Posted on 11/04/2001 10:59:25 AM PST by t-shirt
Anthrax: Man Arrested
Sky News
November 4, 2001
A man has been arrested after FBI agents investigating anthrax attacks searched his apartment.
They raided at least two apartments in Trenton, New Jersey.
Three of the letters contaminated with the potentially deadly spores were posted from Trenton.
Another case
The development came as anthrax was discovered at a third US post centre in New Jersey. State officials say one worker is already suspected of suffering from the skin form of the disease.
Witnesses said the arrest followed a three-hour search by FBI and immigration agents of an apartment where four "Middle Eastern" men were living.
The arrested man, identified by his brother Ilyas Chaudry as Allah Rakha, was understood to have been detained by US immigration authorities. FBI agents seized several bags of potential evidence from the flat.
Known source
Two other people were reported to have been detained in areas near the Trenton post office, which has emerged as the only known source of the anthrax contamination.
Four people have died and 13 others have been infected in what President George W Bush said was "a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country".
Human experiment
In Britain, the Health and Safety Executive was reported to be planning an experiment, using human volunteers, in which spores mimicing anthrax will be released in a post sorting office to simulate a possible biological attack.
An HSE spokeswoman: "The whole point of this exercise is to discover how and why anthrax becomes airborne."
Postal workers in several countries, including the UK, were issued with gloves as a precaution against anthrax.
Above Story--Last Modified: 12:55 UK, Sunday November 04, 2001
---------------------------
Anthrax developments
Wire Service, Associated Press November 03, 2001
Developments Friday related to anthrax cases:
-- The nation's 17th case of anthrax is confirmed on Friday as top health officials say they expect more people to fall ill.
-- The Bush administration issues a fresh appeal to the public to help identify the culprits behind the anthrax attacks.
-- Democratic congressmen lobby to include families of those who died from anthrax in a fund created by Congress for victims of the terrorist attacks.
-- Pakistan's largest newspaper evacuates some of its editorial offices after a letter tested positive for anthrax.
-- In India, the health secretary of a western state says powder found in an envelope in a government office tested positive for anthrax and will be tested further.
-- At the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, traces of bacteria are found in a mailbag. Greek officials also test a suspicious envelope sent to a U.S. Navy base.
-- The U.S. Postal Service reveals it stopped selling the type of pre-stamped envelope that carried anthrax-tainted mail to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, the New York Post and NBC.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2591886&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6
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NBC tape sent to Giuliani contained anthrax
November 4, 2001 Posted: 1:06 PM EST (1806 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani confirmed Sunday that a tape sent by NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw's office to City Hall contained anthrax.
Giuliani said the tape was sent in the first week of October, before Brokaw's assistant tested positive for the cutaneous form of the disease.
Giuliani said the tape sent by NBC was dropped off at the City Hall police desk, then was picked up by two people, including his chief of staff, Tony Carbonetti.
"Tony handled it, watched it," Giuliani said.
The mayor did not elaborate on what was on the tape, nor did he say why NBC News sent the tape to his office.
After the NBC case was reported, the tape was submitted for testing several times beginning October 23, and final results have turned up positive, he said.
Giuliani said none of the people who handled the tape have shown any symptoms, which usually occur within a week of exposure. No one is being treated with the antibiotic Cipro, he said.
Environmental testing for anthrax at City Hall has already been conducted since the tape was delivered last month, and results have been negative, he said.
But, Giuliani said, "We'll test again and go into more places in more detail."
The matter is still being investigated.
So far, 17 people have been confirmed to be infected with anthrax, with four confirmed deaths from the more serious inhaled form of the disease
-------------------------------------
Anthrax traces found at Washington VA hospital
November 3, 2001 Posted: 8:10 PM EST (0110 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A mailroom in the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center has tested positive for anthrax, the federal agency reported Saturday.
The mailroom is located in a hospital that houses 250 patients but is not near patient areas, said Phil Budahn, the VA's media relations director. But, he added, hospital officials are keeping "a close eye on patients."
Swabs were taken in the mailroom October 30 because the hospital receives its mail from the main Brentwood branch post office in Washington, the facility that processed an anthrax-laden letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Two Brentwood postal employees have died of inhalation anthrax, and two others are hospitalized with the same disease.
Of the 22 swabs, one was positive, Budahn said. Administrators closed the mailroom, he said.
Five mailroom employees have been on antibiotics since October 25, and investigators have not found evidence that anthrax has spread at the hospital, he said. "There is absolutely no indication this is a problem beyond the mailroom," Budahn said.
Hospital administrators at present are not considering moving patients, Budahn said.
Pray for America!
And don't give up your rights!
Demand Congress & your government take action now and begin deporting and/or arresting all illegals and terror linked individuals and stop letting them enter our country, as well as defend our borders, so more Americans aren't needlessly killed!
And demand they re-armed the pilots, and repeal the evil 1968 Gun Control Act which disarmed our pilots!
November 4, 2001 By Laura Weckler
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Puzzled investigators were conducting a second round of environmental testing in hopes of figuring out how a New York woman was infected with a deadly case of anthrax. Authorities examined suspicious packages and powders, including a letter whose postmark and handwriting raised concerns at the Treasury Department.
One month after the first anthrax case was confirmed, President Bush on Saturday called the anthrax threat "a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country." He said officials were learning day by day, and he urged people to look closely at their mail.
"Anthrax apparently can be transferred from one letter to another," he said in his weekly radio address.
Anthrax testing was under way at 259 postal facilities, mostly on the East Coast. Officials awaited results from 21 post offices where testing was complete.
The biological attack has killed four people and infected 13 others. Concentrated along the East Coast, anthrax has been found in Kansas City, Mo., and Indianapolis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a team of epidemiologists to Arizona, where the World Series was concluding, a precaution often taken when large crowds are expected. CDC officials considered a public service campaign to educate Americans about anthrax.
In Alaska, postal officials decided volunteers could answer some 60,000 letters to Santa expected in the tiny town of North Pole -- population 1,570 -- despite the anthrax scare.
"We're not going to let it spoil their Christmas," said Nancy Cain Schmitt, Alaska spokeswoman for the Postal Service.
Health authorities, who now believe that a New Jersey accountant was infected through the mail, said postal customers should keep an eye out for symptoms of anthrax. The skin form resembles a spider bite at first; the more serious inhalation anthrax, thought unable to be transmitted through regular mail, looks like flu.
"We've never said the risk of handling the mail is zero. It's minimal, but it's not zero," said Lisa Swernarki of the CDC.
Doctors also must be on the lookout, said New Jersey's top health official. "Maybe you have to think about the possibility of anthrax with all your patients, not just postal staff," Acting Health Commissioner Dr. George T. DiFerdinando said Saturday.
The president, too, urged caution. Bush said the government is working to swiftly test post offices and other sites for spores and reassured Americans that the odds of receiving a piece of tainted mail are "very low."
"But still, people should take appropriate precautions. Look carefully at your mail before opening it, tell your doctor if you believe you may have been exposed to anthrax," he said.
In New York, investigators have not determined how Kathy T. Nguyen contracted inhalation anthrax. Nguyen, who died last week, was never able to tell them where she had been or who she had seen.
Initial testing for anthrax at her Bronx apartment and at the Manhattan hospital where she worked have come back negative. But CDC officials said they were beginning another round in the most promising sites and expanding to other places where she might have been.
The first round was "a very rapid sampling" of the most promising spots, said the CDC's Dr. Bradley Perkins, a lead investigator on the anthrax case.
CDC officials also were looking for patterns in the 10 inhalation anthrax victims. They said victims have been older than one would expect, given the age of all those at risk of exposure. It may be that it is easier for the anthrax to lodge into older people's respiratory systems, Perkins said.
In Washington, Treasury Department officials isolated a suspicious letter and sent it for testing. The letter bore the same Trenton, N.J., postmark as anthrax-laced mail delivered in New York and Washington. Officials said the address was also handwritten. Similar envelopes were recovered from Sen. Tom Daschle's office in Washington and from anchor Tom Brokaw's office at NBC.
"We have no indication that it is dangerous in any way, but we're having it tested," Treasury Department spokeswoman Michele Davis said.
At least two apartments have been searched, the latest Friday, and three people detained in neighborhoods near the Trenton-area post office that is the only known source for the anthrax contamination.
The FBI maintains investigators have found no direct link between the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the anthrax poisonings and the apartment raids. But information that led agents there was developed during the massive search for who mailed the contaminated letters, authorities said.
Authorities would say little about the search or about a man taken into custody Friday. He was identified as Allah Rakha by his brother, Ilyas Chaudry.
Authorities were finalizing plans to decontaminate the Senate Hart Office Building, where the powerful Daschle letter was opened. They planned to announce final approval today of their plan to fill the nine-story building with bacteria-killing chlorine dioxide gas.
Across the country, officials have been checking out suspicious powders and letters, the vast majority of which have been found harmless. Still, authorities emphasize they are taking every report seriously and warn would-be pranksters they will be punished for any anthrax hoaxes.
These homegrown, anti-government white guys sure have funny names. < /sarcasm >
Norb in Jacksonville
Traces of anthrax found in Veterans med center mailroom
[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
11.04.2001]
FROM OUR NEWS SERVICES
A mail-processing center that serves most of southern New Jersey was closed Saturday night after anthrax spores were found on a mail-sorting machine, officials said. The center had been shut down and reopened last week after an employee showed symptoms of anthrax exposure.
The South Jersey Processing and Distribution Center in Bellmawr, which employs 1,300 workers, was expected to reopen Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.
Earlier Saturday, the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington said that tests conducted on Wednesday in the mailroom of the agency's medical center there had found traces of anthrax.
A spokesman for the agency said that the mailroom, which has not accepted any new mail since the spread of anthrax in Washington's mail system was first detected, has now been sealed. It is not near areas where the hospital's 250 patients are treated, and its ventilation system empties air outdoors.
In his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Bush warned that the government would deal harshly with those found to be responsible for the anthrax contaminations, and would also prosecute anyone found to have sent false alarms or fake powders resembling anthrax.
I say give the "alleged perp" a choice: volunteer for this with real anthrax, or two hundred firemen kick him in the nuts 5000 times.
From AFP
November 04, 2001
POLICE in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi took a local businessman into preventive custody after a letter containing traces of anthrax was sent to the country's biggest newspaper.
The name of businessman Mohammad Saleem was used in the letter sent to the offices of the Jang daily last week, which contained a suspicious white powder.
"We have taken Mohammad Saleem into preventive detention as we are still examining under what law anthrax cases can be prosecuted," police official Munir Sheikh told AFP.
"The accused has denied his involvement, but we are not satisfied with his initial statement," Sheikh added.
Police yesterday detained a general secretary of the Pakistan Mehran Welfare Education Society, whose letter-head was on the letter sent to the newspaper.
President Pervez Musharraf yesterday confirmed that the letter had contained anthrax spores but said nobody had been infected.
A similar letter had been sent to the Karachi office of the US computer company Dell.
Do these guys actually have the need to know how and why it becomes airborne? I would have thought that a basic high school science education would give them a clue that white powder can become airborne by....
Oh, forget it. I guess common sense is not what they are trying to learn.
Q&A on anthrax
November 4, 2001
Q. If anthrax is being sent via the mail system, why haven't we seen anthrax on the West Coast?
A. The fact that we haven't seen anthrax on the West Coast doesn't mean we won't, said Richard Hahn, a retired FBI agent and a terrorism and explosives specialist in Seal Beach. Unfortunately, Hahn said, no one can predict what terrorists or other criminals may do. "Our best defense is to be informed and prepared, not only with regard to anthrax but also for the potential of letter or package bombs sent through the mail.''
Yikes! Brave people!
ITV News
November 4, 2001
FBI agents have arrested a man in connection with the anthrax attacks in the US.
The arrest comes after anthrax was found at two postal facilities in the US, and the number of people infected by the disease rose to 17
Investigators detained the suspect after raiding apartments in Trenton, New Jersey, where three of the contaminated letters were sent from.
Witnesses said agents took one man after carrying out a three-hour search in an apartment where four men were living.
The man - identified by his brother as Allah Rakha - was understood to have been detained by US immigration authorities, and FBI agents seized several bags of potential evidence from the flat.
Two other people were reported to have been detained in areas near the Trenton post office, which has emerged as the only known source of the anthrax contamination.
Meanwhile, the anthrax crisis is continuing, with federal health experts warning the nation to expect more disease cases.
In Washington, Treasury Department officials isolated a suspicious letter and sent it for testing.
The letter bore the same Trenton postmark as anthrax-laced mail delivered in New York and Washington. Officials said the address was also handwritten.
President George W Bush, in his most extensive public comments on anthrax to date, called the cases "a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country."
In his weekly radio address, he said the government was working to swiftly test post offices and other sites for spores and reassured Americans that the odds of receiving a piece of tainted mail were "very low."
"But still, people should take appropriate precautions. Look carefully at your mail before opening it, tell your doctor if you believe you may have been exposed to anthrax," he said.
Anthrax tests at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Centre in New York City found evidence of bacteria spores on six mail-sorting machines and in a dust-removing machine.
In Kansas City in the midwestern state of Missouri, the Stamp Fulfillment Centre was closed after the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed discovery of two microscopic patches of anthrax spores on a trash container.
The CDC said that an employee at the daily New York Post became the nation's 17th confirmed case of anthrax since the bioterrorism crisis began last month.
A skin lesion on the patient, who was not identified, had earlier been suspected as anthrax and tests confirmed the diagnosis.
All the cases have been linked to the mail except for that of Kathy T Nguyen, who died of inhaled anthrax before she could be interviewed.
Investigators have reported little progress in efforts to explain how the New York hospital worker contracted the respiratory form of the disease.
Meanwhile, New York is on full security alert for the marathon, with some two million spectators expected on the streets.
Thousands of runners are taking part in the annual marathon, the city's biggest event since the World Trade Centre atrocities.
Some 30,000 athletes will slog their way round the gruelling 26-mile route to complete the race which this year is dedicated to victims of the September 11 terror attacks.
A further 12,000 volunteers and 2,000 police officers will also be in place to ensure that things run smoothly.
"In the wake of the terrible events of September 11, the New York City Marathon will highlight the diversity, energy and resilience of New York City as never before," said race organiser Allan Steinfeld.
USA Today
November 4, 2001
WASHINGTON (AP) — A mail room in the Veterans Affairs Medical Center tested positive for trace amounts of anthrax. Authorities were set to order the release of powerful chemicals in a Senate office building in hopes of killing any lingering anthrax spores. One month after the first anthrax case was confirmed, President Bush on Saturday called the anthrax threat ''a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country.'' He said in his weekly radio address that the government is working to swiftly test post offices and other sites for spores.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Graphics The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the presence of anthrax at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Saturday, said Veterans Affairs spokesman Phil Budahn. Five mail room employees had already been taking antibiotics since Oct. 25 as a precaution.
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, which closed on Wednesday for cleaning.
"No one is ill," Budahn said. "There's no indications that patients or other staff came in contact with hazardous material. This is purely a mail room issue."
The medical center received mail from Brentwood, a Washington postal center that processed an anthrax-laced envelope delivered to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office.
On Capitol Hill, environmental experts planned to announce Sunday their plans for decontaminating the Hart Senate Office Building, where the letter to Daschle was opened.
They planned to fill the nine-story building with bacteria-killing chlorine dioxide gas, but the final approval was being left to a panel of experts.
Officials at the Treasury Department isolated a suspicious letter on Friday and sent it for testing. The letter bore the same Trenton, N.J., postmark as anthrax-laced mail delivered in New York and Washington. Officials said the address was also handwritten.
Anthrax testing was under way at 259 postal facilities, mostly on the East Coast. Officials awaited results from 21 post offices where testing was complete.
To date, the biological attack has killed four people and infected 13 others. Concentrated along the East Coast, anthrax also has been found in Kansas City, Mo., and Indianapolis.
The CDC sent a team of epidemiologists to Arizona, where the World Series was concluding, a precaution often taken when large crowds are expected. CDC officials considered a public service campaign to educate Americans about anthrax.
The New York Times reported in Sunday editions that the CDC also has vaccinated about 140 members of epidemiologic teams that can be dispatched on short notice to examine a suspected case of smallpox anywhere in the country. Unlike anthrax, smallpox is easily spread from person to person and federal officials are rushing to stockpile enough vaccine to inoculate millions of Americans if necessary.
Health authorities, who now believe that a New Jersey accountant was infected through the mail, said postal customers should keep an eye out for symptoms of anthrax. The skin form resembles a spider bite at first; the more serious inhalation anthrax, thought unable to be transmitted through regular mail, looks like flu.
In his radio address, Bush said the odds of receiving a piece of tainted mail are "very low."
In New York, investigators have not determined how Kathy T. Nguyen contracted inhalation anthrax. Nguyen, who died last week, was never able to tell them where she had been or who she had seen.
Initial testing for anthrax at her Bronx apartment and at the Manhattan hospital where she worked have come back negative. But CDC officials said they were beginning another round in the most promising sites and expanding to other places where she might have been.
The issue is how it stays airborne. Normally anthrax spores will attach to anything they touch and stay there. That is one reason inhalation anthrax is so rare. This stuff floats and floats and floats. How is a key question, and the answer will probably reveal the originator.
Um, I don't think it's just the liberals who dislike domestic terrorists. Come to think of it, many of the known domestic terrorists are liberals. Hitlery and i-X43 come to mind.
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