The U.S. Anthrax Mail Attacks

Paper Summary:

This dissertation provides an examination of the anthrax mailings to determine how the U.S. Postal Service responded and what organizational structures were in place to facilitate or impede that response. The role and importance of the U.S. Postal Service is discussed and its history and evolution is described. The examination is presented over the course of six chapters and concludes that there were significant failures on the part of the postal service to provide adequate protections for its workers while the investigation was being conducted, largely as a result of an organizational culture that placed productivity above safety considerations.

Introduction
The History and Development of the U.S. Postal Service
Modern Postal Bureaucracy
Anthrax in the Mail: Attack and Response
Values in Conflict
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have resulted in vastly increased scrutiny of many aspects of government functioning, as major wars and national cataclysms have done in the past. In this new environment, it is important to understand what conflicting bureaucratic values may represent the opposing perspectives of providing open access to the postal system versus protecting the system and its workers from terrorist attacks in the future? "Few aspects, perhaps," Wise says, "have received more attention than the question of whether government in general, and the federal government in particular, has the right organizational structure to meet the requirements for homeland security." Immediately following the attacks, the president made a determination that there was a glaring need for improvements in security organization; in response, he established the Office of Homeland Security by executive order on October 8, 2001, less than one month following the terrorist attacks."

More papers on The U.S. Anthrax Mail Attacks:

• Essay # 50602 : "Anthrax and the U.S. Government"
• Research Paper # 30293 : "Anthrax"
• Essay # 141599 : "The U.S. Mythologizing Of The Architect And The Canadian Response"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: