FBI offering reward for info on anthrax terrorists

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FBI offering reward for info on anthrax terrorists

CBS employee in New York tests positive for skin anthrax

By Karen Gullo, The Associated Press, Posted October 18 2001, 12:30 PM EDT

Sun-Sentinel Link

WASHINGTON -- The FBI and U.S. Postal Service today offered an award of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest of those who sent anthrax through the mail. Investigators continued to link the various incidents through evidence.

"Once again we call upon the public to assist us in this fight against terrorism," FBI director Robert Mueller said in a joint announcement with Postmaster General Jack Potter.

Mueller said the reward would be for "information leading to the arrest and conviction for terrorist acts of mailing anthrax."

Potter urged citizens to use commonsense caution if they receive suspicious packages, and said his service was mailing postcards to all mail recipients with guidelines. "The best defense that we have right now is an educated American public," he said.

Also today, an employee in CBS anchor Dan Rather's office has tested positive for the skin form of anthrax, network officials said.

"She is expected to make a full recovery; in fact, she feels fine," CBS News president Andrew Heyward said. He said she was being treated with antibiotics.

Meanwhile, a postal worker who may have handled letters sent to an NBC anchor and a U.S. Senate leader has tested positive for exposure to anthrax, The Associated Press has learned.

The employee is a mail handler who was on duty at the time the letters were sent through the main Trenton postal facility in Hamilton Township, state officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and federal officials planned an afternoon news conference to announce details.

A second New Jersey postal employee, a maintenance worker, was also being tested for exposure, postal officials have said.

Operations at the post office were shut down today. The facility collects mail from 46 postal offices throughout central New Jersey.

One of the anthrax scares turned out to be a false alarm. A package that was returned from Malaysia to a Microsoft Corp. office in Nevada with a powdery substance tested negative for anthrax at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge announced today.

"However, additional samples are going to be taken to ensure there is no threat," Ridge said.

Authorities announced that four people had been charged with federal felonies for anthrax hoaxes. "We intend to prosecute these hoaxes to the fullest extent of the law," Attorney General John Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft said among those who have been charged was a man who sent talcum powder through the mail, saying it was anthrax. William Silvia, of Portsmouth, R.I., was charged with mailing a threatening communication.

The announcements came as authorities pressed to identify the source of the anthrax and to find possible links between the cases that have cropped up in Washington, New York and Florida. Five people are confirmed to have anthrax, and authorities were examining a possible sixth case. Many more have tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.

Mueller said his agency had received several leads since authorities made public copies of two of the handwritten envelopes in which anthrax was sent. But both he and Ashcroft declined to say if there were specific leads that were promising. "We are not in a position to determine those who are responsible," the director said.

In New Jersey, FBI agents questioned at least one pharmacist about anyone buying 60 to 120 tablets of the antibiotic Cipro, used for treating anthrax, prior to Sept. 18.

"Anyone trying to buy that many would stick out like a sore thumb," said pharmacist John Berkenkopf, who was questioned.

A preliminary match was made between anthrax found at American Media Inc., a tabloid newspaper publisher where one man died from the contamination and another is hospitalized, and anthrax sent to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

Officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the strain -- one of hundreds of varieties of anthrax -- occurs naturally and is found domestically in hoofed animals such as cows and deer.

Further tests must be done to determine if the strains came from the same source.

The letter to Brokaw was postmarked Sept. 16 from Trenton, N.J. Investigators believe the Florida man who died of anthrax may have contracted the disease from a letter that was destroyed before he became sick. His last day at work was Sept. 26.

Still unknown is whether anthrax found in a letter sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is the same strain as the Florida and New York material.

The anthrax found in Daschle's office was professionally made, meaning it was manipulated and possibly refined with additives to keep the particle size small enough so that it's more likely to waft and be inhaled, said a federal terrorism expert, speaking on condition of anonymity. Inhaled anthrax is the most deadly form of the disease.

There's no evidence so far that the anthrax is associated with a weapons program. Iraq and Russia are both believed to have experimented with anthrax as a weapon.

And no evidence has turned up linking the anthrax attacks to foreign terrorists. One official said some evidence might suggest a domestic source.

Meantime, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said tests were being conducted on a suspicious letter sent to the office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. The letter looked like the letters sent to Daschle and Brokaw, Gephardt said, quoting Hastert's staffers.

"We don't know yet whether it was another anthrax letter. I'm sure we'll find out later in the week," he said today on NBC's "Today" show.

Ashcroft said the anthrax attacks could be the work of a group and individuals working independently.

"It may be that there is some of both here," Ashcroft said on PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer."

He said those responsible for mailing anthrax may also be attempting to divert the attention of investigators by perpetrating anthrax hoaxes.

"There may in fact be some linkage," Ashcroft said.

Detectives in New Jersey looking for the source of anthrax-contaminated letters sent to NBC and Daschle are using the pre-stamped envelopes and bar codes to narrow their search. The bar codes give a date and approximate time the letters were processed. Postal Inspector Tony Esposito said other information from the bar codes eliminated many of the post offices from the search. Authorities were reviewing post office surveillance tapes.

A chilling note warning, "You've been exposed to anthrax. You're going to die," was in the letter sent to Daschle's office, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press



-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Answers

Tiny Amount of Anthrax Found in Two More Florida Postal Facilities

By Amanda Riddle Associated Press Writer Published: Oct 18, 2001

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Preliminary tests at two Palm Beach County post offices have found a "minuscule" amount of anthrax, state health officials said Thursday. The facilities in Boca Raton and Lake Worth will be cleaned and reopened Friday. The state health agency said no workers or visitors were believed to be at risk. More tests were planned.

A section of a separate Boca Raton postal facility which handled mail for American Media was closed briefly this week after a small amount of anthrax was found in a sorting area. American Media is a publishing company where a photo editor died of anthrax earlier this month.

It was not immediately known if the latest facilities handled any of American Media's mail and if any workers were going to be tested. Calls to a postal service spokesman were not immediately returned.

About 400 employees and free-lancers with American Media are awaiting results of a second round of blood tests to determine whether they were exposed to the disease. The results are expected Friday or Saturday.

The results also will confirm or rule out exposure in five employees whose initial tests last week showed the presence of anthrax antibodies in their blood.

Already infected is a 73-year-old mailroom worker, Ernesto Blanco, who remains in critical but stable condition at a Miami hospital, according to his stepdaughter Maria Orth. Another mailroom worker, Stephanie Dailey, tested positive for exposure but has not shown any symptoms.

The FBI has said it believes the anthrax that contaminated the American Media building in Boca Raton arrived in a letter because traces of the bacteria were found in the postal building that handled its mail. Investigators concede they may never find the mailing because it was probably thrown away.

AP-ES-10-18-01 1910EDT

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001


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