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Living Terrors: Surviving the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe© NewsMax.com
FBI: Letters to NBC, N.Y. Times sent from St. Petersburg
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 12, 2001NEW YORK -- An envelope containing a suspicious powder sent to NBC and a letter containing an unknown powder that was received today at the New York Times were both postmarked from St. Petersburg, according to Barry Mawn, head of the FBI office in New York.
There was some similarity in the handwriting on both letters, Mawn told the Associated Press, declining to discuss the contents. Both were anonymous letters with no return address; the NBC letter was postmarked Sept. 20, and the Times letter Oct. 5, NBC said.
NBC officials this morning announced that an assistant to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening an envelope containing a suspicious powder that was sent to her boss two weeks after the terrorist attacks.
Officials quickly said there was no known link to either the Sept. 11 attacks or the far more serious inhaled form of anthrax that killed a supermarket tabloid editor in Florida last week. The 38-year-old NBC employee was expected to recover.
A federal criminal investigation was launched to find the source of the anthrax, and health officials scrambled to re-test the powder to see if contained the germ. Initial tests had been negative, but authorities said the sample was so small they were reluctant to interpret the results.
CNN tonight reported that a letter received in Reno, Nevada, has tentatively tested positive for anthrax. It said the letter was received at a licensing office for Microsoft Corp. In an interview with CNN, Kenny Guinn, governor of Nevada, said the letter contained materials that were "pornographic in nature" and was sent to the business from Malaysia. Guinn said testing was continuing on the letter.
In another case closer to home, St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler on Tuesday opened a letter at his desk that contained a cryptic message and a substance resembling salt or sugar. Authorities were called to the newspaper's offices in downtown St. Petersburg. Police put the envelope in an airtight container and drove it to a state health lab in Tampa for analysis. It tested negative for anthrax and any bacteria, authorities said.
The NBC case sent a chill today through a city still reeling from the World Trade Center disaster. Emergency rooms reported a higher number of patients asking for anthrax tests or requesting antibiotics. News organizations across the country shored up mailroom security. And the postmaster general advised everyone to watch for suspicious letters and packages.
President Bush said the government was doing all it could to protect the public.
"The American people need to go about their lives. We cannot let terrorists lock our country down," Bush said, addressing the anthrax case at a White House event celebrating Hispanic heritage. "They will not take this country down."
The anthrax case was reported early today by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after tests were completed on a skin sample from the victim. Further tests on the envelope and its contents were under way.
"The (initial) amount we got was so small we are very being cautious about interpreting," CDC Deputy Director David Fleming said.
The CDC said it is possible the NBC employee was contaminated by something other than the envelope. NBC News reported that the envelope also contained a "threatening" letter.
NBC employees were evacuated from part of the 70-story GE Building in Rockefeller Center, which is home to Brokaw's "Nightly News," "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."
The NBC employee who tested positive was a Brokaw assistant, NBC officials said on condition of anonymity. One official said that Brokaw, who has appeared on NBC's evening newscasts for the last 18 years, was being tested for anthrax.
The "Nightly News" was broadcast this evening from the ground-floor "Today" show studios, instead of its usual third-floor home.
"Living in New York and working in this building for this company, you're already on edge," said Brian Rolapp, 29, a business development manager for NBC. "I think everyone is a little startled that it's this close to home."
A few blocks away, two floors of The New York Times building were cleared after Judith Miller, a reporter who co-wrote a recent best seller on bioterrorism, opened a letter containing a powdery substance a spokeswoman said smelled like talcum powder.
Executive Editor Howell Raines said initial tests indicated that the powder did not pose any immediate problem. Air tests for radioactive and chemical substances were negative.
The Associated Press, located across the street from NBC, temporarily closed its mailroom, as did CBS. ABC halted internal mail delivery in New York and Washington pending a security evaluation, while CNN said it had closed its mailrooms in New York, Washington and Atlanta.
Time Inc. and Newsweek suspended mail delivery in their New York headquarters. The Wall Street Journal advised employees worldwide not to open packages or letters that are not specifically addressed to them.
The skin and inhaled forms of anthrax are caused by the same bacterium. The only difference is whether the microscopic spores enter the skin through a cut or are inhaled into the lungs. It takes more than 8,000 spores to cause the inhalation form of anthrax. Neither form can be spread directly from person to person.
When caught through the skin, anthrax is a much less serious disease. The first symptoms are reddish-black sores on the skin. If the disease is caught at that point and treated with antibiotics, it is easily cured. Even without treatment, cutaneous anthrax is fatal in only one case out of 20.
Dr. Scott Lillibridge, the bioterrorism chief for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, said the NBC employee is believed to have handled the envelope on Sept. 25. Three days later, she noticed a dark-colored lesion, Lillibridge said, and on Oct. 1 began taking the antibiotic Cipro for another infection.
When the lesion started developing characteristics of anthrax, "a very alert and astute clinician" ordered skin tests, Fleming said. The results came back today.
NBC said it had immediately contacted the FBI, the CDC and the New York Department of Health after the envelope arrived.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said all network employees exposed to the powder will be tested for anthrax and treated with Cipro.
"People should not overreact to this," Giuliani said. "Much of this is being done to allay people's fears."
Last Friday, a photo editor for The Sun supermarket tabloid in Boca Raton, died of the more serious inhaled form of anthrax. The American Media building where Bob Stevens, 63, worked was sealed off after anthrax was found on his keyboard.
Traces of anthrax were later found in the mailroom. Two other employees turned out to have anthrax in their nasal passages, but neither has developed the disease. Both are taking antibiotics, and one has returned to work.
In Florida, FBI agent Hector Pesquera said test results of 965 people who were in the building recently found no new infections. A few test results were still pending. Pesquera said investigators are still trying to determine how the anthrax got into the building.
Investigators also tested 15 clerks who worked in the South Florida post office that handled American Media's mail, a union official said.