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NY-Florida anthrax link found
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001
 
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By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – Anthrax-laced letters that infected people in New York and Florida were the same strain, federal health officials said Wednesday, citing preliminary tests.

On Capitol Hill, already rattled by receipt of a similar letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., exposure to the deadly bacteria was detected in 26 congressional staffers and five Capitol police officers.

All are being treated with antibiotics, and none has shown signs of being infected with the bacteria, which is a strain treatable with antibiotics, Senate leaders said.

Chilled by the exposures detected in 23 Daschle staffers, five Capitol police officers and three aides to Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisc., House leaders ordered the unprecedented shutdown of their chamber through Monday.

Senate leaders vowed to remain on the job, although all three Senate office buildings adjacent to the Capitol will be closed through the weekend.

"We will not let this stop the work of the Senate," Mr. Daschle said at a news conference outside the Capitol.

The FBI's fast-moving criminal investigation, centered on sites in Florida, New York, and Washington, D.C., is paying off, federal law enforcement officials said.

"I do feel comfortable saying we have substantive leads," a senior federal bioterrorism expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They are leads in the sense of working with the material," he said, referring to the anthrax specimens.

The link between the strains detected in a Florida tabloid newspaper chain's headquarters and NBC studios in New York represents a breakthrough in the investigation, which began two weeks ago when a Sun photo editor fell ill and died from anthrax inhalation.

To date, anthrax infections have been detected in four people in New York and Florida, including the 7-month-old son of an ABC News producer in New York. Nine others outside of Washington have tested positive for exposure to the bacteria, although authorities stress that they have not come down with the disease.

New York Gov. George Pataki announced Wednesday that anthrax was found in his Manhattan office during an initial test, which would mark the third such find in New York in less than a week. Results from more sophisticated tests are due by Friday, however the governor said odds are "very high" that the presence of anthrax will be confirmed.

It is not clear whether the Washington anthrax can be traced to the New York and Florida strain, Dr. David Fleming of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

However, letters to Mr. Daschle and NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw bear a number of similarities, including Trenton, N.J., postmarks and similar handwriting. They also both contain the messages: "Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great," said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Epidemiologists and other federal investigators continued to swarm over Capitol Hill on Wednesday, two days after an anthrax-bearing letter sent to Mr. Daschle was opened by an aide.

The highly fluid anthrax investigation produced a flood of contradictory information about the potency of the deadly bacteria detected in the Senate and the sites where it was found.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said anthrax was detected in a Senate office building's ventilation system. Deputy Surgeon General Ken Moritsugu said the ventilation system was clean. Anthrax spores have been found only in a Senate mailroom and Mr. Daschle's office suite, Dr. Moritsugu said.

And, after first saying that the anthrax was of a highly virulent, potent strain, senators and public health officials backpedaled Wednesday..

"It's common variety from all our testing at this point in time," said Maj. Gen. John Parker, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases based at Fort Detrick, Md.

"This particular strain of anthrax is sensitive to all antibiotics," the general said. "It's a very sensitive strain."

Although the origin of the strain has yet to be identified, there is no evidence that the anthrax was genetically engineered or chemically enhanced to render it "weapons-grade," federal bioterrorism experts said.

A "weaponized" form of anthrax would point to a sophisticated, well-funded bioweapons program that likely would be under the sponsorship of a country working to develop weapons of mass destruction, counterterrorism experts said.

"In all the briefings that I have been in attendance ... not once has anyone used the term 'weapons grade,' " Mr. Daschle said Wednesday afternoon.

Inside and outside the law enforcement and public health arenas, debate was under way regarding the sophistication of the anthrax attack and the quality of the material.

The bacteria's sensitivity to antibiotics suggests that it was not a military strain, one government expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He labeled the anthrax that has popped up in several sites along the East Coast "very low-technique stuff."

"We are talking a [bachelor's degree] in microbiology, or even a med-tech at a hospital would be able to develop it," the official said.

However, the anthrax shows "there's been some attempt to collect it, perhaps refine it and make it more concentrated," Dr. Scott Lillibridge, a bioterrorism expert with the CDC, told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "That seems certain."

Proof of whether the anthrax is of weapons grade awaits the completion of additional tests, Dr. Lillibridge said.

Weapons grade or not, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said, "There is no question that this is a very serious attempt at anthrax poisoning."

Mr. Thompson told the Senate committee that it required "some degree of scientific ability" to grind the anthrax into a powder fine enough to result in human exposure.

If anthrax is ground into too fine a powder, it is inhaled and immediately exhaled without staying in the lungs. If it is too heavy, it sticks in the throat without descending into the lungs, or it falls immediately to the ground.

Although Vice President Dick Cheney and others have said the investigation cannot ignore the possibility that the anthrax attacks were launched by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, FBI officials say there is no hard evidence of a link.

The investigation has not found any links to foreign terrorist groups, federal officials said, adding that the possibility of involvement by a domestic group cannot be ignored.

In other developments Wednesday:

• Capitol health officials administered nasal swab tests to hundreds more people who were in the Hart Senate Office Building on Monday, after testing more than 1,000 people Tuesday. A three-day supply of antibiotics was given as a precaution to each person tested.

"There is absolutely no evidence of infection at this point," Mr. Daschle said. "All of those who had had this positive nasal swab have been on antibiotics for some time, and the good news is that everyone is OK."

• Federal authorities had detained 787 people as of Wednesday in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorism investigation, 146 of them held on immigration violations, Justice spokeswoman Susan Dryden said.

Staff writer Lee Hancock and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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