Outbreak points to 'inept' attack on newspaper office

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TUESDAY OCTOBER 09 2001
FROM JAMES BONE IN NEW YORK

THE anthrax outbreak in Florida appears to have been caused by a deliberate but “inept” release into a newspaper office building, according to one of America’s leading military experts on biological weapons.

“I do not believe it was accidental,” Colonel (retd) Dick Spertzel, who spent 28 years as a US Army biological weapons expert before becoming the chief biological inspector in the United Nations drive to disarm Iraq, told The Times yesterday.

“I cannot conceive of any way that it could be natural. What it does suggest is a somewhat inept person may have released it intentionally into the building and had a mixed bag of small and large particles and did not know what he was doing,” he said.

Dr Spertzel explained that a terrorist would try to use anthrax particles one to five microns in size, small enough to enter the lungs. To settle as dust, however, they would be 15-18 microns in size. Particles in between get lodged in the upper respiratory tract.

“You do not expect to find anthrax floating around the air in buildings in a city or even on a farm,” he continued. “It’s not a natural event. The only thing that makes sense is if it’s some kind of intentional release. The implications can be anything from a disgruntled individual who has an axe to grind against an individual or the building, on up to an inept release by sympathisers of Osama bin Laden or my favourite country, Iraq.”

The former deputy commander of the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases — the US equivalent of Porton Down — he said that the discovery of particles of anthrax in the Sun tabloid office in Boca Raton, Florida, suggested that the germ agent was released directly into the building rather than from the air.

Dr Spertzel rejected speculation that Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, dropped anthrax spores from a small aircraft while flying from nearby Palm Beach County Park airport. “I do not buy the theory that Atta released it a mile away because if it acted like gas it would have affected other buildings and you would not have any evidence of it today,” he said.

Although the usual incubation period of anthrax is just three to five days, studies of the accidental 1979 release at Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union show that symptoms may not develop for 30-35 days.

It it therefore impossible to determine whether the anthrax release in Florida took place before, after or at the same time as the September 11 attacks. Some have speculated that, as with other attacks, the release may have been a trial run for a larger operation. “I have heard some people say 60 days (incubation period), but I find 60 days pushing the limit,” Dr Spertzel said. “But 30-35 days prior to onset of symptoms is possible.”

The US has two laboratories equipped to study the DNA of anthrax spores to determine the particular strain.

Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.

FBI Conducts Florida Anthrax Probe

By Amanda Riddle
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Oct. 8, 2001; 10:09 p.m. EDT

BOCA RATON, Fla. –– The FBI on Monday took over the investigation into the anthrax death of a Florida man after the germ was found in the nose of a co-worker and on a computer keyboard in their office. Hundreds of people who worked near the men lined up to get medical tests.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the case could become "a clear criminal investigation."

"We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not," he said during a news conference in Washington.

The FBI sealed off the Boca Raton building housing several supermarket tabloids, including The Sun, where both men worked. Agents donned protective gear before going inside.

How the bacterial spores got into the newspaper's office remained under investigation. Federal investigators handling the cases have eliminated the obvious environmental sources of anthrax, said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said CDC officials told him that "human intervention" was the likely cause of contamination.

Health officials insisted there was no public health threat, but there was unease among some of the 500 people waiting for antibiotics and anthrax tests at the Palm Beach County health agency Monday.

"I feel nervous. I'm worried for everybody," said David Hayes, an editor for the Star tabloid who works in the building. Test results are expected to take days or weeks in some cases.

Anthrax cannot be spread from person to person, but all 300 people who work in the building – and anyone who spent more than an hour inside since Aug. 1 – were advised to visit health officials.

Antibiotics can treat anthrax, though the form that killed Sun photography editor Bob Stevens is particularly lethal. Stevens, 63, died Friday of inhalation anthrax, the first such fatality in the United States since 1976.

The anthrax exposure case reported Monday involved a mailroom employee identified by co-workers as 73-year-old Ernesto Blanco. Health officials said he had anthrax bacteria in his nasal passages, but he has not been diagnosed with the disease.

Blanco was tested for anthrax because he happened to be in a hospital for what co-workers said was an unrelated heart problem.

He was in stable condition at a Miami-area hospital, authorities said. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs.

Reynolds said authorities may never know whether he actually had anthrax because antibiotics may have killed it before it was detected.

Anthrax can be contracted from farm animals or soil, but the bacterium is not normally found among the wildlife or livestock in Florida. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman and gardener.

"When you have two cases in the same building and a positive sample from the environment in that building and no wool sorters or animal hides in that building, it lowers the likelihood of it coming from the environment," Reynolds said, reading a statement from CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan.

State epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said tests will help determine whether the anthrax found in the second victim was natural or genetically engineered. Health officials have said the bacteria in Stevens' blood responded to antibiotics, indicating that it was natural.

He and other health officials said there was no reason for alarm.

"The risk is low," said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida secretary of health. He said the sample of anthrax that was found in the building was taken from Stevens' computer.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have raised fears of bioterrorism across the country, and focused particular concern on the origin of the anthrax here.

Stevens lived about a mile from an air strip where flight school owner Marian Smith said suspected hijacker Mohamed Atta rented planes. Several suspected hijackers also visited a crop-dusting business in Belle Glade, 40 miles from Stevens' home in Lantana.

David Pecker, chief executive of the tabloids' publisher, American Media, said he did not believe the company was being targeted by terrorists because of how the papers have covered the attacks and suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Newsweek magazine reported on its Web site Monday that the office received a "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez" a week before the Sept. 11 attacks. Inside was what was described as a "soapy, powdery substance" and a Star of David charm. The letter was handled by both Stevens and Blanco, according to unidentified workers cited by Newsweek.

Bennet Bolton, a senior reporter for The National Enquirer, told The Associated Press on Monday about a "cryptic" e-mail sent to the staff in late August or early September by an intern who worked in the newsroom this summer.

"It intrigued us that he left such a cryptic farewell," Bolton said. "It was rather neutral and then he said, 'I left you a surprise for you to remember me by. Ha ha, just kidding.'"

He said federal investigators were told about the e-mail. The FBI did not return several phone calls seeking comment about it.

Only 18 cases of inhalation anthrax were reported in the United States during the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. Without treatment, 90 percent of victims die within days. More common is a less serious form of anthrax contracted through the skin.

Federal officials are sending Florida 100 cases of antibiotics to back up the local supply. The antibiotics came from a federal stockpile that holds enough to treat 2 million cases of anthrax.

An injectable anthrax vaccine has been around since the 1970s, but it limited to military use. It is reportedly not in production.

On the Net: CDC: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/Anthrax/Anthrax.asp

© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

Anthrax Alarm
What had been a public-health probe in Florida is now a criminal investigation

By Joseph Contreras, Michael Isikoff and Howard Fineman
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

October 8 —  The possibility that a photo editor for the weekly tabloid The Sun was killed in a bioterrorism attack took on a new sense of urgency today after Florida public-health officials disclosed that a nose swab taken from a 73-year-old hospitalized co-worker contained the rare bacteria spore that induces Anthrax, an often-fatal illness.

PUBLIC-HEALTH OFFICIALS confirmed that Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year-old Cuban American who works in the mailroom of American Media office building in Boca Raton tested as having been exposed to Anthrax. Blanco was admitted to a Miami hospital last week with symptoms of pneumonia. On Friday, Bob Stevens, a photo editor at The Sun, died from disease.

Effects of anthrax infection

The first stage of anthrax infection, lasting from hours to a few days, involves flu-like symptoms, including fever, coughing, weakness and chest pains.

The second stage usually ends in death within days. Lung damage deprives the body of oxygen. The victim then goes into shock. Brain infection may also occur.

Antibiotics only prove helpful at the earliest stages of the disease because they fight bacteria, not the toxins the bacteria produce in abundance.

The inhaled form of anthrax is rare and extremely deadly. Studies of previous cases indicate that a dose of 2,500 to 55,000 anthrax spores is lethal to about half of the people who inhale them.

What had been described as a public-health probe instantly became a criminal investigation as FBI agents on Sunday evening sealed off the office building, which houses the offices of most of the country’s supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, The Star, The Globe, News of the World and others. Employees and visitors to the building were ordered to undergo medical tests. Grim-faced state officials who had initially tried to downplay speculation late last week that Stevens’ demise might have been caused by foul play didn’t sound so sure at a Monday afternoon press conference. “We can’t speculate as to the source of this particular anthrax germ,” said acting Florida Secretary of Health Dr. John Agwunobi, who confirmed earlier reports that Anthrax spores had been found on the computer keyboard at Bob Stevens’ desk. Other officials went further. “We have to assume that a human element was involved,” concluded Florida Health Department director of disease control Dr. Landis Crockett.

NEWSWEEK has learned that the FBI is aggressively trying to locate a summer intern from nearby Florida Atlantic University in connection with the investigation. The intern, who sources said came from a Middle Eastern country, had sent an e-mail to all employees that a top American Media official described as “peculiar.” The e-mail thanked company employees for the help he gave them, but then contained language suggesting that he wasn’t saying “goodbye.” Another company official recalled the email as having “a sense of foreboding” and referring to a “surprise” or “something that he left behind.” Said the official, “it was weird.”
        Sources at American Media said the FBI has asked company employees about any “enemies” the company or its papers might have. Given the content of the weekly tabloids, “that list would go on forever,” joked one employee. Alarmed workers say they are urgently trying to recall receiving suspicious or unusual letters and packages. Several are focusing on a letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez”—similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. The letter, per routine, was taken in by the joint mailroom of the company. Employees said the letter was handled both by Stevens and by Blanco.

By late Monday afternoon, Boca Raton fire rescue vehicles and unmarked trucks and vans had descended on the American Media office building and investigators in white germproof suits were combing the ramp leading into the underground parking lot. Earlier in the day, hundreds of office workers filled out four-page forms at the Delray Beach health center asking them questions about their medical history, any recent unusual events that had occurred inside the building and whether they had visited the mail room and a photo library frequented by Blanco and Stevens.
        The office workers were issued 15-day supplies of the antibiotic Cipro that doctors prescribe in cases of Anthrax exposure. A skittish golf pro who works at a course adjacent to the premises of the American Media headquarters looked on warily from a distance as law enforcement officials swarmed around the building this morning. “I’m very concerned, and I’m going to give my lessons on the far side of the course,” said Broken Sound Golf Course instructor Michael Meredith. “I’m going to try to stay as far away as possible.” He was not alone in voicing such sentiments on a day when the specter of bio-terrorism suddenly loomed large over the placid suburbs of Palm Beach County.

With Catharine Skipp       

© 2001 Newsweek, Inc.