A letter from a reader about the source of anthrax-tainted letters

April 24, 2002

I believe that "Kiko" Harrison died several years ago. He worked for some time at the Los Alamos laboratory, married twice, had several children, and lived in Washington State as well as New Mexico. His first wife's name was Dora.

Mitchell Owens
New York, N.Y.

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December 27, 2001

It seems to me Princeton is pretty close to ground zero on the anthrax letters. Not too far from either Trenton or Ft. Detrick.

I believe there is a cultural issue that could be effectively pursued by you chaps. It seems to me extremely unlikely that the Chilean pediatrician was the target, and that his real target was the Antonio Banfi, who was a Marxist philosopher associated with the phenomenology movement associated with Husserl, Hannah Arendt, and Simone de Beavoir.

This is more consistent with left/liberal targets like Leahy and Daschle, as perceived by our dim-bulb anthrax man. He could easily have missed the fact that Banfi the red philosopher is long dead, as his work is still widely discussed and an active Institute in Italy bears his name.

When you go to the web to get an address for Dr. Antonio Banfi you get the Santiago pediatrician. Anthrax guy may have picked up a superficial knowledge of philosophy to go with his right wing background. Think of Ted Kaczynski being a Harvard graduate. He may have attended classes at Princeton or elsewhere and expressed his hatred of Banfi the philosopher at seminars or discussion groups. It's a long shot, but anthrax man may be an academic "hanger-on" and known to someone in the area.

Les Hale
Professor Emeritus Penn State University

PS: My best Princeton buddy was Kiko Harrison, who was an officer on the sub that sank more Japanese shipping tonnage than any other during WW2, while carrying a signed photo of the two Japanese ambassadors who were in Washington when war broke out. His father, Francis Burton Harrison, had been the governor general of the Philippines before WWI. I have lost track of Kiko; anyone know where he is?

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