ANTHRAX - None found in hijackers' cars

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MiamiHerald

Published Monday, October 29, 2001

No anthrax found in hijackers' cars

Tests unlikely at Delray Beach apartment

BY DANIEL A. GRECH dgrech@herald.com

Federal officials investigating a possible connection between the Sept. 11 attacks and the sending of anthrax to American Media Inc. in Boca Raton said Sunday that tests on two cars owned by hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi showed no evidence of anthrax spores.

The hijackers sold the cars -- a red Pontiac Grand Am and another, unidentified vehicle -- a week before Sept. 11 and they were washed and waxed before FBI investigators took custody of them.

Samples from the cars, found later at a Tamarac dealership, were analyzed at a state lab in Miami.

With no evidence to link the hijackers to the anthrax attack, investigators are now saying they have no immediate plans to look for anthrax in a Delray Beach apartment connected to nine of the suspected terrorists.

But the investigators did not rule out such a test.

``We may conduct an examination of the apartment in the future, as a precaution,'' Judy Orihuela, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Miami, said.

The possible connection between the American Media anthrax attack and the hijackers surfaced when it was learned that the rental agent for the Delray Beach apartment was Gloria Irish, wife of the editor of the Sun, an AMI publication.

Sun photo editor Bob Stevens died on Oct. 5 of inhalation anthrax, and traces of anthrax were found on his computer keyboard and in a mailroom.

Separately, the owner of a Pompano Beach car rental company said he found a ``teaspoon'' of unidentified white powder in the trunk of a white 1995 Ford Escort that Atta rented twice -- once in August and again in September, returning it two days before the attacks.

``I don't know what [the powder] is,'' said Bradley G. Warrick, 48, owner of Warrick Rent-A-Car and Budget Truck Rental. ``I don't know if it's anything I need to be concerned about.''

The FBI had the car in custody for two weeks following the attacks. Since then, Warrick kept the car in storage without renting it.

Warrick said he did not report the discovery because he assumed the FBI had already analyzed the substance.

The FBI's Orihuela was surprised to hear of the discovery.

``We were not called out on that,'' she said. ``I find it hard to believe.''

Technicians from the Environmental Protection Agency continued Sunday systematically to search for further traces of anthrax in the American Media building, which remains closed.

The EPA took an air sampling from the first floor, drawing air through a filter that was then sent Sunday afternoon to the Lantana outpost of the Maryland-based U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, EPA spokesman Mark Merchant said.

The Lantana lab already concluded that there was no anthrax in the building's first-floor air ducts, and Merchant said the lab is expected to complete tests early this week on 100 swabs taken from various other areas on the building's first floor.

``We're going to continue further sampling of the second and third floors,'' Merchant said. ``It's hard to say how much longer it will take.''

A number of employees have expressed a desire to return to work in the building if health officials clear it, American Media spokesman Gerald McKelvey said.

The EPA also took 70 swabs throughout Palm Beach County's main post office on Summit Boulevard in West Palm Beach.

While preliminary tests there were negative, the four other Palm Beach mail facilities that handled the package sent to the Sun have tested positive for traces of anthrax, spokesman Tim O'Connor of the Palm Beach County Health Department said.

All five locations remain open.

A mail carrier at the Palm Beach Gardens post office noticed the letter, which was handwritten in block letters and had no return address.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001


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