BostonHerald

N.J. trio questioned as more anthrax is found by Jessica Heslam

Monday, November 5, 2001

While the FBI has interrogated at least three men living near the Trenton, N.J.-area post office that has processed anthrax-laden letters, anthrax was found in New York City Hall and at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington.

All three men, detained for questioning this past week, were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. One of the men, taken into custody Friday, said he was questioned about anthrax.

Agents were led to at least two Trenton apartments by information developed during the search for the person who mailed the anthrax-contaminated letters that passed through the Trenton postal processing centers.

Investigators have found no direct link between the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the anthrax crisis and the apartment raids, officials said.

``At this point we have no information that links the two searches,'' FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll said. ``I can't be more specific or elaborate beyond that.''

The Pakistani national taken into custody at an apartment Friday was identified by a brother as Allah Rakha. He called his brother, Ilyas Chaudry, from a jail cell Saturday and said he still had no idea why he was picked up and questioned about anthrax, Chaudry said.

Chaudry said he did not know why federal agents spent more than six hours interrogating him, his brother and two other men. FBI agents asked them about their mail, magazine subscriptions and prescription pills in the apartment.

Chaudry, a 34-year-old cab driver, said FBI agents knocked on their door Friday morning, asked for his brother and asked questions about anthrax.

``They said anthrax, and something about INS,'' said Chaudry, who also said postal inspectors took mail from the house and inspected a letter box about 30 feet from the front door.

On Oct. 29, two men living in Hamilton, a few miles from the postal processing center, were detained after a search of their apartment. The FBI also turned them over to the INS.

In New York City, traces of anthrax were found on a package containing a tape from NBC news anchorman Tom Brokaw's office sent to City Hall in early October. The tape was sent before Brokaw's assistant tested positive for the cutaneous form of the disease. The package was sent to a lab Oct. 23 and the results came back Saturday.

New York City officials said yesterday it appeared to be a case of cross-contamination rather than evidence of a new source of the potentially deadly bacteria.

The package could have been contaminated by a letter sent to NBC on Sept. 18 from Trenton, N.J., that later tested positive for anthrax, said Department of Health spokeswoman Sandra Mullin.

``We feel pretty confident that it was cross-contaminated. This is not a new contamination,'' said Mullin.

The tape contained footage of a White House briefing Sept. 18 in which an aide to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was mentioned. NBC sent the tape to City Hall as a courtesy.

Giuliani said several people handled the parcel, but no one has shown any symptoms, which usually occur within a week of exposure.

Environmental tests at City Hall have turned up negative, although more are planned.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Post, a hospital executive said the 61-year-old New York stock clerk who died of anthrax last week sometimes handled mail at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, where she had worked. Kathy Nguyen's death has puzzled authorities because anthrax tests at her apartment and at the hospital have turned up negative.

In Washington, a mail room in the Veterans Affairs Medical Center tested positive for trace amounts of anthrax. Tests were completed Saturday. Five mail workers were put on antibiotics.

The hospital receives its mail from Washington's Brentwood facility, where two postal workers died from inhaled anthrax.

Veterans Affairs spokesman Phil Budahn said the center's 250 patients would be closely monitored, but it was extremely unlikely that the anthrax had spread beyond the mail room.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said yesterday, ``We must be prepared for the use of smallpox as a bioterrorism weapon.''

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccinated about 140 members of epidemiologic teams against smallpox. They could be sent on short notice to treat suspected outbreaks of smallpox in the United States.

In Massachusetts, Dr. Alfred DeMaria of the Department of Public Health said yesterday that bioterrorism training - which includes coping with an outbreak of smallpox - has been conducted in the Bay State for years.

``We have a response plan but we do not have anyone immunized,'' DeMaria said.

Also, officials at the Mayo Clinic were to announce today a new DNA test that can give a quick answer about any possible anthrax sample.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001