Sunshine Skyway Bridge, St. Petersburg, Florida
Posted on 10/13/2001 9:03:35 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
EXCERPTED:
A broadening national bioterrorism investigation turned toward St. Petersburg late Friday after NBC officials disclosed that a New York employee has contracted anthrax.
A woman who opens the mail for news anchor Tom Brokaw was diagnosed with a skin form of anthrax several days after she opened a letter that contained white powder and was postmarked from St. Petersburg.
The New York Times on Friday received a letter with a white powder and the St. Petersburg Times received one earlier in the week. All three letters were postmarked in St. Petersburg.
Federal law enforcement officials said late Friday that all three letters postmarked St. Petersburg tested negatively for anthrax.
[However, the test for the letter sent from St. Petersburg to the Brokaw aide must have been unsuccessful (too small a sample size?) because the aide in fact did contract Anthrax. This point was made by Ted Kopel on ABC Nightline last night. This calls into question the negative test results for the other two letters since they were also sent from St. Petersburg and may not have had inadequate sample size].
• An assistant to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw contracted the skin-based form of anthrax after opening a "threatening" letter to her boss.
Officials quickly said there was no known link to either the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the more serious inhaled form of anthrax that killed a supermarket tabloid editor in Florida last week. The 38-year-old NBC employee was being treated with antibiotics and is expected to recover. The letter was postmarked in St. Petersburg on Sept. 20 and opened Sept. 25, authorities said.
St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler opened his letter at his desk Tuesday. As he did so, a white powdery substance, resembling sugar or salt, spilled out.
Troxler stopped opening the letter. 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. Firefighters covered Troxler's desk with a plastic sheet and yellow emergency-scene tape reading "caution."
Health officials found no signs of anthrax or bacteria in the powder. The envelope and a letter inside also tested negative.
The letter had no return address and was postmarked St. Petersburg. It bears a code 337, then a space, then 1.
Anything that is mailed in Seminole, Largo, Bay Pines, Gulfport, Pinellas Park or any St. Petersburg neighborhood goes through the main post office on First Avenue N and is stamped with a 337. [Actual envelop shown in article and the zip code is visible as 33701 and the postmark can be made out as early (“0?”) October 2001 for St. Petersburg]
The cryptic letter misspelled Troxler's name and had little punctuation. It said:
"Howard Toxler ... 1st case of disease now blow away this dust so you see how the real thing flys. OKLAHOMA-RYDER TRUCK! Skyway bridge-18 wheels." [Oklahoma-Ryder Truck capitalized for emphasis by FR poster, original version did not use capital letters]
"Brokaw’s aide tests positive" with subtitle :
"Suspicious letters to NBC, N.Y. Times sent from St. Petersburg, authorities say."
Note the reference in the letter sent to the reporter at the St. Petersburg Times to the OKC Bombing- "Oklahoma-Ryder Truck!".
I used []s to add comments in the text where appropriate to emphasize important points for the reader.
The article was also excerpted to highlight important points and to reduce its length. The full article is still posted on the St. Petersburg Times web site.
It is not known yet whether or not the reference to the OKC bombing was just a terror style statement that is not true or if it is true and was made by a real terrorist who could have known about or have been involved in the OKC bombing.
Evidence has been posted for several years suggesting that supporters of Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein helped McVeigh do the OKC bombing.
The other possibility is that the letters are being mailed by domestic terrorists, but that is not as likely as the letters coming from ME terrorists who may have access to Anthrax produced by Iraq or other ME terror governments.
But since all three letters came from St. Petersburg, they may have come from the same source. Even though the letters tested negative for Anthrax, the tests may have not detected the Anthrax due to small sample sizes since it is known that at least one person (Brokaw aide) got Anthrax from the letter she received from St. Petersburg. Therefore, the two other letters may have at one time contained anthrax. Even if not, this still would be a terroristic hoax, a terrorist act in itself.
McVeigh was a patsy....
Presumably our police are observing the bridge.
Sunshine Skyway Bridge, St. Petersburg, Florida
We could ask Janya Davis, she no longer works for KFOR in Denver (NBC). The Reno inJustice dept. didn't want her info...
St. Petersburg, home of the postmark, on the letters sent to NBC and the tabloids....hmmm
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