[iwar] [fc:Thirty-one.Senate.employees.tested.positive.for.anthrax]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-17 23:27:05


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Thirty-one.Senate.employees.tested.positive.for.anthrax]
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House Shuts Down After Anthrax Scare

By DAVID ESPO
.c The Associated Press

  
WASHINGTON (AP) - Thirty-one Senate employees tested positive for anthrax 
exposure, officials said Wednesday as the threat of bioterrorism rattled 
Capitol Hill. Hundreds more lined up nervously to be tested and leaders 
ordered the shutdown of the House and three Senate office buildings. 

``We're in a battle with terrorism, a new form of human warfare,'' said House 
Democratic leader Dick Gephardt. Officials confirmed evidence of exposure in 
a second Senate office - adjacent to Majority Leader Tom Daschle's suite 
where an anthrax-spiked letter was opened earlier this week - as well as 
spores in a centralized mail room in a building across the street. 

House leaders shut down operations through the weekend to allow for extensive 
testing. ``To ensure safety, we thought it best to do a complete sweep, an 
environmental sweep,'' said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. The Senate 
announced plans to close all three of its sprawling office buildings, but in 
a gesture of defiance aimed at terrorists, made plans to convene on Thursday. 

There was cause for bioterrorism concern elsewhere in a nervous nation, five 
weeks after terrorist attacks that killed more than 5,000 people in New York, 
Washington and Pennsylvania. 

The midtown Manhattan office of Gov. George Pataki was shut down after an 
initial test detected the presence of anthrax. The governor announced that 
about 80 employees had been evacuated. ``The odds are very high'' that 
subsequent testing will confirm the presence of the bacteria, he said, 
although thus far, no one had become sick. 

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. David Fleming 
announced that preliminary testing indicated the strain of anthrax found in a 
letter addressed to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw in New York ``appears to match 
the strain in Florida,'' where one man died of anthrax several days ago and a 
second man is hospitalized. Fleming said it is not yet clear whether the 
Washington anthrax comes from the same strain. 

But he also stressed there's no evidence that the Washington anthrax is any 
more virulent - any more dangerous - than the strains in New York or Florida. 

In the shadow of the Capitol, Daschle told reporters that 31 people ``had 
positive nasal swabs,'' indicating exposure to anthrax. The group included 23 
members of his own staff, five law enforcement personnel, and three aides to 
Sen. Russell Feingold, whose office adjoins Daschle's on the fifth floor of 
the Hart Building across the street from the Capitol. 

Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, said that based on the number of 
people tested, ``maybe a few more'' will have positive results for exposure. 

Feingold, D-Wis., told reporters that none of his aides who had tested 
positive for exposure had been in Daschle's office on Monday, when the letter 
was opened. 

Congressional officials worked aggressively to ease public concern. ``There 
is no evidence ... absolutely no evidence of infection at this point,'' 
Daschle said, words that several other officials echoed throughout the day. 

``It is treatable,'' Daschle added emphatically at a news conference later in 
the day, and officials said the strain that was found responds readily to a 
range of antibiotics. 

Standing at Daschle's side, Maj. Gen. John S. Parker of the Army's testing 
laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., told reporters the powder contained a 
``common variety'' of anthrax. 

At the same time, Scott Lillibridge, an expert on bioterrorism at the 
Department of Health and Human Services, said, ``There's been some attempt to 
collect it, perhaps refine it and perhaps make it more concentrated. That 
seems certain.'' 

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed 
that the letters sent to Brokaw and Daschle both contained the messages: 
``Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great.'' 

Three government officials said Wednesday, however, there was no evidence of 
any foreign or terrorist involvement in the powder contained in the letter to 
Daschle, although they continue to investigate that possibility. One official 
said there was evidence that could point toward a domestic culprit. 

Long lines formed quickly as congressional employees sought tests and the 
three-day supply of precautionary antibiotics that health officials were 
distributing. Officials opened a second testing center, this one in the 
Capitol itself, to accommodate the demand. 

Dr. Rema Khabbez of the CDC said in late afternoon that a ``couple of 
thousand'' people in all had been tested since Monday. Of the results in 
hand, she said there were 31 positive for exposure and 155 negative. 

Hastert and Gephardt appeared together at midmorning to announce that the 
House would shut down. The speaker made the initial disclosure that 29 people 
had tested positive in the Senate, and said spores had been found in the 
Senate mailroom. He also said evidence of anthrax had been found in the 
Senate's ventilation system and tunnels. 

Senate officials quickly spread the word that wasn't the case, then suggested 
House leaders had overreacted with the decision to curtail business. 

Hastert said House and Senate leaders had agreed on that course of action 
earlier in the day, but it appeared some senators balked, not wanting to give 
the impression of flinching in the face of a threat. 

The CDC's Fleming said it was possible more people in Washington were found 
to be exposed than elsewhere because health workers began testing very 
shortly after the letter was opened in Daschle's office. Testing in New York 
and Florida did not occur for days or weeks after people were exposed, he 
said. 

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., provided fresh details of the episode in Daschle's 
office on Monday. He said a staff aide picked up a piece of mail that had 
been taped on all four sides, and cut it open. ``And cutting, the end falls 
off, a little bit of powder comes out, falls to the desk, and there's a note 
in it.'' 

He added, ``The note says, `You've been exposed to anthrax. You're going to 
die.' And she drops the whole thing on the ground, other people congregate, 
and that's how they also were exposed.'' 

Wednesday night, the FBI and local authorities checked Hastert's home in 
Yorkville, Ill., after the lawmaker recalled receiving a suspicious letter in 
the past week. It turned out to be a harmless letter from a high school 
student, authorities said. 

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