http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/US_ANTHR AX.html

Second Senate Anthrax Letter Found FBI Says the Letter Is Similar to Deadly Mail Sent to Senate Majority Leader Daschle

Nov. 16 — The FBI has discovered a second anthrax-laced letter targeting Capitol Hill, its intended target Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, sources told ABCNEWS.

The contents of that envelope puffed easily into the air and spread widely through the Hart office building, exposing dozens of people to bacteria. Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge described the Daschle letter as a weapon.

Officials said the new letter was postmarked Oct. 9 from Trenton, N.J., had the same handwriting and the same phony return address from the Greendale School in Franklin Park, N.J. There is no Greendale School in Franklin Park.

Investigators discovered the letter today while going through more than 250 barrels of unopened mail that was impounded immediately after the discovery of the first letter in Daschle's office. Hazardous materials experts began sorting through unopened mail addressed to the Capitol earlier this week at a facility in Northern Virginia.

The second letter has not been opened, the FBI said, but sources told ABCNEWS the bin where it was discovered was "completely contaminated" with anthrax anyway. The letter is on its way to a lab in Ft. Detrick, Md., for further testing.

Four people have died since the anthrax outbreak began, 17 others have been infected, and dozens more have been exposed. At least two of the deaths and many of the other cases have been linked to the mail sent to the Capitol.

Multiple Letter Theory Validated

Investigators had suspected there was more than one letter responsible for the outbreak. Until today, officials had located three tainted letters nationwide, one each sent to Daschle, NBC newsman Tom Brokaw and The New York Post. All the letters were sent out of Trenton. Last weekend, anthrax was detected in the offices of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sen. Larry Craig, D-Idaho, and Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., in the Hart Senate office building, and the office of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., in the Longworth House office building.

Earlier this week, State Department officials reported that eight out of 55 samples collected from the agency's mail facility in Sterling, Va., tested positive for anthrax, supporting the theory that a second contaminated letter had passed through the mail system. Two of the samples, State Department Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, were obtained from two separate mail sorters and the six others from a third sorter.

Government officials have said the anthrax sent to Daschle's office was potent, milled to the right texture to infect human lungs, and containing an anti-clumping agent that makes the spores float through the air more easily.

FBI profilers say anthrax-laced letters to Daschle, NBC News and The New York Post were likely mailed by the same person, an angry young man with a grudge who may be familiar with the Trenton, N.J., area.

The letter sent to Daschle's office exposed 28 people to anthrax and closed various offices on Capitol Hill for almost three weeks. One State Department mail handler became ill with inhalation anthrax last month, a case that officials speculated resulted from cross-contamination with a letter mailed to Daschle.

Leahy praised the FBI's efforts today. "FBI Director [Robert] Mueller informed me immediately, and I appreciate his call," he said in a statement. "This is a law enforcement matter and I will leave it to the proper authorities to report what they know and the procedures they are taking. I am confident they are taking the appropriate steps and that eventually they will find this person.

"Our Senate leaders and officers did the right thing in isolating the Senate's mail, and my staff and I appreciate all that is being done to resolve this threat."

The Leahy letter is the first fresh clue in investigation, and the FBI and police in New York had been focusing intently on the death of hospital worker Kathy Nguyen, who had no known links to the government or media offices that have been the targets of the mailings.  

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Answers

Officials said the new letter was postmarked Oct. 9 from Trenton, N.J., had the same handwriting and the same phony return address from the Greendale School in Franklin Park, N.J. There is no Greendale School in Franklin Park.

Postmarked October 9. That's about three weeks after the others? Are we to assume, then, that there may be--probably are?--more in the pipeline?

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Haven't they thought for quite some time that there was a second major letter in the pipeline??? This one was in the isolation pile but I am thinking it probably really helped pollute the post office like the other one did.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

I think they might have been hoping it was the one that was burned at the Florida victim's office, since they had no idea where it originated.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Interesting... another Democrat...

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Carl raises an interesting point.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001