Anthrax at White House Mail Facility
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 23 -- A mail facility that processes letters to the White House tested positive for anthrax today, as officials confirmed that the bacteria caused the death of two Washington postal workers and may have infected another letter carrier in New Jersey.
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White House press secretary Ari Fleisher announced this afternoon the discovery at a military facility "miles away" from the White House complex. "The investigation is beginning and they are going to try to find the source of it," he said.
The mail site processes all correspondence sent to the White House and to the Secret Service.
A small concentration of anthrax was detected on a mechanical device known as a "slitter," which is used to open mail, Fleischer said. But the anthrax was not found on any mail.
The facility has been closed for further testing and decontamination. All of its employees as well as workers at the mailroom on the White House grounds were to be tested for anthrax.
Environmental tests at the White House have turned up negative for the bacteria.
Fleischer said the source of the anthrax was not immediately known and that all of the mail at the site would be tested. He would not disclose whether mail delivery to the White House had been suspended.
"There is no institution like the White House and there is no target, unfortunately, like the president," added Fleischer.
Asked by reporters if he had been tested for exposure to the bacteria, President Bush replied: "I don't have anthrax."
Mail brought to the site is first processed at the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, where a number of workers have now tested positive for anthrax infections.
• Cause of Two D.C. Deaths Confirmed
Concern over anthrax had deepened even before the White House announcement, as officials confirmed two Washington postal workers died of the disease and a new case of suspected inhalation anthrax emerged in New Jersey.
"We now know that the two deaths that were reported … are confirmed cases of inhalational anthrax," District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams said, referring to two employees at a central mail facility in the Brentwood area of Washington. One man died late Sunday and the other Monday morning.
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