New search planned in Boca cases of anthrax

Miami Herald ^ | 8/26/02 | CHARLES RABIN

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

Federal agents are renewing their search of the anthrax-infected American Media Inc. building in Boca Raton, returning to check for clues that may have been missed in the original investigation last fall.

''The Justice Department advised us that the FBI wanted to make another investigation into the building,'' American Media spokesman Gerald McKelvey said Sunday.

Investigators, sources said, will be looking for an envelope or envelopes that may have carried anthrax into the site -- the first in several anthrax attacks along the East Coast that killed five people and sickened 13 others.

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

Incredible. Unbelievable. I can only hope that all of this talk of "returning to check for clues that may have been missed in the original investigation last fall" is a set up and we have known for 10 months that Mohammed Atta is the anthrax perp. Because if that is NOT the case we are in very, very deep trouble having an agency called the FBI that is worse than useless, being actually a security threat to the nation it is meant to serve.

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

shameless self-bump.

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

ping

[aristeides]

The FBI didn't just fail to follow leads. They actually told the people at American Media not to discuss the Jennifer Lopez letter with the press. I think it's obvious the FBI was never trying to solve the case.

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

By Jill Barton
Associated Press Writer
Monday, August 26, 2002; 11:41 AM

BOCA RATON, Fla. –– The FBI plans this week to go back into an anthrax-contaminated building owned by tabloid publisher American Media Inc., where an employee was fatally infected last fall, officials said Monday.

In the first search of the building since it was quarantined and sealed last fall, agents will use newly developed techniques to search for anthrax spores and other evidence throughout the entire building in an effort to determine who was responsible for the attack.

Previous searches inside the building concentrated on a mailroom and workstations used by infected employees.

"We hope this investigation will bring to justice the person or persons responsible for this horrific act," said Hector Pesquera, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Miami division.

Pesquera stressed that the operation "has nothing to do" with Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, a biowarfare expert who has been called a "person of interest" by Attorney General John Ashcroft in the anthrax investigation.

Pesquera said the two-week operation inside the building should be under way by Wednesday.

"We don't believe there is a public health threat posed by this investigation," said Dr. John Agwunobi, secretary of the Florida Department of Health.

AMI has had to use other offices in the area to publish its six supermarket tabloids, including The National Enquirer, Globe and Weekly World News.

The building has been under federal quarantine since October, when photo editor Robert Stevens died after becoming infected at his desk. He was the first person to die during the anthrax attacks last fall, which killed five people.

Spores delivered by mail also hit media outlets in New York and a congressional building in Washington.

While transmission by mail was suspected at AMI, investigators have never determined for sure how anthrax spores entered the building. The original investigation did not locate a "dissemination device" or large quantities of spores of the deadly bacteria.

Pesquera said agents would collect "thousands and thousands" of new samples. He would not elaborate on the new techniques that will be used.

Dr. Dwight Adams, assistant director of the FBI's laboratory division, said investigators hoped to do a full assessment of any contamination throughout the building and the mailroom and to compare spores with infected letters mailed to Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said last week he would introduce legislation to require the federal government to help decontaminate the building, fearing a hurricane could spread anthrax spores.

[dinasour]

The principle theory is that Osama sent Atta a message to hit the American media. He looked "American Media" up in the yellow pages and was quoted as saing, "Hey, Abdul. hold muh anthrax"...

[dinasour]

saing = saying

I can spell, just can't tipe.

[Aggie Mama]

What Jennifer Lopez letter?

[Quilla]

I consider it highly suspect that both of these leftist entities (Miami Herald, AP) do not mention to proximity of Atta to American Media.

[Bob]

Gee, do you think the FBI finally got a clue that Dr. Hatfill isn't the anthrax mailer?

Or are they perhaps just finally admitting to it?

[Nogbad]

Here's another.

[Mitchell]

Ping.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Eroteme]

I wonder if the admonition to AMI employees not to discuss the Lopez letter has any bearing on why the Leahy letter has never been made public?

It's reasonable to surmise that the Leahy letter differs from the others--otherwise it would have been reported that it was identical to Daschle's or Brokaw's, which were plastered all over the media. The utter silence on the matter--not even a summary of the text--suggests that there's something about the Leahy letter that sets it apart.

The FBI's own stated reason for publicizing the actual pictures of the letters was to trigger recognition among the public. Perhaps that very possibility came back to bite them after the delayed finding of the Leahy letter. Did it contain an odd turn of phrase or quirky wording an AMI employee might recognize? An enclosure, perhaps? A Star of David?

The disassociation between Florida AMI and the DC/NY events would be very hard to maintain in such a case. And very inconvenient, given the Sept. 4th date of the Lopez letter.

[aristeides]

This Jennifer Lopez letter.

[Shermy]

How about checking up the same way on Atta's old haunts in Florida???

[keri]

...investigators hoped to do a full assessment of any contamination throughout the building and the mailroom and to compare spores with infected letters mailed to Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

Progress?

[Mitchell]

...investigators hoped to do a full assessment of any contamination throughout the building and the mailroom and to compare spores with infected letters mailed to Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

This is interesting -- it suggests comparing the physical properties ("weaponization") of the various anthrax samples. If it were a DNA comparison they were planning on doing, they wouldn't need to go back to AMI for more samples, since they've got the sequence from Florida already (the isolate from samples taken from Bob Stevens).

[The Great Satan]

I think we heard about the Leahy letter because it was sent to "Leaky" Leahy, and he needed his moment in the limelight. Probably there are a bunch of other unopened letters there were addressed to people who were a bit more discreet.

[Eroteme]

Interestingly, on Oct. 12, Leahy's office staff began setting aside all mail unopened, as a precaution following the Brokaw letter. That was a full three days before the Daschle letter was found. Now, because Tom Brokaw got an anthrax letter in NY, it naturally follows that Leahy would be next? Pretty prescient staff he's got there.