Herald news services
WASHINGTON — The FBI probed similarities Tuesday between an anthrax case in New York and a spore-spiked letter containing a potent form of anthrax that appeared to be the work of experts mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
A thousand miles to the south, Floridian Ernesto Blanco lay ill in a hospital with the inhalation form of anthrax, less than two weeks after a co-worker died of the same illness.
In New York, headquarters for many of the nation’s high-profile news media corporations, officials said they expected full recoveries for two people infected with a less lethal form of the disease. They included an NBC news employee and the 7-month-old son of an ABC producer.
Yet five weeks after terrorist strikes killed 5,000, the nation reeled under a continuing series of disclosures involving letters tainted by anthrax bacteria; spores discovered in a postal facility in Florida; countless innocent scares; and not a few malicious hoaxes.
Since Oct. 1, FBI director Robert Mueller said, "the FBI has received more than 2,300 incidents or suspected incidents involving anthrax or other dangerous agents."
Mueller told reporters there were "certain similarities" between the letter opened at NBC and one unsealed in Daschle’s office across the street from the Capitol several days later. Both were postmarked in Trenton, N.J. — the NBC letter on Sept. 16 and the Daschle letter on Oct. 8. Mueller said there were similarities in handwriting, as well.
Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the letters contained similar threatening messages expressing anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments and included a pro-Muslim statement.
In a chilling development, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who attended a closed-door briefing on the subject, said the strain of anthrax found in the letter to Daschle was "very refined, very pure," making it more dangerous. Daschle said he was told it appeared to be the work of experts. Additional testing on the anthrax was being done late Tuesday.
Officials dispensed precautionary doses of antibiotics by the hundreds in the shadow of the Capitol.
Federal health officials have asked laboratories nationwide to verify their inventories of hazardous biological and chemical materials such as anthrax, and flag unusual shipping requests.
A spokeswoman for the University of Washington’s Health Sciences Center in Seattle confirmed that her school was ordered to verify its’ inventory of hazardous materials.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson tried to reassure an anxious public the government has plenty of Cipro, the antibiotic dispensed to those who may have been exposed. The manufacturer, Bayer Corp., says it will produce 200 million more tablets in the next three months, and Thompson said Bayer promised not to raise its prices.
"I want to make sure that everyone understands we have enough antibiotics right now," Thompson said.
His top health aides added that other antibiotics work against anthrax, too.
In steps that underscored the extraordinary level of concern, Capitol police cordoned off an entire wing of the eight-story Senate office building around the majority leader’s office so they could check for evidence of contamination. Mail shut down for the second straight day throughout the Capitol complex.
Mueller told reporters that so far, federal investigators have found no "direct link to organized terrorism."
President Bush said Monday he wouldn’t rule out a connection to bin Laden. But administration officials said they were also investigating to see whether there was a connection to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Suspicious letters, unmarked packages and nonstop hoaxes have spread anthrax anxiety around the globe at the speed of mail, but not a single anthrax attack has been confirmed outside the United States.
Assailing recent anthrax hoaxes as "no joking matter," Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday those who perpetrate anthrax or other terrorist scares will be prosecuted.
With the FBI chasing down thousands of reports of possible anthrax exposures — most turn out to be false alarms or practical jokes — Ashcroft said such scares are unlawful and "gross transgressions of the public trust."
He detailed the prosecution of a Connecticut state employee who sat by quietly as a state agency building was evacuated on Oct. 11 for what the man allegedly knew to be a false threat involving white powder left near his computer.
Joseph Faryniarz told FBI agents he thought two colleagues might be involved but later acknowledged that he lied and said he knew the incident was a hoax even before the FBI arrived because another individual not named in the complaint had claimed responsibility. The two-day evacuation of the building cost taxpayers $1.5 million, Ashcroft said.
Faryniarz was charged with making false statements to FBI agents; he was not charged with perpetrating the hoax. He could face a maximum of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $3 million — twice the loss incurred as a result of the scare.
Associated Press
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