The hand lettering on the envelope containing a potent strain of anthrax mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was similar to the printing on the envelope sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw; they also shared a postmark from the same New Jersey city.
The return address on Daschle’s letter appeared innocent: “4th Grade, Greendale School.”
But authorities said the anthrax-laced envelope was tainted with a form of anthrax so fine and pure that it could disperse almost invisibly. Though there were no leads on who might have produced such a deadly dose, officials suspected it was the work of an expert.
The FBI confirmed Tuesday the toxic letters sent to New York and Washington shared enough traits to draw a link in the bioterrorism investigation that has rattled Americans from Florida to New York and beyond. Adding to the fears was a wave of false anthrax reports, which kept some airplanes on the ground, forced evacuation of businesses and prompted a stern Justice Department warning of prosecution for those who engineer hoaxes.
As authorities tried to rein in widespread fears, U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said investigators had no “conclusive evidence” to link the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks allegedly plotted by Islamic militant Osama bin Laden with the anthrax cases reported in a supermarket tabloid office, at two television networks and on Capitol Hill, where a wing of a U.S. Senate building with Daschle’s office and those of 11 other senators was closed Tuesday.
“But make no mistake about it,” Ashcroft said Tuesday. “When people send anthrax through the mail to hurt people and to invoke terror, it’s a terrorist act.”
In Florida, employees of American Media Inc. prepared to undergo a second round of anthrax tests after Ernesto Blanco developed the inhalation form of the disease, which killed a co-worker this month. The anthrax that infected the Sun tabloid’s headquarters also likely arrived in a letter, the FBI said, but it probably was incinerated before the bioterror investigation began.
In New York, full recoveries were expected for Brokaw’s assistant and the 7-month-old son of an ABC News producer, both infected with the less lethal, skin form of the disease.
As hundreds of government workers lined up for nasal swabs and preventive doses of antibiotics in the nation’s capital Tuesday, the FBI scoured a postal facility near Trenton, N.J., from which both letters were postmarked. The envelope’s bar codes have provided some clues about from where the letters were mailed, officials said.
Despite secrecy surrounding the terrorism investigation, the Justice Department released copies of the envelopes. Authorities wanted to provide a warning, spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said, in case others receive similar letters.
The addresses were written in block, childlike letters, with lines that slant downward. Both letters were sent in postage-paid envelopes. The school given as a return address on Daschle’s letter doesn’t exist, authorities said.
Authorities declined to disclose the contents of the letters but described them as threatening. The Associated Press reported late Tuesday that the letters contained similar messages, including anti-American, anti-Israeli sentiments and a pro-Muslim statement.
Inside Daschle’s letter, authorities said, was “a very refined, very pure” form of anthrax. Test results have not been completed to determine if the anthrax matched strains in New York or Florida. “Obviously, these are difficult times,” said Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat.
Authorities closed part of the Hart Senate Office Building and police officers stood guard, using yellow crime-scene tape to block access to Senate and committee offices.
Throughout the day, the strain of the moment was apparent as Senate aides lined up silently, waiting to pick up plastic tubes for anthrax tests in a room typically reserved for high-profile political hearings.
“I was excited about working here,” said Daniel Bustillo, 22, who had started his Capitol Hill job Monday. His duties, he said, include opening mail.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dispatched epidemiologists and public health officials. And U.S. Capitol Police spokesman Dan Nichols said part of the building would remain shut until the ventilation system is checked.
Senators, clearly unnerved as they moved into makeshift offices, sought to reassure the parents of young staffers. Tourists continued to be kept out of the Capitol, and mail went undelivered for a second day.
Sen. Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican who is the Senate’s only physician, spent part of his day answering medical questions from nervous congressional aides.
“I am absolutely convinced we will see no instance of the disease,” Frist said, citing the difficulty of a heavy concentration of spores spreading through the air ducts.
In New Jersey, authorities have not conducted widespread testing of postal employees because health officials said chances were small that a worker could contract anthrax by handling a package.
However, tests were conducted on two postal workers–a female letter carrier and a male maintenance worker–who had exhibited symptoms associated with anthrax. Results of skin tests Tuesday were negative, and more-authoritative blood test results were expected Wednesday.
Michael Powers, research associate at the Washington-based Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, said it would be difficult for anyone to obtain the kind of anthrax used in the attacks without help from a national government. Though several U.S. laboratories have stocks of the bacteria, it is not usually in powdered form, Powers said, because that is good for little other than biological attacks.
“Those responsible probably had some back-channel connection to a state biological weapons program and were able to obtain fairly small quantities of this sophisticated form of anthrax,” Powers said. “You would have to obtain it, grow it in sufficient quantities and then create the powdered form. Or you would have to go to another group, perhaps a state, that has done that already.”
But other terrorism experts believe the anthrax could be coming from a group unrelated to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, which killed more than 5,000 people.
“So far we have found no direct link to organized terrorism,” FBI Director Robert Mueller said.
Eric Davis, director of Middle Eastern studies at Rutgers University, said the anthrax attacks are not inconsistent with the tactics of Al Qaeda, bin Laden’s organization.
“There may be a lot of copycats, but I definitely think this is up the alley of something planned as a follow-up to the bombings,” said Davis, an expert on radical Islamic groups.
