ANTHRAX - FBI focuses on labs with access

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FBI focuses on labs with access to anthrax

November 7, 2001 Posted: 3:26 p.m. EST (2026 GMT)

(CNN) -- FBI investigators have begun to focus their attention on laboratories with access to the bacteria, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Wednesday.

"They will be talking to people to see if they can get clues or leads to identify the origin of the anthrax," said Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the White House, Ridge disputed reports that investigators now believed the source of the anthrax was in the United States.

"We have not ruled out whether this was an act of an individual or a collective act, or whether it was a domestic or a foreign source," he said. "Hopefully soon we'll be able to answer both these questions."

Investigators have been stymied, particularly on the question of how Kathy Nguyen, a hospital stockroom employee in Manhattan, came in contact with the anthrax bacteria that killed her.

Nguyen, 61, who was buried Monday, was the only person to have contracted inhalation anthrax with no apparent link to any known spore contamination.

Her death has been ruled a homicide, but investigators have yet to uncover solid evidence to indicate where she may have picked up the bacteria.

Meanwhile, New York Police Sgt. Brian Burke said investigators have been using Nguyen's MetroCard -- a prepaid ticket that records the time and place of a passenger's use of the rapid transit system -- to help them unravel the mystery of how she contracted anthrax. (Full story)

Latest developments:

• House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Wednesday publicly defended his decision to close down the House side of the Capitol for several days last month so investigators could test buildings for anthrax contamination. "I think it was prudent what we did," he said. Hastert and House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt came under some criticism for closing the House while the Senate stayed open for legislative business.

• Four post office facilities -- Washington's Brentwood processing center, a Hamilton Township, New Jersey, processing center, a stamp facility in Kansas City, Missouri, and a Pentagon substation -- remained closed Wednesday, Ridge told reporters at the White House. The investigation, he said, has been plagued by hoaxes -- an estimated 10,000 with which the U.S. Postal Service has had to deal.

• New York City Health Department officials confirmed Wednesday that anthrax was found in a second-floor mailroom at ABC headquarters in Manhattan. The health department received the positive test results last week. "Two spots were found, and they were both decontaminated," said department spokeswoman Sandra Mullin. The 8-month-old son of an ABC news producer contracted skin anthrax after a September 28 visit to the network's newsroom.

• Mail from the U.S. Postal Service's regional processing center in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, will be taken to an off-site facility later this week for irradiation, postal officials said Wednesday. The three anthrax-contaminated letters sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, the New York Post and NBC News were all postmarked in that facility, which remains closed. (Full story)

• CNN has learned that the FBI visited a New Jersey elementary school similar in name to the fictional school listed in the return address on the anthrax letter sent to Daschle. Local police said FBI agents visited Greenbrook Elementary School in Kendall Park, New Jersey, which is similar in name to the fictional "Greendale School" on the anthrax letter. The visit came after police saw the similarity in the return address. (Full story)

• A leading health expert has given the U.S. government a "D" on its response to the anthrax crisis. Dr. Tara O'Toole explained the almost-failing grade by saying there were a lot of mistakes, miscommunications and misjudgments. (Full story)

• The FBI received unexpectedly sharp criticism on Capitol Hill for its handling of the anthrax sent in the U.S. mail. At a Senate hearing on the threat of bioterrorism, panel chairman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said she was "surprised the FBI hasn't made more progress" in tracing sources of the bacteria. Tim Caruso, FBI deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said investigators did not know how many labs produce anthrax. (Full story)

• The first of thousands of pieces of mail from the Brentwood processing center in Washington will begin being delivered in the next couple of days after being irradiated at an offsite facility. The facility in Lima, Ohio, has been irradiating 750,000 pieces of mail daily, or about 28,000 pounds, since the anthrax-contaminated Brentwood center was closed October 21.

• In New Jersey, officials Tuesday reopened the West Trenton Post Office in Ewing Township where a female mail carrier who contracted cutaneous anthrax worked. The facility had been closed since the woman was diagnosed late last month.

• The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday the anthrax mail attacks would cost the postal service well into the "billions of dollars" -- money it will seek to recoup from Congress. Postmaster General John Potter will seek a congressional rescue when he testifies before a Senate panel Thursday. (Full story)

• In the Hart Senate Office Building, workers will seal off and fumigate the offices of Daschle and Sen. Russ Feingold, where concentrations of anthrax have been found, and the heating and air conditioning system, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman said.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001


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