Scariest video conference ever? Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said in an upcoming interview that former vice president Dick Cheney called in on a video-conference line to say everyone at the White House could have been poisoned. Just a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Rice said, she and President George W. Bush were in Shanghai when “the vice president came on the screen and said the White House detectors have detected botulinum toxin and we were all—those who were exposed—going to die.” Botulism poisoning leads to paralysis and, in its most severe form, can lead to death. Rice, who was then the national-security adviser, said her deputy, Stephen Hadley, said that if the mice being tested were “feet up, we’re toast” and “feet down, we’re fine”—words she repeated when the test came back negative.
