Anthrax at White House Mail Facility

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 23, 2001 -- 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.

MORE ANTHRAX-RELATED NEWS:

• Causes of Two D.C. Deaths Confirmed• New Suspected Inhalation Case in N.J.• FBI to Probe Research Facilities• Congress Back in Business• No Links to Sept. 11 Attacks Found

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.

Two other workers at the facility — a dock supervisor and a man who worked with express and airmail — have been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, the most serious form of the disease. They continue to be listed in critical but stable condition at an area hospital, according to chief D.C. health officer Dr. Ivan Walks.

Health officials have been told to prepare for more new cases of inhalation anthrax, with a number of workers from an airmail center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport — where one of the hospitalized postal employees also worked — showing symptoms consistent with such an infection.

Officials said there were four other cases of suspected anthrax infection citywide, including at least one other worker from the Brentwood facility. Walks said there were also another 12 cases of "very low suspicion" that authorities were monitoring.

Officials also said the Brentwood facility — where an anthrax-tainted letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was processed — had already tested positive for the presence of anthrax and that they were preparing to test some three dozen other area post office facilities.

Federal investigators probing the anthrax attacks in Washington are now considering the possibility that the people responsible for it could themselves be postal workers or have access to postal facilities.

• New Suspected Inhalation Case in N.J.

Authorities today also announced a new case of suspected inhalation anthrax in New Jersey.

Dr. George Diferdinando of the New Jersey Health Department said a letter carrier — a middle-aged woman who worked at the Trenton Main Post Office in Hamilton Township, N.J. — is in serious but stable condition.

Three other postal workers at the facility — where anthrax-contaminated letters mailed to the New York Post, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office in Washington and NBC News headquarters in New York are believed to have been processed — have been diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax, the least serious, skin form of the bacterial infection. Tests have also confirmed the presence of anthrax spores in numerous areas of the facility.

"Our nation is under attack as a result of these mailings and these cases," said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. "We have a war going on overseas and we have a need to defend at home, as well."

Meanwhile, sources said the investigative trail has gone cold in Trenton. Authorities have traced and retraced the route of a female letter carrier — one of the three postal workers diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax — and have seized at least one mailbox, but have reportedly generated no productive leads.

Now they are checking with pharmacies and hospitals in Trenton to see if those responsible for the anthrax attacks may have sought antibiotic treatment, either as a preventative measure or because they infected themselves with the potentially deadly bacteria.

• FBI Probes Research Facilities

ABCNEWS has learned the FBI is focusing its anthrax investigation on dozens of research laboratories across the country.

Investigators looking into the backgrounds of anyone who works or recently worked in research facilities that store anthrax and those that have equipment which could be used to grow and process bacteria.

The bureau is looking for people who have the expertise to produce anthrax-contaminated powder and who may be angry at the government or the media or sympathetic to Islamic extremists.

There are at least 66 facilities that are certified to work with anthrax in the United States, including Los Alamos National Laboratory, Fort Detrick in Maryland, Northern Arizona University and Louisiana State University.

LSU acknowledges the FBI has already been there.

• Congress Back in Business

The House and Senate were back in session today for the first time since last week, when the House adjourned a day early amid concerns that anthrax from a letter opened in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office last Monday may have spread throughout the Capitol complex.

Twenty-eight staffers and Capitol Police officers have tested positive for anthrax exposure, but none are believed to have been infected.

A sweep by hazardous materials officials turned up traces of anthrax in the Hart Senate Office building, where the Daschle letter was opened, and in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and at a mail-processing facility off the Capitol Hill complex, where the Daschle letter likely came through.

The bacteria was also detected in the mailroom at the Ford building, where only House mail is known to be processed, suggesting another tainted letter may have been sent to Capitol Hill.

All but one of the half-dozen Senate and House office buildings were expected to remain closed until at least Thursday as further environmental testing is conducted.

"We're resolved not to allow it to stop the democratic process or this republic," Daschle told reporters on Capitol Hill today.

• No Links to Sept. 11 Found

Federal authorities say there is no evidence that the recent rash of anthrax attacks are linked to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when four hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.

"We are not able to rule out an association with the terrorist acts of September the 11th," Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters at the Justice Department today. "But neither are we able to draw aconclusive link at this time."

Senior law enforcement officials have said the anthrax-laden powder in the letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office was "professionally" manufactured.

They said the substance was highly concentrated and finely milled, allowing it to easily become airborne and infect victims with the extremely lethal inhalant form of the disease. Those qualities suggest the powder was produced by a well-organized and possibly a state-funded operation.

Federal authorities have also revealed that the bacteria found in Daschle's office came from the same strain as the anthrax contained in the letter sent to NBC News headquarters in Manhattan, and that found at American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla.