14:30CST - 03 Jan 2002

WASHINGTON, DC (EmergencyNet News Mid-Day Report) -- A suspicious letter was found today in the Capitol office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, but police said initial tests on a powdery substance in the envelope were negative for any hazardous substance. Lt. Dan Nichols, a spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police, said Daschle was "well aware of the situation and he is safe." At least one police source is calling the incident "a hoax." Nichols declined to provide any information about the postmark or other identifying information on the piece of mail, which had been opened a few hours earlier. Unconfirmed reports suggested that the letter had a "foreign postmark."

From: ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-Saturday, December 29, 2001-Vol. 5 - 365

Arrests For Anthrax Hoaxes Span The United States

From the FBI's "Page Two" web page

WASHINGTON: In early October government officials had to address a worrying fact: the more than 2,300 reports of suspected anthrax bacteria at the time included many hoaxes. To confront these and future hoaxes Justice Department officials publicly warned that anybody responsible for these threats would be prosecuted to the fullest extent.

On October 18, Attorney General Ashcroft warned those who would perpetrate hoaxes: "You will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will pay a high price for your crimes." FBI Director Mueller reiterated the Attorney General's warning, "Hoaxes, pranks, and threats involving chemical or biological agents are serious crimes and warrant a serious response. They will be investigated thoroughly."

Arrests have taken place in several states. On November 1, a Stafford, Virginia, postal worker was charged with perpetrating a hoax involving anthrax. The worker, who allegedly placed baby powder on and inside open mail, faces federal charges including mailing threatening communications and tampering with mail. If she is convicted on both counts, she faces 25 years in prison.

In Connecticut, two men were arrested for threats. On November 12, a man was arrested for allegedly sending numerous letters in which he threatened anthrax contamination to various state and federal offices. Another Connecticut man was arrested for allegedly making false statements in connection with an anthrax scare at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

In other instances, a Rhode Island man faces federal charges after allegedly mailing a letter purported to contain anthrax, which actually contained talcum powder.

Two Kentucky residents face charges for allegedly mailing two envelopes containing a white powdery substance which forced the closure of the local post office. In Dallas, Texas, a man was arrested for leaving a threatening phone message with a law firm about a package containing anthrax.

The problem of Anthrax hoaxes actually predates the September 11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax-laden letters from September and October 2001. For example, on November 8 of this year, a jury found Mitchell Montverdi guilty of sending threatening letters through the United States Postal Service in February and April 2000. He had sent two letters making threats of injury or death to residents of the United States by using anthrax.

On November 1 of this year, the conviction of Charles Redden was announced in California. Redden was indicted in April 2000 with threatening to release anthrax into the air-conditioning system of a federal building in Oakland, California.

According to law, individuals who threaten the use of biological toxins can receive up to life in prison. Those who lie to law enforcement officials about terrorist hoaxes, and those who mail communications that contain any threat to injure the addressee or any other person, can also receive up to five years in prison.

Supplemental notes on 20 Dec 01 report (below):  In subsequent conversations with law enforcement officials in Washington, DC, Emergencynet News was told that the "dismissed scientist" at a major defense contractor turned out to be a "bum lead" and that there currently is little suspicion concerning the Battelle corporation, as mentioned below in the ABCNews report. The official said that other leads continue to be followed and that the investigation is primarily directed against possible "domestic sources" at the present time...  

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Thursday, December 20, 2001-Vol. 7, No. 356

WORLDWIDE INTELLIGENCE:

Scientist Probed By FBI In Anthrax Investigation

WASHINGTON: According to ABC News on Thursday, federal authorities are investigating a dismissed scientist who allegedly threatened to use anthrax. Investigators are now convinced the anthrax mailed in poison letters was made in the United States. The scientist and Battelle reportedly deny any involvement in the incidents.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now interviewing current and former scientists in Utah and at the second secret anthrax-producing facility, Battelle in Columbus, Ohio, a nonprofit corporation that does the work for the Central Intelligence Agency and the military. An estimated 200 U.S. scientists dealt with the anthrax program over the last five years and federal authorities have told ABC News they are now investigating the activities of a senior research scientist who was twice fired from Battelle and allegedly made a threat to use anthrax in the days after 11 September.

According to an FBI affidavit, agents reportedly searched the home of one former top Battelle scientist in late September after he allegedly made threats about using anthrax. Agents said they found suspicious chemicals but no anthrax. Authorities said the program, designed to protect U.S. soldiers, grew out of the Gulf War. The idea was to replicate the kind of anthrax Iraq might make and one day use against U.S. soldiers.

ABC News said they obtained documents that said the U.S. scientists have been making a powdered aerosol form of anthrax, and also have the unique strain of the bacteria found in deadly letters sent to two U.S. senators.

WASHINGTON: Federal officials said that the anthrax investigation is focused on fewer than a dozen laboratories that have worked with the deadly bacteria and investigators are working to identify the genetic fingerprints of anthrax held at each of them. Investigators are increasingly convinced the anthrax that has killed five people since October came from inside the United States, and they are hoping to find the laboratory that produced it. There have been no new cases of anthrax infection for weeks, but officials are still dealing with fallout from those exposed to the tainted letters during the fall.

Webposted: 07 Dec 2001

AMERITHRAX, FBI page on Anthrax investigation: http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/anthrax/amerithraxlinks.htm

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Thursday, December 6, 2001-Vol. 7, No. 342-10:00CST

Opening Of Leahy Letter May Lead To Anthax Clues

In the investigation of attacks of anthrax by mail, experts at Fort Detrick, Maryland, have started to open the highly contaminated letter sent to Senator Patrick Leahy. FBI agents discovered the letter three weeks ago stuffed in one of dozens of barrels of unopened congressional mail. They waited this long to open it to be sure they can capture all the billions of anthrax spores they believe to be inside it.

After removing spores form the letter, investigators will then decontaminate the letter and test the anthrax. They will then examine the letter which was addressed to Leahy. An earlier letter to Senator Tom Daschle, which forced the evacuation of the Senate Hart Building, yielded few spores for examination and army biological warfare experts at Fort Detrick are anxious for a larger sample to conduct a full battery of tests.

Meanwhile, law enforcement sources say up to 91 laboratories and universities across the country have been identified as having samples of the type anthrax used in the letters. The FBI says it has begun serving subpoenas to many of those institutions requesting the names of all people who had access to the samples going back 15 years. The bureau says it expects to collect several thousand names.

On Tuesday, anthrax investigators said tens of thousands of letters mailed around the country may have picked up trace amounts of anthrax in a New Jersey postal facility, but the government hasn't decided whether to track down that mail. It has been almost eight weeks since this mail was possibly tainted in the anthrax bioterror attack. Dr Jeffrey Koplan, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said: "With each passing day, the lack of further cases occurring is grounds to diminish the risk from any one of these letters."

Investigators already have tracked 300 letters that passed through the Trenton, New Jersey, facility within seconds of anthrax-laden letters mailed to Leahy and Daschle. Health officials in every region that received the suspect letters are watching for anthrax symptoms, but so far no infections have turned up.

13:40CST - 05 Dec 2001

FBI Top-Ten Suspect Arrested; Wanted In Anthrax Hoaxes

Cincinnati, OH -- Clayton Lee Waagner, an alleged anti-abortion activist, has been arrested in a Cincinnati suburb. Waagner was reportedly arrested in a Kinko's store in Springdale, Ohio. Waagner, is the primary suspect in a string of anthrax hoax letters. He has been on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list since Sept. 21, 2001. Arraignment and charges are pending. FBI officials said that they intend to prosecute people engaging in anthrax or other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) hoaxes to the fullest extent of the law...

Cross-Contamination Eyed In Anthrax Death Of Woman

Connecticut Governor John Rowland said on Friday that investigators searching for the source of the anthrax that killed a 94-year-old woman have found the deadly material on a letter sent to a home in a nearby town. The governor said a direct connection had not been made between the letter sent to Seymour and the anthrax victim, 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren. She died on 21 November at her home in Oxford, three miles from Seymour.

Rowland said the amount of anthrax was tiny. He said: "It was so insignificant that no one in contact with the letter could have gotten anthrax or even become ill." Investigators still don't know how the retired widow who rarely left home came in contact with the anthrax that killed her.

One possibility under close scrutiny is cross-contamination of mail with anthrax-laden letters sent to political and media figures in Washington and New York. Using bar codes printed on the envelopes, authorities have been able to determine that a small amount of mail destined for the Oxford area passed through the same New Jersey postal facility that handled contaminated letters sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy in Washington. None of those letters went to Lundgren. But it is possible her mail came in contact with a letter that was contaminated at the center near Trenton, New Jersey.

Rowland said: "Supposition on my part is that Mrs. Lundgren, at age 94, had an immune system far less than yours or mine, and that you and I could have handled her same piece of mail and not gotten sick." Investigators with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Connecticut health department have taken dozens of environmental samples from places where Lundgren visited in the two months before she was infected with inhalation anthrax.

Among the places tested: Lundgren's mail, her mailbox, her neighbor's mail, area post offices, her church, doctor's office, beauty shop and other businesses that she visited.

WASHINGTON -- REMEDIATION: Workers began pumping a deadly gas into the Hart Senate Office Building early Saturday in an operation designed to kill the remaining anthrax spores that forced the building's closing almost seven weeks ago. Lt Dan Nichols, a Capitol Police spokesman, said: "We waited until the humidity reached the optimum level, did our safety checks and then began spreading chlorine dioxide gas at 3 a.m." The block surrounding the building was cordoned off to give exclusive access for a laboratory bus to circle every 15 minutes and monitor the air for gas leaks. People living nearby were told there was no need to leave or otherwise disrupt their plans.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Saturday, November 24, 2001-Vol. 7, NO. 330-09:00CST

No Leads In Recent Anthrax Death

The mystery of the death of 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren deepened on Friday when the outcome of preliminary tests to the woman's mail, mailbox and the local post office were found to be anthrax-free. Federal law enforcement and public health investigators want to know more about where she had been and who had been in her home in the days leading up to her illness.

Federal investigators turned to the handful of places Lundgren frequented, including her church and hair salon, seeking the source of the anthrax spores that killed her. Hope for a relatively simple explanation dimmed on Friday when preliminary testing of Lundgren's home found no signs of the potentially deadly bacteria.

Tests of the nearby Seymour, Connecticut, post office and the Wallingford facility that sorts mail for that area of the state were also negative. More results were forthcoming and testing at Lundgren's home was not complete. More than 120 environmental samples were collected and analyzed and 400 postal employees were tested, but there is still no sign of anthrax.

FBI special agents were seen at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Oxford, Connecticut, vacuuming samples and conducting interviews at a nearby bank on Friday. Investigators are trying to pinpoint Lundgren's whereabouts in the last weeks of her life. Nearly two dozen investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have joined the FBI and state health department at Lundgren's modest ranch home in the rural Connecticut community.

Investigators Baffled By Anthrax Mystery

The death of a 94-year-old Connecticut woman from inhalation anthrax has left investigators baffled as to how someone who rarely left her home contracted the deadly bacteria. In Washington, more anthrax spores turned up on Wednesday, in a mailroom at the U.S. Department of Education. Officials said the amount suggested the room was contaminated by mail from the Brentwood postal facility.

In Connecticut, federal, state and local authorities have a mystery on their hands. The latest victim, identified as Ottilie Lundgren, died on Wednesday five days after she was hospitalized with respiratory problems. She is the fifth person to die of inhalation anthrax since early October. Her death and that of a New York City hospital worker are the only ones that have not been linked to tainted mail.

Authorities said there was no immediate evidence of a crime in Lundgren's death, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began retracing her steps over the past month. The CDC sent about a dozen more investigators to the state on Wednesday seeking clues to how Lundgren was exposed. Because she spent most of her time at home, authorities focused on the mail as the most likely source of the bacteria. ERRI analysts said that this latest case may be another case of "residual cross contamination" of the mail, but that the theory must be confirmed by appropriate laboratory tests.

The FBI, state police and the CDC searched her home, a ranch-type dwelling in a wooded section of rural Oxford. No anthrax-tainted letters have been reported in the area, and tests at a regional mail-sorting center last week found no traces of anthrax. Results from tests of Lundgren's home aren't expected for two more days. The anthrax that killed Lundgren could not be distinguished from the strains that have been the focus of other anthrax investigations.

EmergencyNet News Instant Update

13:00CST/14:00EST - 21 Nov 2001

* Patrick Charnel, president of Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn., told reporters that Ottilie Lundgren, the 94-year-old Connecticut woman who is suspected of contracting inhalation anthrax, passed away at 10:32EST this date.

* Derby, CT - A Full Haz-Mat response has been dispatched to an incident involving a "suspicious letter" brought to Griffin hospital by unidentified woman this morning. Preliminary results to on-site testing expected later this afternoon. Details unconfirmed at this time. Investigation of the incident underway by local, state, and federal authorities.

Additional details when they become available...

New Inhalation Anthrax Confirmed

Federal authorities confirmed early Wednesday that an elderly woman in Connecticut, an is in critical condition with what believed to be a case of inhalation anthrax. On Capitol Hill, more spores turned up on Tuesday, in the offices of two Senators, as lab tests on a letter sent to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy revealed it contained enough anthrax to kill two people.

The announcement of the case of inhalation anthrax - in Oxford, Connecticut - came from Connecticut Governor John Rowland on Tuesday, when doctors were still waiting to hear final test results from the Centers for Disease Control. Those results came in early Wednesday. This is the first anthrax case in Connecticut and the first new anthrax case in several weeks in the United States.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Rowland said: "It's very difficult at this time for anyone to explain how the patient may have contracted anthrax. We have no evidence at this time that anyone sent the patient anything containing anthrax. And we have no evidence that the patient contracted the disease as a result of some criminal act."

In Washington on Tuesday, a federal law enforcement official said that a sample taken from a plastic evidence bag containing a still-unopened letter to Senator Leahy contains at least 23,000 anthrax spores, enough for more than two lethal doses. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were three times more anthrax spores in the single sample taken from the plastic bag than in any of the other 600 bags of mail examined by the FBI before it found the Leahy letter last Friday.

Also on Tuesday, traces of the bacteria were found in the office mailrooms of Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy and Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd. No one in either office is believed to be sick and the amount of anthrax is said to be so small that no medical treatment is planned. The mailrooms will be decontaminated.

Officials suspect the anthrax got there through contact with anthrax-bearing letters mailed to Leahy or Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. So far, residual anthrax traces have been found in 13 senators' offices besides Daschle's, whose office is the only one known to have actually opened an anthrax letter.

EPA officials have said it will take three to four weeks to decontaminate the offices of 10 senators in the Hart building. Those cleanups have not yet started. Two other offices where bacteria were found - Daschle's and the next - door suite of Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold - will be sealed and cleaned with chlorine dioxide gas.

Chlorine has never been used quite like this before. The gas would be pumped through the offices in concentrations sufficient to kill all remaining anthrax spores, but that gas would also have to be pumped out for scrubbing to protect the nearby neighborhood. Officials originally hoped Hart, which houses half the Senate's 100 members, would be cleaned and reopened by 21 November. With the new cleanup timetable, authorities have set no new target date, but many aides believe the building may not reopen until next year.

At the Pentagon, officials have begun taking new precautions against anthrax-tainted mail by requiring that all mail be opened, visually inspected, X-rayed and tested for biological or chemical materials. Once checked, mail will be held for up to three days to await test results before delivery inside the  building.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Sunday, November 18, 2001-Vol. 7 - 324

Leahy Anthrax Letter Very Similar To Daschle's

Authorities in Washington closed two U.S. Senate office buildings on Saturday and awaited test results from a letter suspected of containing anthrax that was sent to a senator. The unopened envelope sent to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy resembled the letter mailed last month to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Leahy said on Saturday he has no idea why someone would send him a letter suspected of containing anthrax. The Leahy letter was discovered in the 280 barrels of congressional mail quarantined after a Daschle employee opened a powder-filled envelope on 15 October. The Federal Bureau of Investigation renewed its appeal for the public's help in finding the anthrax source.

Dr. Greg Martin, a U.S. Navy physician who advises the Capitol police on anthrax, said Friday it is unlikely that anyone was sickened by the Leahy letter. Martin said the letter has been out of circulation for at least five weeks and anyone infected by it would have already fallen ill. The letter led to a renewed shutdown of the Russell and Dirksen Senate office buildings, where Leahy has offices, for tests to determine if anthrax spores were present.

Everything on the envelope except the name and address was similar to the Daschle letter: the block printing with a slight slant to the right, the 9 October post-mark from Trenton, New Jersey, and the same, nonexistent school listed as the return address.

Also in Washington, an autopsy was scheduled on Saturday on a 59-year-old employee of the Brentwood postal facility that handled the Daschle letter. The employee died of unknown causes Friday. Investigators say the woman was taking antibiotic pills as instructed when they were given to her along with 2,000 of her co-workers to prevent anthrax. District of Columbia Chief Medical Examiner Jonathan Arden says the woman had respiratory symptoms for the past two days. He said it's possible she died of an undiagnosed heart disease. Arden also said there's a chance that a person taking antibiotics might become infected with anthrax. The woman reportedly didn't work in the mail-sorting area at Brentwood.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Saturday, November 17, 2001-Vol. 7 - 323

Another Senate Anthrax Letter

Federal investigators reportedly found another letter that may be tainted with anthrax. It was addressed to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy and found in a pile of mail quarantined after the letter to Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle was found. Like the Daschle letter, this one was postmarked 9 October in Trenton, New Jersey.

In a statement that was released on Friday night, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said: "FBI and U.S. Postal Service investigators examining sequestered congressional mail have another letter which appears to contain anthrax. The letter appears in every respect to be similar to the other anthrax-laced letters."

New Congressional Anthrax Traces

Authorities said on Saturday trace amounts of anthrax were discovered in the offices of three senators and a House member in congressional buildings where earlier tests had detected the presence of the deadly bacteria. The health threat was deemed minimal.

Anthrax was found in several spots in the Hart Senate office building, where a letter containing anthrax was opened on 15 October in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Idaho Senator Larry Craig said small amounts of anthrax had been found in his office mailroom. Aides to Senators Bob Graham of Florida and Diane Feinstein of California said anthrax had been discovered in the offices of those lawmakers. Spores also were found in the office of Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings on the sixth floor of the Longworth House office building.

Capitol Police said that based on the amount of anthrax found, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not recommending antibiotics for anyone who had been in the contaminated Longworth or Hart areas.

Anthrax Reported At Four New Jersey Post Offices

Traces of anthrax were found at four more New Jersey post offices. Officials said on Friday afternoon that the four post offices send mail to the Hamilton processing center that handled contaminated letters mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Tom Brokaw and The New York Post.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, meanwhile, voiced optimism that the nation's anthrax threat was subsiding, but he said the search for the source of the deadly bio-terrorist attacks remains stymied. More than a month after the first diagnosis of the sickness, Ridge said the FBI was "still no closer to identifying specifically the origin of the anthrax or the perpetrators."

Health officials said that about 32,000 people have been prescribed antibiotics to guard against anthrax since the first letter attack, but only 5,000 really needed to take the pills. Medical authorities at the Centers for Disease Control also sought to prevent unwarranted calamity over anthrax, suggesting in new guidelines that finding traces of the germ stuck to surfaces does not warrant closing buildings or prescribing antibiotics.

FBI Anthrax Profile: A Male Loner

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said on Friday that they believe the person who mailed anthrax-filled letters is probably a male loner with a scientific bent, possibly like Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, whose mail bombs stymied law enforcement for nearly two decades. The officials said they had not ruled Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, but the wording of the three known anthrax-laced letters suggests a domestic source.

The FBI said whoever sent the letters did not select victims randomly. Based on analysis of the handwriting on the letters, the anthrax attacker was probably a person with a grudge and a high level of technical training. The person made an effort to find the correct address of each recipient and ensured that proper postage was used. The officials believe, too, that the perpetrator gradually increased the potency of the anthrax put into the letters. Four people have died after inhaling anthrax spores, and 13 more have been sickened from anthrax exposure.

The FBI profile suggests a person who avoids public situations. If he has a job, it likely does not involve contact with many people. While officials suspect the man is familiar with the Trenton, New Jersey, area, they don't necessarily think he lives there. Trenton is where the three known letters were postmarked. They also said that the letters, which include the phrases: "Death to Israel" and "Allah is great," are not consistent with the writings of Muslim terrorist groups.

The officials said that they could detect no political agenda from the letters. Each of the three known letters was a photo- copy, probably used to make identification more difficult. It is possible that he had the anthrax before 11 September and saw the terrorist attacks as an opportunity to strike.

Officials also said they could not determine whether the suspect grew up speaking English, nor what age he might be. The handwriting characteristics in the letters include a distinctive use of dashes in the writing of a date, the use of uppercase block-style letters and the downward slant from left to right of the names and addresses on the envelopes.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Friday, November 9, 2001-Vol. 7, No. 315

FBI Seeking Help In Anthrax Probe

Frustrated over its lack of progress, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly preparing to share what its behavioral scientists have learned about who may be responsible for the anthrax letters. Special agents, including an FBI forensic linguist, will give a briefing on Friday on the telltale signs the bureau has picked up from the letters. Sources say they have concluded that the misspelling of "penicilin" in two letters, plus the word "can not" in another was deliberate. They will also point to the awkward way in which the numeral "1" is written, the numerous strikeovers and the distinctive dashes in the date 9-11-01 as a signature writing style that someone may recognize. Although less certain, other investigators believe the suspect is a "mature male," "likely born in the United States" who is "somewhat educated" and "not a Muslim."

Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler, said that while the bureau has not discounted the notion that the anthrax mailer may be a terrorist associated with Usama bin Laden, that is reportedly not the prevailing theory. McCrary said: "They're also looking at the possibility of a homegrown individual, maybe the loner-paranoid type of individual as well who may be doing this. The insight one can get from a 39-word note is limited at best. But there may be some indicators, and a few things to look at."

It is unusual for the FBI to disclose what their specialists are thinking so early in a case and when they have so little to go on, but that appears to be precisely what's driving this: The FBI just doesn't have many real clues and they desperately need the help.

Meanwhile, special agents now discount the likelihood that the latest New York anthrax victim was sickened through cross-contaminated mail and have nailed up posters seeking help in her case. There has not been a new case of anthrax since 31 October, when a 61-year-old hospital worker died from the inhaled form of the disease. At least some experts are saying that the primary danger concerning the anthrax has passed, but they also note that the incubation period for anthrax can be as long as 60 days and continued medical surveillance remains necessary.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Wednesday, November 7, 2001-Vol. 7, NO. 313-10:00CST

FBI Has Few Answers On Source Of Anthrax Letters

As the worldwide anthrax scare extended to the edge of Siberia on Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation acknowledged it doesn't know where the anthrax in the contaminated letters came from or who might have had access to it. James Caruso, a senior FBI counter-terrorism official, told a Senate panel: "We do not believe they (anthrax samples) were stolen or misplaced from a registered laboratory." He said the FBI did not yet know where they did come from or who was responsible.

Caruso said that many, many people had passed through U.S. labs and research facilities over the years where they could have learned about or had access to anthrax.

Meanwhile, the U.S. consulate in Yekaterinburg, Russia, confirmed Tuesday that a diplomatic mailbag sent from Washington tested positive for what was described as a negligible amount of anthrax spores. The incident in Yekaterinburg, once a secret Soviet center for anthrax weapon production, was the first of its kind in Russia since the spate of anthrax-by-mail attacks in the U.S.

Four people have died of inhaled anthrax since the mail attacks began, including a New York woman with no apparent connection to the mail or the media or government, which have been the focus of the attacks. Several theories are being checked by investigators trying to find out how the woman, a hospital stock-room worker, became exposed to the deadly bacteria. Officials said on Tuesday that some of the mail she handled appears to have crossed paths with letters known to carry anthrax.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Tuesday, November 6, 2001-Vol. 7 - 312-10:00CST

Small Amount Of Bacteria Detected At Pentagon Post Office

While officials at the Mayo Clinic unveiled a new, rapid test for exposure to the deadly anthrax bacteria, the Pentagon on Monday disclosed the weekend discovery of anthrax spores in a small post office at the nation's military command center. Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said two positive samples were found among 17 test samples taken at the facility on 30 October and were located in two post office boxes, one unassigned and one rented by a U.S. Navy member.

In a statement, the Pentagon said the office was decontaminated on Sunday and "retesting results were all negative." The post office is located in a far corner of the commercial concourse of the Pentagon, which contains a bank, several shops and food kiosks that serve thousands of workers in the building. It is separate from the Defense Department's own mailroom, which has been tested twice with negative results.

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Dr. Franklin Cockerill III, a microbiologist, said scientists had "discovered a new DNA test that identifies anthrax in less than an hour instead of days." He said it would permit local authorities to get test results for exposure more quickly and ease anxiety in patients who won't have to wait so long for their individual results.

Author/Sponsor: John I. Gallin, M.D., Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. and Steven E. Hyman, M.D. Total Running Time: 01:15:15 http://videocast.nih.gov/ram/ccgr103101.ram

Author/Sponsor: Dr. R. John Collier, Dr. John A. Young, Dr. Robert C. Liddington and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Total Running Time: 00:43:49 http://videocast.nih.gov/ram/anthraxjournal102301.ram

Author/Sponsor: American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, Public Health Training Network and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Total Running Time: 01:20:01 http://videocast.nih.gov/ram/anthraxclinicianknow101801.ram

Links: CDC's page on updated bioterrorism issues: http://www.bt.cdc.gov

Baffled Investigators Still Have No Strong Leads To Suspects

While Capitol Hill workers prepared to sterilize the anthrax-contaminated Hart Senate office building in Washington with chlorine dioxide gas, trace amounts of anthrax were discovered at New York's City Hall and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington. A package mailed from NBC to New York's City Hall two weeks ago has tested positive for anthrax. Officials say that while the package is not evidence of a new source, it does appear to be a case of cross-contamination.

Although the contaminated tape had been sitting in City Hall for three weeks, health officials said no one is showing any symptoms of infection. But it's another clear sign just how far the spores can travel -- and how easily they can be transferred from one surface to another.

The New York City Hall case isn't the only example. In Washington, trace amounts of anthrax turned up in a mail room at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a few employees have begun treatment for possible exposure to the deadly bacteria. Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said a small amount of anthrax was discovered at the Veterans Affairs center, whose mail passes through the Brentwood postal processing facility that handles mail for much of Washington.

Fauci also defended a new move by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to inoculate health officials against smallpox. Fauci said: "We must be prepared for the use of smallpox as a bio-terrorism weapon." Routine vaccinations for smallpox ended in 1972, which means millions of Americans under 30 years of age have no protection at all. And for those who did get the shots, the protection has probably worn off.

A looming question now is whether mass inoculations are needed again. Federal health officials have said that four drug companies are studying ways to manufacture new smallpox vaccine and build up the nation's stockpile to about 300 million, enough for every American.

Anthrax testing was under way at 259 postal facilities, mostly on the East Coast. Officials awaited results from 21 post offices where testing was complete.

The CDC sent a team of epidemiologists to Arizona, where the World Series concluded on Sunday, a precaution often taken when large crowds are expected.

In New York, investigators have not determined how a woman contracted inhalation anthrax. The hospital worker, who died last week, was never able to tell them where she had been or who she had seen. Of the 17 confirmed cases, seven have been the skin variety and 10 have been the more serious inhaled type. Four of the people infected with inhaled anthrax have died.

Baffled U.S. investigators have said that despite more than 1,000 leads, they are no closer to finding out who was responsible for the deadly bio-terrorism mail assault that started after the 11 September terror attack on the United States.

Letter Similar To Daschle's And Brokaw's Sent For Testing

Puzzled investigators were conducting a second round of environmental testing in hopes of figuring out how a New York hospital worker was infected with a deadly case of anthrax. In the nation's capital, a new letter deemed suspicious was sent for testing.

A previously unexplained New Jersey case of skin anthrax was linked to a work mail box, which officials said was "a good sign" because it fit the pattern of previous cases. But federal health experts warned the nation to expect more disease cases during the anthrax-by-mail crisis.

In Trenton, New Jersey, the focus of the anthrax probe because three letters tainted with the biological warfare agent were mailed from there, federal agents on Friday conducted a three-hour search of an apartment that was home to four people described as "Middle Eastern men." The FBI said on Saturday that one of the men was taken away and detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for possible immigration violations. FBI special agents confiscated several bags of potential evidence at the residence.

In New York, investigators have not determined how a hospital worker contracted inhalation anthrax. The woman, who died last week, was never able to tell them where she had been or who she had seen. Initial testing for anthrax at her Bronx apartment and at the Manhattan hospital where she worked have come back negative. But CDC officials said they were beginning another round in the most promising sites and expanding to other places where she might have been.

In Washington, Treasury Department officials isolated a suspicious letter and sent it for testing. The letter bore the same Trenton, New Jersey, postmark as anthrax-laced mail delivered in New York and Washington. Officials said the address was also handwritten. Similar envelopes were recovered from Senator Tom Daschle's office in Washington and from anchor Tom Brokaw's office at NBC.

Authorities were finalizing plans to decontaminate the Senate Hart Office Building, where the Daschle letter was opened. They planned to announce final approval Sunday of their plan to fill the nine-story building with bacteria-killing chlorine dioxide gas.

Baffled U.S. investigators have said that despite more than 1,000 leads, they are no closer to finding out who was responsible for the deadly bio-terrorism mail assault on the United States. Anthrax scares have also rattled countries in Europe and Asia, including Germany, Pakistan, India and Greece, but no cases of the disease have yet been confirmed by official sources outside the U.S.

Across the United States, officials have been checking out suspicious powders and letters, the vast majority of which have been found harmless. Still, authorities emphasize they are taking every report seriously and warn would-be pranksters they will be punished for any anthrax hoaxes.

THREAT MATRIX:

Reports Of Anthrax In Pakistan And India

Officials confirmed the nation's 17th case of anthrax on Friday. Just shy of one month since the first diagnosis, authorities said they had detected anthrax in the work mailbox of a New Jersey woman who had been sickened with the skin form of the disease. The New Jersey woman is the state's only anthrax patient who is not a postal worker.

Health officials said initial tests showed small amounts of the bacteria in the woman's office, an accounting firm with about 15 employees. The tainted mail bin was where the letter carrier deposited the office's mail each day.

The newest case anthrax was reported in New York, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a New York Post employee's preliminary diagnosis of skin anthrax had been confirmed.

On Friday, U.S. government officials said they expect more people to fall ill from anthrax and they fear the investigation may be handicapped because they don't know how many labs have the lethal bacteria. One top bio-terrorism adviser, Dr D. A. Henderson, predicted that more people are likely to become infected before the anthrax-by-mail scare recedes.

The anthrax scare widened globally on Friday as preliminary tests showed that spores were present in mail sent to Pakistan's largest  newspaper and a government office in India. In Greece, traces of bacteria -- but not necessarily anthrax -- were found in a mailbag at the U.S. Embassy. Mailbags at U.S. embassies in Lithuania and Peru had tested positive for anthrax earlier.

WASHINGTON: The criminal justice system so far is showing little patience with people who cause anthrax hoaxes, apparently taking a cue from Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, who said: "I hope we throw them in jail and we ought to throw away the key." Since mid-October, the Postal Inspection Service has received more than 8,600 hoax threats or reports of incidents related to anthrax. For allegedly leaving an envelope of white powder on his boss' desk, an Ohio man faces a possible six months in jail. Kentucky college students accused of mailing confectioners' sugar to a friend could spend up to five years in federal prison. A Connecticut man could get five years for a hoax that shut his office.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Friday, November 2, 2001-Vol. 7 - 308-10:00CST

NEW YORK CITY: Investigators said the anthrax that killed a New York woman is virtually identical to bacteria found elsewhere in the bio-terrorism scare. But investigators remain at a loss to explain how she was infected. Cleanup was under way on Capitol Hill and justices were returning to a decontaminated Supreme Court. Almost a month into the anthrax-by-mail mystery, authorities reported no progress in the investigation. Health officials said each patient gives them insights, even as they remain puzzled over the New York death. FBI Mueller today said that 7,000 FBI agents are currently investigating matters concerning both the 11 Sep attacks and the anthrax incidents and that "no stone is being left unturned" in their inquiry.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Thursday, November 1, 2001-Vol. 7, No. 307-10:00CST

Authorities Fear Anthrax More Widespread Than Originally Thought

In a mysterious case that has baffled officials tracking the source of the biological warfare agent that has killed four people this month in the United States, a New York hospital worker died Wednesday of inhaled anthrax. The latest victim did not work in Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat's mailroom, but in a stockroom next to it.

The 61-year-old Vietnamese immigrant's illness, and that of a New Jersey accountant who contracted the less serious skin anthrax, complicated the investigation by raising new worries that tainted letters are contaminating other mail or that the spores are sickening people by means other than the mail. The latest death will make it even more difficult for investigators to track down the source of her disease and to trace the last days of her life, which letters she opened, where she visited and whether she noticed anything suspicious.

Preliminary tests show the anthrax problem may be spreading to the middle of the country, where postal facilities in Indiana and Missouri are said to be showing traces of the deadly germ. Tests at a Kansas City postal facility found anthrax spores. Kansas City health officials said on Wednesday night that there were no individuals that were infected. The Centers for Disease Control is planning further testing on the samples to confirm the presence of anthrax. The spores were found at Stamp Fulfillment Services, which received mail or stamps from the Brentwood postal facility in Washington.

Anthrax spores were also found on a piece of postal equipment sent to an Indianapolis center for cleaning from a contaminated mail processing center in Washington. The exposure was said to be very limited and that the anthrax is not a threat to human health. Authorities said 103 people work at the facility and no signs of infections have been found.

Roy Geffen, the inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's main forensic laboratory said on Wednesday that investigators were confident there have been only three anthrax-tainted letters sent through the mail, despite concerns from medical experts that not all envelopes containing anthrax had been found.

In the first case of its kind in Europe, Lithuanian experts have confirmed that traces of anthrax were found in at least one bag in the U.S. embassy in Vilnius. Kazimiera Rutiene, the head of the micro-biology laboratory of the Lithuanian Public Health Center, said: "Following tests, we can say with a 95, maybe even 98 percent certainty, that we found anthrax in at least in one of the five mailbags." She said mice injected with the suspect substance had died.

Five bags were delivered to the health center earlier this week as part of routine worldwide tests of mail sent  to U.S. embassies. She said four of the bags were still being tested. Several workers dealing with mail at the embassy had been given antibiotics as a precaution even before the test results. The bags would have passed through the State Department's mail system in the U.S., which is known to have been contaminated with anthrax.

ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Wednesday, October 31, 2001-Vol. 7-306-10:00CST

Investigators Report Little Progress In Search For Source Of Anthrax

Health officials confirmed two new cases of inhalation anthrax on Tuesday, including a New York hospital worker struggling for her life, and expressed concern the disease was spreading beyond the postal service and news media. The 61-year-old New York woman "is critically ill, there is evidence that the inhalation anthrax has released a lot of toxins and done a lot of damage systemically and at this point she is struggling for survival." Information received after this report was originally filed revealed that the patient had expired early this morning as the result of her exposure to anthrax.

New Jersey health officials confirmed the day's second case of inhalation anthrax. It involved a female employee at the Hamilton mail-processing center where at least three anthrax-tainted letters were mailed. The woman was released from the hospital and is doing well.

Officials were particularly troubled by the case of the New York hospital worker, who became the first person in the country outside the postal service or news media to be infected with the dangerous inhalation form of the disease. A day earlier, a 51-year-old New Jersey woman, also with no links to the postal service or media, was diagnosed with the less serious skin form of anthrax. She was successfully treated with antibiotics and released from the hospital.

Authorities tried to find the source of the New York  woman's infection by reconstructing her social life, her commute and her on-the-job routines at a Manhattan hospital. Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, head of the CDC, suggested a possible explanation: The  woman worked in the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital's stockroom, which had been combined with its mailroom until a remodeling undertaken over the past two weeks.

To put the larger issue in perspective, the CDC has now confirmed only 17 cases of anthrax in the United States so far, including four deaths. All the cases have been in Florida, New Jersey, Washington and New York.

In the nation's capital, senators were told on Tuesday that the anthrax in the letter received on 15 October by Senator Dashle was "so powerful it could have killed everyone in the Hart Office Building if it had gotten into the ventilation system." The assessment was given to the senators during a closed meeting by Senator Bill Frist. Frist is also a doctor and has been working on the situation at the Capitol with health officials.

Indiana Representative Mike Pence, whose office was found to be contaminated last week, said he had been told by investigators that the letter that carried the spores into the Hart building contained two grams of anthrax, amounting to billions of spores. Anthrax spores were found Monday in the Capitol Police office of the Ford House building, which was already closed because of positive tests in its mailroom, and in a downtown U.S. Agriculture Department office mailroom.

A small number of anthrax spores were also found on  Tuesday in a post office in West Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities are reporting little progress in their search for who's behind the anthrax attacks.

First Non-Postal Worker Contracts Anthrax In New Jersey

Anthrax was found at the U.S. State Department and a government office building that houses the Voice of America and Food and Drug Administration as the bio-terror scare in the nation's capital continued to spread.

With more than a dozen cases of the anthrax nationwide and thousands of postal workers taking antibiotics, the government sought to quell fears that the nation's mail was unsafe. Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said: "There have been no documented cases at all of an individual getting a letter personally from a contaminated facility and winding up getting disease."

There was less optimistic news from the investigation into the source of the bio-terrorist attacks. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said: "There are a lot of theories out there. We just need some facts to turn a theory into a reality."

In New Jersey, a woman who handles mail at a business near a regional post office that processed anthrax-tainted letters tested positive for skin anthrax on Monday, making her the first person in the state infected who is not a postal worker. State officials said the woman has been successfully treated and released from the hospital.

In Washington, senators met privately on Monday to consider a recommendation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to treat the Hart office building with chlorine dioxide, a gas fumigant that would be sent through the building's ventilation system. Officials said use of the substance would force the closure of the building, and its 50 lawmakers' offices, for more than a week. The building houses Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office.

New Jersey Postal Worker Diagnosed With Inhalation Anthrax

As health officials warn of a possible second Washington source of anthrax, New Jersey has revealed another case of inhaled anthrax with a possible connection the bacteria laced letter sent to Washington. State health department officials confirmed Sunday that one of two female postal workers hospitalized with a serious respiratory illness has inhalation anthrax, the deadliest form of the disease. A second worker is classified as a "suspected case" based on preliminary tests.

Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health noted Sunday that the antibiotic doxycycline is now being recommended for people exposed to anthrax, rather than Cipro which can have more side effects.

About 68 tons of letters and other material from Washington were being trucked to a plant in Lima, Ohio, to be decontaminated with electron beams normally used to sterilize hospital equipment. About 10,000 postal workers have been placed on antibiotics as a precaution and Washington's public health director, Dr Ivan Walks, urged the same for workers in private mailrooms that receive material from the Brentwood mail distribution center. That, he said, could cover 2,000 to 4,000 mailrooms. Police and health experts were continuing testing in search of any further anthrax contamination in congressional offices and postal facilities.

The U.S. Supreme Court building was ordered closed for  testing after the trace amount of anthrax was detected in the mail center. The justices were among those tested and the court would convene on Monday in a federal appeals courtroom.

Anthrax has also been discovered at an off-site facility  that handles mail for the U.S. Department of Justice,  including the office of Attorney General John Ashcroft.

In a statement issued late on Sunday, the DoJ said: "Today, the Department of Justice was informed by the  FBI Hazmat Unit at Quantico, Virginia, that final test results show the Department's off-site mail facility in Landover, Maryland tested positive for anthrax. Areas which specifically handle mail for the Main Justice Building, including the Attorney General's office and other leadership offices, were among those that tested positive." It said no mail had been received at the Justice Department from the Landover facility  for several days.

Anthrax Scare Has Many Businesses Working To Stem Threat

By Paul Anderson, ERRI Analyst

Around the nation, business firms that have depended on the U.S. mail to advertise and deliver their products and collect their payments have suddenly begun treating it as a threat. In sometimes ineffective efforts to avoid exposure to anthrax, they are even micro-waving their mail, handling it with protective clothing or turning it over to companies that specialize in running other  companies' mail rooms.

In some companies, mail rooms now look like the clean rooms at nuclear power plants. Workers wearing plastic suits unload parcels in sealed rooms. At the Mail Boxes Etc branch in College Park, Maryland, the owner and his employees have responded to the anthrax scare by wearing masks and rubber gloves as they sort mail for customers.

The Washington Post separates mail addressed to the newsroom in a new emergency mail room with a special exhaust system to draw any possible anthrax spores out of the building. Staff members are under instructions to wear masks and gloves when collecting their mail and to open all their mail inside the special room.

In Los Angeles, a few executives have taken to cooking some incoming mail in a microwave oven--a precaution that probably doesn't work, experts say. Some pieces of mail have ended up in flames.

With the holiday shopping season approaching, the perceived safety of the mail is of tremendous economic importance. The nearly $900 billion in revenue generated by the U.S. Postal Service and private mailing services accounts for about nine percent of the nation's economy.If the anthrax scare proves temporary, business' precautions may also be. And many companies are still moving tentatively.

But while government officials are pondering what the appropriately measured response is for the nation, many business firms have leaped to the next stage. Some of the precautions being taken to try to avert an anthrax infection may not work against a bacterium that has killed two postal workers in Washington and a photo editor at American Media Publishing in Boca Raton, Florida.

Experts say surgical masks may be too porous to keep out high-grade anthrax. And Melvin First, a professor emeritus of environmental health at Harvard University, says anthrax spores must be subjected to at least 400-degree heat FOR AN HOUR to kill them -- a heavy load for a typical kitchen microwave oven...and NOT recommended by the experts.

U.S. Investigators Suspect One Anthrax Letter Sender

By Steve Macko, ERRI Risk Analyst

U.S. officials are saying that handwriting analysis and profiling are leading investigators to increasingly suspect that just one person wrote the three letters contaminated with anthrax. The officials cautioned on Friday they have not identified specific suspects and continue to consider a variety of theories, including that a deranged person with a biochemical background, a terrorist or hate group, a foreign country or some combination carried out the attacks.

As was reported by the ERRI Daily Intelligence Report on Saturday, officials said there has so far been no evidence or intelligence to connect master terrorist Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network to the attacks and that other extremists, domestic and foreign, are being considered. Behavioral profilers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have examined the significance of the targets chosen so far -- media outlets and a Democratic politician who could be despised by ultraconservative extremists and isolationists.

FBI special agents are probing U.S. and foreign labs for people who may have had access to anthrax and were awaiting test results to identify the specific chemical that is believed to have been added to the anthrax to make it more airborne. One official said there was evidence the mailed anthrax had a chemical additive. The official said it wasn't known yet whether the additive was bentonite, which was used in some biological weapons programs, or some other material.

Nationwide, there are more than five dozen labs believed to have access to anthrax. Particular focus has been on labs in New Jersey where the letters were postmarked. The state is home to numerous pharmaceutical labs.

The officials, all of whom are involved in the investigation, described the current theories of the case on condition of anonymity and cautioned that their descriptions provide only a possible glimpse of who may be sending them.

What is Known:

-- The three letters known to carry anthrax have distinct similarities. The letters to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and the New York Post appear to be photocopies. The formation of the block letters on the third letter, to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle are similar to the letters in the Brokaw and New York Post letters. However, the Brokaw and Post letters contain some double-writing of the letters "A" and "T" that is not evident in the Daschle letter.

-- Officials said that one key to the theory of a single sender is that the block numerals used for the 11 September date on all three letters appear to be near matches. The style of the date - written 09-11-01 - is more common in the United States than in Europe or the Middle East, suggesting the sender has been in the United States for some time. Some profiling information suggests English wasn't the author's first language but that he or she was proficient in the language. This theory is not conclusive.

-- Investigators also believe the anthrax in all three letters is the same Ames strain that is common to the United States. However, the anthrax in the newspaper's letter was in a "heavier, grainier state" and the material in Daschle's letter was "light and buoyant."

-- Some investigators believe the author may have used phrases like "Death to America" and "Allah is great" to capitalize on Americans' distrust of Muslims in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks and/or to mask his or her true identity and motive.

FBI and CIA Suspect Domestic Extremists In Anthrax Case

The Washington Post was reporting on Saturday that officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency believe that the anthrax attacks on Washington, New York and Florida are likely the work of one or more extremists in the United States who are probably not connected to Usama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization. In an article written by Bob Woodward, it was said that senior U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that the bio-terrorism is diverting public attention from the larger threat posed by bin Laden and his network, who are believed to be planning a second wave of attacks against U.S. interests here or abroad that could come at any time.

Several U.S. officials said that none of the 60 to 80 threat reports gathered daily by U.S. intelligence agencies has connected the envelopes containing anthrax spores to al-Qaeda or other known organized terrorist groups. One senior official said: "Everything seems to lean toward a domestic source. Nothing seems to fit with an overseas terrorist type operation."

According to the Post, the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are considering a wide range of domestic possibilities, including associates of right-wing hate groups and U.S. residents sympathetic to the causes of Islamic extremists.

Although analysts at the FBI and CIA believe that al-Qaeda operatives are planning more terrorist attacks, one senior official said that "nobody believes the anthrax scare we are going through is the next wave of terrorism. There is no intelligence on it and it does not fit any al-Qaeda pattern."

No links between known foreign terrorist groups and the anthrax letters have shown up on the daily Top Secret Threat Matrix, which includes the latest raw intelligence on potential bombings, hijackings or other terrorist attacks. One official, however, told the Post that "lots of things are alarming" on the list.

Anthrax discoveries were made on Friday at a number of government mail facilities in the Washington area, including those of the U.S. Supreme Court and CIA, as well as an Army research center. Also on Friday night, congressional sources said trace amounts of anthrax have been discovered in the offices of three lawmakers in a House office building. The spores were found in the offices of Representative John E. Baldacci of Maine; Rush Holt, of New Jersey, and Mike Pence of Indiana, on the sixth and seventh floors of the Longworth House Office Building.

Dr John Eisold, the Capitol physician, described spores found in the three offices as trace amounts. He said: "We are not concerned about a significant health risk."

Mail for the Longworth House Office Building was processed by a machine where anthrax had previously been found. Another non-postal discovery on Friday: an air filter at a warehouse used as a mail sorting site used by the U.S. Supreme Court. There is no evidence of any contamination in the Supreme Court building itself, a statement from the court said.

A trace amount of anthrax was discovered earlier Friday at the Central Intelligence Agency's mail-handling building at its Langley, Virginia, headquarters. A spokesman described the anthrax as "medically insignificant" but said the building was closed for additional tests.

Also, a test for anthrax in a mailroom in the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, came back positive. The institute, which doesn't care for patients, is three miles from the hospital at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Three weeks into the nation's age of anthrax, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was all but certain that at least one piece of tainted mail in the nation's capital remained undiscovered. Dr Jeffrey Koplan said it would be "highly unlikely to virtually impossible" for the letter to Senator Tom Daschle to be responsible for the known spread of the spores to mail handling facilities in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.

The number of confirmed infections has reached 13, all linked to the media or the mail, all in Florida, New York, New Jersey or metropolitan Washington. Among those with inhalation anthrax, three have died, three are hospitalized and one has recovered. Another six people have been diagnosed with the highly treatable skin form of the disease.

26 Oct 2001

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Interim Recommendations for the Selection and Use of Protective Clothing and Respirators Against Biological Agents

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/DocumentsApp/Anthrax/Protective/10242001Protect.asp

Anthrax Found At CIA Mail Office

The Central Intelligence Agency has become the latest in a rapidly expanding list of US institutions to be targeted by anthrax through the mail. A CIA official said that traces of the bacteria have been found at one of the intelligence agency's mail handling facilities in Langley, Virginia, forcing authorities to close the building. The official said: "I'm told that the amount is considered medically insignificant. We took the step of closing that building for testing and cleaning."

The news came a day after it was revealed that anthrax spores sent in letters to the US Capitol and media outlets had been coated with a chemical additive so sophisticated that only three countries could have produced them. The Washington Post, quoting sources close to the ongoing anthrax investigation, said that only the US, Iraq and the former Soviet Union are known to have developed these kind of additives. The additives allow the anthrax spores to remain suspended in the air for longer, making them far easier to inhale and consequently far more lethal.

On Thursday, a postal worker for the US State Department tested positive for inhalation anthrax -- the most dangerous form of the disease. All postal deliveries to the DoS from a mailroom, in Sterling, Virginia, have been stopped. It was not known how the employee had been exposed.

In New York, anthrax was detected on four mail-sorting machines at a processing station that handles millions of parcels a day. Meanwhile, a second NBC employee in New York has been diagnosed with skin anthrax after handling a contaminated letter sent to news anchor Tom Brokaw last month.

In Washington, two more anthrax-contaminated spots have been discovered in the US Senate building, where a letter containing anthrax spores was opened in the office of the Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle. All congressional office buildings have been closed since the evening of 17 October as tests for anthrax are carried out. But one office building - Russell - was reopened on Wednesday.

So far the investigation has failed to trace the source of the anthrax or pinpoint a possible culprit, but identifying the method used to treat the spores may narrow the field.

From: ERRI AFTERNOON WATCH CENTER REPORT-Wednesday, October 24, 2001-13:25 EDT

WASHINGTON ... With cases of anthrax infection growing, the nation's postmaster general warned Americans today there are no guarantees the mail delivered to their homes is safe but he stressed that the risks to them are slim. Federal doctors are working around the clock to determine how many people with suspicious symptoms really have anthrax -- in addition to 12 confirmed cases. Three people have died from the disease. Three more people who had been in the "hot zone" at Washington's central postal facility were hospitalized overnight with flu-like symptoms -- but anthrax infection had not been confirmed.

Postmaster General Says No Guarantees Mail Is Safe

As the number of confirmed cases of anthrax rises, US Postmaster General John Potter has warned Americans that there can be no guarantees the mail they receive is safe. Concerns have been mounting following a confirmation that two postal workers from a Washington facility had died of the disease, and news that a female postal worker at a New Jersey office is seriously ill with "suspected inhalation anthrax."

The cases have indicated that letters containing anthrax "do not have to be opened to cause a serious threat." On Wednesday morning, Postmaster General John Potter said: "We're asking people to handle their mail very carefully. There are no guarantees that mail is safe." He also acknowledged that there was a possibility that a letter which shared a bin with a contaminated letter could itself pick up traces of the bacteria. He stressed however that there had been very few incidents of anthrax in the mail.

US Surgeon General David Satcher said today that the public health system was being asked to deal with an issue of which it had virtually no experience. He said: "The assumption had been that unless letters were opened people could not be contaminated. We were wrong. This is all new to us."

In New York City, postal workers at five Manhattan facilities are to be given the antibiotic Cipro in an effort to counter growing fears of anthrax contamination.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Monday, October 22, 2001-09:00CDT

Washington Postal Worker Diagnosed With Inhaled Anthrax

A District of Columbia mail handler is in serious but stable condition after contracting the inhaled form of anthrax, leading government officials to order the testing of more than 2,000 other postal workers. The Washington Post describes the man as a worker in the District's main mail processing center. It's the same facility that handled the anthrax-laced letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. He is the third person to come down with the most serious form of the disease.

More than 2,100 employees at the Brentwood central mail processing center for the nation's capital and another 150 employees at the air mail handling center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport are being tested for exposure to anthrax spores.

Doctors at Inova Fairfax Hospital said the man came to the hospital on Friday with symptoms resembling flu, several days after complaining of such symptoms. The postal worker is being being treated with Cipro and clindamycin, a drug often used to treat strep throat. Health officials stressed that inhalation anthrax is not contagious, so there is no risk to patients, employees or the public. Postal inspectors said the question of how the worker with inhaled anthrax was exposed is still being investigated.

On Sunday, New York City Mayor Rudoph Giuliani said that a host of tests performed at media organizations in the city had come back negative for evidence of anthrax. He said environmental tests at ABC, where a 7-month-old baby was believed to have contracted the disease, had also returned negative. Health investigators had not identified the source of the child's infection, and no suspect letter has been found. The number of New Yorkers infected with the bacterium remained at four, with one case each at NBC, CBS, ABC and the New York Post.

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Sunday, October 21, 2001-10:00CDT

Traces Of Anthrax Found In House Office Mailroom

An aide to House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt said on Saturday said traces of anthrax were found in a mailroom of an office building of the House of Representatives. The mailroom was located in the Ford House Office Building, three blocks from the Capitol. The anthrax traces were found in an area of the facility where mail is directed to the Longworth Building, which houses the offices of Gephardt and House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The announcement of the discovery came as hazardous materials teams methodically worked their way across Capitol Hill. The Ford finding brings to three the number of facilities believed to be tainted by anthrax. It marked the first time evidence had been found on the House side of the complex. An FBI spokeswoman said on Saturday authorities did not yet know if there was any link between the House anthrax and New Jersey.

In another development, a letter mailed to the New York Post has tested positive for anthrax and is similar to anthrax-laced letters sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. The letter addressed to the "Editor" at the Post was postmarked September 18 -- the same day as a contaminated letter sent to Brokaw -- from Trenton, New Jersey, which is where the letters to Brokaw and Daschle came from. The letter to Daschle was postmarked October 9.

FBI agents and postal inspectors combed the route of a Trenton letter carrier who contracted anthrax. They also seized several Postal Service collection boxes in the past few days. Authorities say they have pin- pointed the New Jersey post office sorting box from which two anthrax-bearing letters were sent. A sorting box is different from an outside mailbox.

Click Here to Review Earlier ERRI/EmergencyNet News "Real Time" Reports Concerning Real and Hoax Anthrax Incidents -- from 22 Sep 2001 to 20 Oct 2001

* October 12, 2001, 21:00 EDT (9:00 PM EDT): Official- CDC Health Advisory: HOW TO HANDLE ANTHRAX AND OTHER BIOLOGICAL AGENT THREATS
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/DocumentsApp/Anthrax/OfficialCDCHealthAdvisoryOct122001.pdf  (requires Adobe .pdf reader)

* Articles on Bioterrorism From Journal of the American Medical Assn.
 Five articles on bioterrorism by the Working Group on Civilian Bio-defense—addressing anthrax, smallpox, plague, botulinum toxin, and tularemia—are online and free of charge.

* Biological and Chemical Weapons -- MEDLINEplus Search
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/biologicalandchemicalweapons.html

* FBI Advisory: "If you receive a suspicious letter or package..."
http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/12/nyc.anthrax/fbi.jpg

* Anthrax Hoaxes Strike Canadian Government Offices; Evacuations Ordered: 02 Feb 2001
http://www.emergency.com/2001/Canada_antrx_hoax.htm

* Series of EmergencyNet News Reports on Threats of Biological Attack (Anthrax Hoaxes) Within the United States -- 02 Oct 98 to 10 Nov 98
http://www.emergency.com/antrxhox.

* ANTHRAX ADVISORY: From: WMD Operations Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), December 1998
http://www.emergency.com/fbiantrx.htm

* Effective Date: 11/19/98 - 13:00CST -- ERRI Responder Safety Advisory - Response to Known/Suspected Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents (Non-Anthrax Specific)

© EmergencyNet News Service, 2001. All rights reserved. May not be redistributed or otherwise published without the expressed permission of ERRI/EmergencyNet News. Routine permission will be granted to U.S. emergency, military, and intelligence agencies for reproduction.

Emergency Response & Research Institute
EmergencyNet News Service
6348 N. Milwaukee Ave. #312
Chicago, IL 60646, USA
773-631-3774 - Voice/Messages
773-631-4703 - Facsimile
http://www.emergency.com - Main Webpage
webmaster@emergency.com - E-mail

Return to the EmergencyNet News Page

Click here to visit the ERRI Infectious Disease Archive Page

Click here to visit the ERRI Hazardous Materials Archive Page