life
YoungLife is a worldwide, non-profit, Evangelical Christian organization. YoungLife consists of many branches of ministry , but most commonly the name "YoungLife" refers to the outreach arm of the organization directed toward high school students...
. On February 18, 2005, Court TV
Court TV
truTV is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Time Warner. The network launched as Court TV in 1991, changing to truTV in 2008...
aired an episode of Forensic Files
Forensic Files
Forensic Files is an American documentary-style series which reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and even outbreaks of illness. The show is broadcast on truTV, narrated by Peter Thomas, and produced by Medstar Television, in association with truTV...
about the incident, entitled: "'Bio-Attack' – Oregon Cult Poisonings". The salmonellosis outbreak was also discussed in the media within the context of the 2006 North American E. coli outbreak
2006 North American E. coli outbreak
The 2006 North American E. coli outbreak was an Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak from spinach. The outbreak occurred in September 2006 and its probable origin was an Angus cattle ranch that had leased land to spinach grower...
.
The book Emerging Infectious Diseases: Trends and Issues cites the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack, along with the Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway....
group's attempts to use anthrax and other agents, as exceptions to the belief "that only foreign-state supported groups have the resources to execute a credible bioterrorism event". According to Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, these are the only two confirmed uses of biological weapons for terrorist purposes to harm humans. The incident was the single largest bioterrorist attack in United States history. In the chapter titled: "Influencing An Election: America's First Modern Bioterrorist Attack" in his 2006 book Terrorism on American Soil: A Concise History of Plots and Perpetrators from the Famous to the Forgotten, author Joseph T. McCann concludes: "In every respect, the salmonella poisoning carried out by the cult members was a major bioterrorist attack that fortunately failed to achieve its ultimate goal and resulted in no fatalities."
See also
- 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot1985 Rajneeshee assassination plotThe 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot was a conspiracy by a group of high-ranking followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon...
- Biological warfareBiological warfareBiological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
- DeportationDeportationDeportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
- Electoral fraudElectoral fraudElectoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
- Elections in the United StatesElections in the United StatesThe United States has a federal government, with elected officials at the federal , state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular...
- List of terrorist incidents
- Public healthPublic healthPublic health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
- Terrorism in the United StatesTerrorism in the United StatesA common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change...
- U.S. Immigration and Customs EnforcementU.S. Immigration and Customs EnforcementU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security , responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security...
- Voting systemVoting systemA voting system or electoral system is a method by which voters make a choice between options, often in an election or on a policy referendum....