Posted on 10/17/2001 4:21:30 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Anthrax anxiety surged in South Florida on Tuesday as two more people were hospitalized and tested for anthrax in Broward County and a letter sent to a Planned Parenthood office in Martin County tested positive for anthrax in an initial screening.
The letter -- one of 15 similar letters sent to Planned Parenthood clinics in Florida and at least 91 nationwide -- was sent to a lab in Miami for further testing. Police field-tested it with positive results but cautioned that the initial tests sometimes give false positives. Results from more conclusive tests are expected Thursday.
As health officials repeatedly called for calm Tuesday and postal authorities staunchly maintained the mails are safe, Gov. Jeb Bush flew to Boca Raton -- where the deadly germ was first detected two weeks ago at tabloid publishing house American Media Inc. -- to issue a warning against anthrax hoaxes.
``If the perpetrators are caught, they are going to be prosecuted,'' he said. ``We will find you and when we do, we will do all we can to send you to prison for 15 years.''
Still, the alarms continued:
In Martin County, police intercepted the Planned Parenthood letter at a local post office, alerted because it fit the description of other letters containing a powdery substance sent to clinics.
Like the other letters, it contained powder and had a return address of the U.S. Secret Service in Atlanta. Police described it as a rambling anti-abortion letter with references to ``Army of God.''
A commercially available anthrax test was used on the substance, with a positive reading. But Joe Lyons, assistant police chief in Stuart, cautioned Tuesday night that the tests can be unreliable. The manufacturer of the test kits claims 95 percent reliability.
Ex-intern Jordan Arizmendi, who briefly came under FBI suspicion because of an unusual farewell e-mail he sent co-workers, checked into Holy Cross on Sunday with pneumonia-like symptoms.
Bob Nichols, spokesman for Florida Atlantic University where Arizmendi is a senior, confirmed the student is being tested. Results are expected Wednesday, Nichols said.
Hank Arizmendi, the student's father, said nasal swab tests on his son had come back negative for anthrax. More sophisticated blood tests and cultures art due back today.
Though the student's internship at AMI ended Aug. 17, Jordan went back to the AMI building to visit colleagues in mid-September, his father said.
``But Jordan was never in the mailroom, and he's doing better already,'' Hank Arizmendi said. ``We hope we'll have him home tomorrow.''
The lesions each had a black center and were draining fluid, said Jeanne Eckes, the clinical director of trauma services at the hospital. ``The symptoms are consistent with a certain type of anthrax.''
The boy, whose identity was not released and had no known connection to AMI, showed no other symptoms of the illness. He did not recall coming into contact with suspicious packages or powder, Eckes said.
Meanwhile, AMI officials announced that they will not return to the three-story Boca Raton office building where the spores were first detected.
American Media CEO and President David Pecker said his employees will not go back to work there, even if officials give it a clean bill of health.
Though most employees were willing to return to the building, Pecker decided against it, ``out of respect for the handful'' of workers who won't ever feel safe there again, a company spokeswoman said.
More than 300 AMI employees, who are being tested for anthrax a second time this week, met with state and federal health officials and the FBI on Tuesday in an information session.
Workers said they learned:
Mike Hanrahan, 62, a reporter at The National Enquirer, said the meeting, while helpful, left workers wondering.
``The FBI is wearing two pairs of boots and protective clothing when they go in the building -- yet they tell us we're OK,'' Hanrahan said. ``It makes you feel uneasy.'' What they're saying and doing is not consistent.''
And at the Boca Raton post office where more anthrax spores were detected Monday, postal officials said an overnight cleaning by the Environmental Protection Agency had removed the contamination.
``Our customers do not have to be concerned,'' said Ellen Bohde, customer relations coordinator in Boca Raton. ``The mail is safe to handle.''
But that didn't stop dozens of Boca residents from calling elected officials with questions about mail safety.
``The quantity of spores was so isolated and so minuscule that even if they were all in one envelope it wouldn't matter,'' said state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.
Odd are its not, but if it is some conservative whacko, that will cause great damage to great causes.
The letters may have been sent by agents working for the ADL, for example. They may be trying to use this to stamp out the right-wing opposition. The ADL may use this to pass laws to outlaw conservatism.
I wouldn't consider the Army of God to be mainstream or conservative, but way out on the fringe.
If this letter tests positive for anthrax after lab testing (and the test does give false positives--which is a whole lot better than false negatives), the Army of God would become radioactive. Neal Horsely and his buddies will be in deep deep doo.
I think it's also worth pointing out that many Muslim fundamentalists believe that the Democratic Party represents the interests of the Jews a lot more than the Republican Party. I recall hearing some Muslim fundamentalist say that Gore was the candidate of the Jews and Bush the candidate of the Christians.But they hate both jews and christians equally. It's Israeli's they hate in addition.
I think they hate Jews a lot more.
The point I am trying to make is that maybe Islamic fundamentalists hate liberals more than they hate conservatives because they think that liberalism is under a greater Jewish influence. Thus, Islamic fundamentalist terrorists may be targetting liberals like Daschle, Brokaw and Planned Parenthood.
Then again I think this may have done by liberal organizations like the ADL and Planned Parenthood so as to outlaw conservatism.
You are wrong.
February 25, 1999
"(New York, NY) At the request of attorneys for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, federal district judge Robert E. Jones issued a permanent injunction today enjoining and restraining the American Coalition of Life Activists, Advocates for Life Ministries and 12 individual defendants...
Today's injunction follows the February 2nd jury assessment of $107 million in damages against the defendants for illegal threats against the plaintiffs.
In his order, Judge Jones described the Wanted Posters and Nuremberg Files Web site, each as a "true threat to bodily harm, assault or kill one or more of the defendants." Judge Jones then went further, stating that from his own independent review of the evidence produced at trial, "the plaintiffs have proven by clear and convincing evidence" that each defendant acted "with specific intent and malice in a blatant and illegal communication of true threats to kill assault to do bodily harm to each of the plaintiffs and with the specific intent to interfere with or intimidate the plaintiffs from engaging in legal practices and procedures."
Wrote Judge Jones, "I totally reject the defendants' attempts to justify their actions as an expression of opinion or as a legitimate and lawful exercise of free speech in order to dissuade the plaintiffs from engaging in providing abortion services."
...The injunction from U.S. District Court in Oregon came in the wake of a rash of anthrax threats sent by mail to abortion providers and other organizations all over the country. "These anthrax letters, like the Wanted Posters and the Web site, pose a real threat to the peaceful functioning of our public democratic institutions," said Feldt. "These folks think that violence is the light and the way. It is time for everyone to stand together against anti-choice terrorism."
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pressreleases/22599-injunction.html
Radical liberals do not want to realize it, but it was not Conservative Judeo-Christian American values that got us into this mess. But those values will have to get us out.
What is going on in Florida??!!
Considering groups like this do this pretty regularly -- sorry but they are suspect NUMBER 1.
From a Wall Street Journal article:
snip:
"Letters threatening anthrax were first used against abortion providers in October 1998, just days after a physician who performed abortions, Barnett Slepian, was murdered outside Buffalo, N.Y.
Since then, the NAF says, clinics have received more than 80 anthrax poisoning threats, including letters saying anyone exposed to the powder would die. Some of the earliest letters contained no return address; many were sent from Ohio. But after law-enforcement agents advised clinic staff to avoid opening letters from anonymous senders, letters began arriving with phony return addresses from fictitious medical-supply companies, from the department of taxation or even other clinics, the NAF said. None of the anthrax threats proved real, however, and none of the perpetrators were ever caught.
Since 1992, more than 100 attacks involving butyric acid -- used in the manufacturing of perfumes, artificial flavorings, pharmaceuticals, disinfectants and gasoline -- have been reported at abortion clinics. In 1998, in what appeared to be linked assaults, 19 clinics in Florida, Texas and Louisiana were doused with butyric acid, which can irritate the respiratory tract if inhaled, induce vomiting if swallowed, and can cause burns to the skin and eyes.
In most cases, no serious injuries were reported. However several victims were hospitalized and two clinic workers suffered from more long-term problems, like abnormal liver functions, pneumonia and respiratory problems, according to the NAF."
Pro-lifers.
Killing.
For God.
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