Anthrax in D.C. a potent form

WASHINGTON -- A letter mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle contained a potent form of anthrax that appeared to be the work of experts, the senator and other officials said yesterday while hundreds of people took precautionary doses of antibiotics.

The FBI was investigating similarities in handwriting and threats between the spore-spiked letter sent to Daschle in Washington and a letter containing anthrax sent to NBC in New York.


	A New York City Emergency Service police officer inspects a mailbox on New York's Fifth Avenue, yesterday. / Associated Press Click for larger photo

"Obviously, these are difficult times," said Daschle, as the Senate and the nation grappled with the unsettling threat of bioterrorism.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, assailing recent anthrax hoaxes as "no joking matter," said yesterday those who perpetrate anthrax or other terrorist scares will be prosecuted.

It is a federal crime to threaten to use biological agents or toxins to harm people.

With the FBI chasing down thousands of reports of possible anthrax exposures -- most turn out to be false alarms or practical jokes -- Ashcroft said such scares "create illegitimate alarm in a time of legitimate concern."

Investigators have found that the strain of anthrax on the letter mailed to Daschle's office was "a very potent form of anthrax that clearly was produced by someone who knew what he or she was doing," the majority leader said.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who attended a closed-door briefing on the subject, said the strain found in the letter to Daschle was "very refined, very pure," making it more dangerous.

Early testing indicates that the anthrax from Daschle's letter is a purified form that could be used as a weapon, a law enforcement official, said last night, speaking on condition of anonymity. Additional testing was being done late yesterday.

A thousand miles to the south, Floridian Ernesto Blanco lay ill in a hospital with the inhalation form of anthrax, less than two weeks after a co-worker died of the same illness.

In New York, headquarters for many of the nation's high-profile news media corporations, officials said they expected full recoveries for two people infected with a less lethal form of the disease. They included an NBC news employee and the 7-month-old son of an ABC producer.

Yet, five weeks after terrorist strikes killed 5,000, the nation reeled under a continuing series of disclosures involving letters tainted by anthrax bacteria, spores discovered in a postal facility in Florida, countless innocent scares and not a few malicious hoaxes.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the government is boosting its reserves of anthrax antibiotics and smallpox vaccine. Officials said later the administration may eventually consider inoculating children for smallpox, which some believe might also be used as a weapon by terrorists.

Since Oct. 1, FBI Director Robert Mueller said, "the FBI has received more than 2,300 incidents or suspected incidents involving anthrax or other dangerous agents."

Mueller told reporters there were "certain similarities" between the letter opened at NBC and one unsealed in Daschle's office across the street from the Capitol several days later. Both were postmarked in Trenton, N.J., and Mueller said there were similarities in handwriting as well.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the letters contained similar threatening messages expressing anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments and included a pro-Muslim statement.

The Justice Department released photos of the two envelopes, addressed in handwritten block letters that appear similar. The NBC envelope was postmarked Sept. 16 with no return address and the Daschle letter was postmarked Oct. 8 with a return address from "4th Grade, Greendale School, Franklin Park, NJ 08852." Officials said there is no such school.

Authorities were also testing to determine whether the anthrax found in New York and in Florida were from the same strain, said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson tried to reassure an anxious public the government has plenty of Cipro, the antibiotic dispensed to those who may have been exposed. The manufacturer, Bayer Corp., says it will produce 200 million more tablets in the next three months -- and Thompson said Bayer promised not to raise its prices.

"I want to make sure that everyone understands we have enough antibiotics right now," Thompson said.

His top health aides added that other antibiotics work against anthrax, too.

Investigators dispatched to a New Jersey mail processing facility scanned surveillance tapes and canvassed postal workers as they sought clues about the origin of the two pieces of mail. But officials said the letters could have started at any of 46 smaller facilities before arriving at the main post office. "It's difficult but not impossible" to determine the precise course each letter took, said Tony Esposito, a postal inspector.

Daschle said that thus far, none of the staff aides who had been in the area near the letter had tested positive for anthrax exposure.

But in steps that underscored the extraordinary level of concern, Capitol police cordoned off an entire wing of the eight-story Senate office building around the majority leader's office so they could check for evidence of contamination. A dozen senators' offices were temporarily relocated in the process, and mail shut down for the second straight day throughout the Capitol complex.

Officials invited aides, tourists, reporters and anyone else who might have been in the area Monday to report for nasal-swab tests. Anyone who did was given a three-day supply of antibiotics, six pills in all, and told to report back tomorrow to obtain the lab results.

Authorities moved aggressively elsewhere around the nation to trace the source of tainted mailings, and to respond to fresh threats.

City officials in New York conducted environmental tests at ABC offices, hours after the Monday night disclosure that the 7-month-old had become ill. There had been no previous publicly reported anthrax incidents involving the network, and officials said the boy became sick after spending time in the newsroom last month.

However, federal health officials said it was still unclear whether the youngster contracted anthrax at the network offices or elsewhere.

With numerous media outlets affected directly, New York City health officials began making the rounds Monday night of the mailrooms of The Associated Press, major television networks and newspapers.

Mueller told reporters that so far, federal investigators have found no "direct link to organized terrorism." Daschle, D-S.D., added, "I'm not at all sure that all of this is related directly" to Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that slaughtered thousands in New York and Washington.

President Bush said Monday he wouldn't rule out a connection to bin Laden.

But administration officials said they were also investigating to see whether there was a connection to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.