ANTHRAX HOAXES - WHITE POWDER BLACK HEART

WHITE POWDER BLACK HEART

A COMPILATION OF HOAX LETTERS

Thursday October 2, 2003 6:54PM

Over a year and a half since the mailings of the anthrax letters and the Amerithrax investigation into the first fatal biological attack on Americans appears to have slipped from the back burner off of the stove.

I say, "appears", as we are not privy to the investigative machinations and, perhaps, that's how it should be.

Nevertheless, white powder "hoaxes' continue to plague communities, terrifying recipients, tying up police and hazmat teams from Seattle to the Senate to The U.S. Consulate's visa processing office in Rome.

Reporting on these events has, for the most part, been scant of substitutive details, such as how envelopes are addressed or, more importantly, where they were postmarked.

Rather then rest on his laurels, perhaps the Anthrax Mailer is keeping himself in minor league headlines:

BACKGROUND

Monterey Institute of International Studies

Research Story of the Week

Tracking Anthrax Hoaxes and Attacks

Clayton Lee Waagner, anthrax hoax suspect.

By Laura Snyder and Jason Pate

Much attention has been paid to the anthrax letters sent last fall to major media outlets and two U.S. senators that resulted in five deaths and 17 non-fatal infections. However, in the midst of the turmoil in late 2001, it largely escaped attention that more than 750 hoax letters claiming to contain anthrax were sent worldwide in October and November. More than 550 of these hoax letters were sent to abortion clinics in the United States by a single group called the Army of God.

This was not the first time that abortion clinics were the victim of anthrax hoaxes. In 1998, at least 12 clinics received letters that claimed to contain anthrax, followed by more than 35 such letters in 1999 and over 30 in 2000. Indeed, from 1998 to September 2001, more than 400 anthrax hoaxes occurred in the United States.

THE LETTERS

First Wave: On October 15, 2001, the same day the anthrax-tainted letter was found in Senator Daschles office, nearly 300 family-planning centers received letters purporting to be from U.S. government agencies.[1] The letters, which listed either the U.S. Marshals Service or the U.S. Secret Service as the return address, were also labeled Time SensitiveUrgent Security Notice Enclosed. When opened at abortion clinics around the nation, the envelopes turned out to contain threatening letters from the Army of God, a radical anti-abortion group that has been associated with multiple attacks against abortion doctors and clinics. Accompanied by threatening white powder, later identified as a relatively harmless insecticide, the letters warned recipients that they had been exposed to the bacterium that causes anthrax and described in detail the symptoms of the disease.[2] The letters also cautioned the reader to call the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for treatment.[3]

This wave of hoax letters was concentrated in the South and the Northeast. According to an analysis of 272 letters by the National Abortion Federation, Florida received the most letters (68), followed by Pennsylvania (50), and Ohio (29). Almost all of the October letters were postmarked in Knoxville or Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cleveland or Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; or Washington, D.C.[4]

Second Wave: On November 7, 2001, more than 250 Army of God anthrax hoax letters were received by clinics and advocacy groups.[5] These letters were sent in FedEx envelopes and purported to be from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America or the National Abortion Federation; the sender had somehow obtained the NAF and Planned Parenthood FedEx account numbers and forged the envelopes. This was the first time that FedEx packages had been used to deliver the anthrax threats.

Thirty-one of the letters in this second wave were concentrated in New England, and 20 others were received in the Mid-Atlantic states. One explanation for the fact that very few hoax letters were received on the West Coast is that many of the letters were stopped in transit after postal authorities learned of the other hoaxes.

THE INVESTIGATION

In late November 2001, fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner claimed responsibility for both waves of anti-abortion anthrax hoaxes. Waagner, 44, of Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, had escaped from an Illinois county jail in February 2000 while awaiting sentencing for weapons possession and auto theft. He has known ties to the Army of God and claimed that God had called on him to murder abortion providers and to attack clinics.

Waagners obsession with abortion doctors and clinics began in September 1999, following a funeral service that was held after his daughter suffered a miscarriage. He claims that God called on him to be [his] warrior and kill abortion doctors.[6] In a statement posted online in June 2001, Waagner declared: I am anointed and called to be God's Warrior. And in that call I am protected by THE MOST HIGH GOD.[7] According to Neil Horsley, an Army of God member whom Waagner supposedly visited over Thanksgiving weekend in November 2001, Waagner claimed to have identified 42 abortion clinic workers he was planning to kill.[8]

On December 5, 2001, Waagner was captured outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, and on January 25, 2002, he was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for illegal possession of firearms, theft, and breaking out of prison.[9] On April 18, 2002, Waagner was convicted on six firearms and car theft charges. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.[10] Waagner has been transferred to Philadelphia for questioning in the anthrax hoax letters and will probably stand trial for the hoaxes in summer 2002.

CONCLUSION

Although the media have begun to focus on the anthrax hoax phenomenon in light of the fall 2001 anthrax letter attacks, the hundreds of anthrax hoaxes that occurred in the United States in 1998-2001 received very little attention. It is probably not a coincidence that three years of anthrax hoaxes predated the actual attacks. Although there is as yet no clear linkage between the perpetrators of the anthrax letter attacks and the anthrax hoaxes, systematic tracking of hoax events could provide some basis for bioterrorism response planning.

Sources:

[1] Planned Parenthood Offices Nationwide Receive Envelopes Containing Unknown White Powder, Planned Parenthood, October 19, 2001, <http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/101501anthrax.html>, accessed on October 22, 2001.
[2] Ibid. See also: Police: Top Fugitive Carried Insecticide, Cincinnati Enquirer, December 11, 2001.
[3] Planned Parenthood Offices Nationwide Receive Envelopes Containing Unknown White Powder.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Tamar Lewin, Anthrax Scare Hits Groups Backing Right to Abortion, New York Times, November 9, 2001.
[6] On the Lam, But Online, Salon.com, June 27, 2001, <http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/06/27/waagner/index.html>, accessed on 16 May 2002.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Army of God Terrorist Caught! One Peoples Project, December 2001, <http//www.onepeoplesproject.com/waagner.htm>, accessed on 16 May 2002.
[9] Waagner Receives 30 Year Sentence, Cincinnati Post, January 26, 2002.
[10] Conviction, St. Petersburg Times Wires, April 19, 2002.

Laura Snyder is a 2002 Master of Arts graduate of the International Policy Studies program at the Monterey Institute, and she received a Certificate in Nonproliferation Studies. She has worked as a Research Assistant with the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program (CBWNP) at CNS since 2000.

Jason Pate is Senior Research Associate and Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism Database Manager for the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute.

Author(s): Laura Snyder and Jason Pate
Related Resources: Chem/Bio, Americas, Weekly Story
Date Created: May 20, 2002
Date Updated: -NA-

Center for Nonproliferation Studies
460 Pierce Street, Monterey, CA 93940, USA
Telephone: +1 (831) 647-4154; Fax: +1 (831) 647-3519
E-mail: cns@miis.edu; Web: http://cns.miis.edu

Copyright © 2002 Monterey Institute of International Studies. All rights reserved.

"A copiously researched working paper on bioterrorism produced by the Department of Defense last year reveals that in the past 10 years alone there have been a startling number of cases in the United States involving the threatened use of anthrax.

For example, in July 1997 a number of large U.S. cities, including Tampa, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix and Miami, received a fax that stated that their water supplies had been targeted for contamination with anthrax and botulinum toxin.

In March 1998, a canister marked "anthrax" was found inside a rented car in San Antonio, Texas. In October 1998, three abortion clinics in Louisville, Ky., received letters claiming to contain lethal amounts of anthrax.

In November 1998, a Wal-Mart store in Indiana received an anthrax letter threat. The store was evacuated. On Nov. 18, 1998, an office worker at Ocean Drive, a Miami-based magazine, opened a letter that contained an anthrax threat and a white powder. Workers in the office were treated with ciprofloxacin on the recommendations of the FBI and Army officials.

Also in November 1998, a high school in Virginia Beach, Va., received a telephone threat that the school contained an anthrax bomb. The caller said, "People will die. That is all."

A mail sorter in Pembroke Pines, Fla., on Nov. 21, 1998, found an envelope that had the words, "Congratulations, you have been exposed to anthrax," written on an outside flap. The following month, postal workers in Coppell, Texas, found similar messages on envelopes.

In February 1999, the Los Angeles Times received a letter that claimed to contain anthrax. The same month the U.S. State Department received a letter that claimed to hold anthrax. In February 1999, according to Capitol Hill police, "several congressional offices" received threats in letters that claimed to contain anthrax and other lethal biological agents."

By H.P. Albarelli Jr.
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

Anthrax Hoaxes Abound

It is no joke

Shanghai Star. 2001-10-18

Key US anthrax clues found but hoaxes abound

"Hoaxes, pranks and threats involving chemical or biological agents are serious crimes and warrant a serious response."Robert Mueller,FBI director

WASHINGTON - Amid mounting fear over anthrax, US officials found key similarities in two letters that contained the potentially deadly bacteria but struggled to stem a surge of hoaxes relating to the biological warfare agent.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Tuesday that since October 1, his agency had received 2,300 reports involving anthrax or other dangerous agents, although the overwhelming majority turned out to be "false alarms or practical jokes." The Justice Department announced that federal prosecutors in Connecticut had brought charges against two men relating to hoaxes.

"Hoaxes, pranks and threats involving chemical or biological agents are serious crimes and warrant a serious response," Mueller said during a Washington news conference with Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Also on Tuesday, a US Army facility in Maryland confirmed that a letter sent to the highest-ranking US senator, South Dakota Democrat Tom Daschle, contained anthrax bacteria spores. Searches of media offices in New York, however, failed to detect fresh traces of anthrax.

Two people linked to New York news offices, the 7-month-old son of an ABC News employee and an NBC News employee who handled a tainted letter, have contracted skin anthrax.

No new cases of anthrax were confirmed on Tuesday.

State health officials in Florida backtracked on whether a second employee at American Media Inc, which publishes supermarket tabloid newspapers, had contracted anthrax, as they had said on Monday. And Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called on the government to increase the supply of the antibiotic Cipro, the only approved oral treatment for anthrax, by purchasing cheaper generic versions of the drug.

Health and Human Service Secretary Tommy Thompson said the Bush administration this week would ask Congress to approve extra funds to boost Cipro stockpiles. The US government currently has enough Cipro to treat 2 million people for 60 days. Thompson said the administration would like to increase that by 10 million. Meantime, German drugmaker Bayer AG, agreed to boost production of the antibiotic.

Clues sought

With fears about anthrax gripping Americans and people around the world, US law enforcement officials pieced together clues relating to the few confirmed cases of anthrax being sent through the mail as powdery bacterial spores.

Mueller said there were similarities in the handwriting in anthrax-containing letters sent to anchorman Tom Brokaw of NBC News in New York and to Daschle in Washington. The Justice Department released a copy of the front of each envelope. Both were postmarked from Trenton, New Jersey, and both handwritten in similarly printed letters and numerals.

Ashcroft said authorities believe there may be other similar envelopes out there somewhere.

Ashcroft said investigators had not yet linked letters tainted with anthrax to those responsible for the September 11 plane attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 5,000 people.

"Any time someone sends anthrax through the mail, it's an act of terror. It's terrorism, and we treat it as an act of terror and terrorism," Ashcroft said. "While we have not ruled out linkage to the terrorist attack of September 11 or the perpetrators of that attack, we do not have conclusive evidence that would provide a basis for our conclusion that it is a part of that terrorist endeavor."

President George W. Bush on Monday said "there may be a possible link" between US anthrax cases and Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the September 11 attacks.

Although there is no confirmed link between the cases, fighting bioterrorism has become a top priority for the US government, Tom Ridge, director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, said on Tuesday. "It's the number one priority this week and for the weeks ahead," Ridge said in an interview on NBC.

One person has died and at least two others have contracted anthrax - a sometimes-fatal bacterial disease that can be contracted by breathing in the spores of the bacteria or having them come in contact with the skin. The inhaled form is the deadlier of the two. Tainted letters appear to have been the mode of delivery of the potentially deadly germs. (Agencies via Xinhua)

Copyright by Shanghai Star.

A rarity: hoax letter published on the Internet

"The St. Petersburg Times letter contained what looked like sugar or salt and said:

"Howard Toxler .....1st case of disease now blow away this dust so you can see how the real thing flys. Oklahoma-Ryder Truck! Skyway bridge-18 wheels."

(Troxler's name misspelled)

For Details See Anthrax Profiler:

Anthrax Hoaxes

SKYWAY BRIDGE

The walk of daily life now seems full of peril

St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Oct 10, 2001;

HOWARD TROXLER;

Abstract:
So far most Americans I talk to think the U.S. is getting it right. The attacks seem targeted enough. The president's words were excellent when he explained to the world our war was not against Islam, or the Arab world. Limited strikes on terrorists and the regime, food drops for everybody else - how often has that happened?

Meanwhile, we go to work, go to the ball game, go to the mall (although not as much as the retailers want us to), and return to "normalcy," or at least, what passes for normalcy a month after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Then there's anthrax. Naturally, it had to be in Florida, didn't it? Surely it is just some weird incident involving the tabloids, and not part of a greater scheme. They said that somebody sent them the stuff in an envelope. Honestly, would that be the terrorist order of priorities? The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, maybe the White House - and then America's scandal sheets?

This week it seems as though we have been living a double life, or, more appropriately for the age of 24-hour cable news, a split- screen life.

One side of the screen is "normal" existence. This is the life in which we go to the ball game, take the kids to school and get outside to enjoy the first hints of fall weather.

Normal. Isn't that what our leaders say they want? A feeling of normalcy is what made it possible, say, to be at Tropicana Field on Sunday to watch the Devil Rays play the New York Yankees for the last game of the regular season, or at Raymond James Stadium to watch the Bucs hold off the Packers (whew).

But wait! Before the baseball game, President Bush comes on the big screen and announces that we are bombing the Taliban. A cheer goes up. Then they go on with the ball game - almost as if, in this American League park, we had just heard an update from the National League, and now were getting on with our local business.

There is no established etiquette for how to behave while your nation is launching air strikes. The general consensus seems to be a somber approval by the majority (thankfully, not many people are yelling, "Yahoo!" and holding parties), and unchanged opposition by the minority.

So far most Americans I talk to think the U.S. is getting it right. The attacks seem targeted enough. The president's words were excellent when he explained to the world our war was not against Islam, or the Arab world. Limited strikes on terrorists and the regime, food drops for everybody else - how often has that happened?

Did you watch the videotape of Osama bin Laden? Did you get the idea that he was expecting us to overreact, to flatten Kabul or something like that, and was basing his prerecorded appeal on that assumption? If so we are beating him (and terrorism) already.

Meanwhile, we go to work, go to the ball game, go to the mall (although not as much as the retailers want us to), and return to "normalcy," or at least, what passes for normalcy a month after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Normalcy is playing on one screen.

Yet the other half of the story is that we are darned tense. It is just beneath the surface of almost every conversation. That helicopter hovering in the sky, the prop plane circling overhead, each unusual thing draws extra notice. Say, isn't that an unusual trail for a jet? There is nothing now that seems too incredible to believe.

Then there's anthrax. Naturally, it had to be in Florida, didn't it? Surely it is just some weird incident involving the tabloids, and not part of a greater scheme. They said that somebody sent them the stuff in an envelope. Honestly, would that be the terrorist order of priorities? The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, maybe the White House - and then America's scandal sheets?

This is what I was saying Tuesday morning, just before grabbing a bite for lunch, coming back and getting my mail out of the office mailbox. One letter, a standard business envelope, had my name scrawled in front with no return address. On the back across the flaps was a sticker depicting the American flag, turned upside down.

I started to open it, and a few grains of something white, kind of like salt or sugar, poured out. There was more of it inside. What would you do at this point? A month ago I would have read it and thrown it in the crackpot file. Now I announced to the room in general, "Excuse me, I have an envelope full of white powder here."

Somebody called security. The police came, and then the Fire Department's hazardous materials team, who carefully sealed it up and took it away. Everybody was efficient, professional and impressive. I apologized for taking their time, but they said this was the right way to do things. I was glad they were there. Everybody including me said, about 100 times: better safe than sorry. A new national motto."

NEWS MEDIA

(Also See Anthrax Profiler - "Hoaxes" Click Here)

ANTHRAX BY PROXY:

White powder in envelopes sent to Sacramento federal judges

By Sam Stanton and Denny Walsh -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 5:14 p.m. PST Monday, March 3, 2003

Two federal judges in Sacramento received envelopes containing a mysterious white powder Monday.

The FBI said no one was injured, although the receipt of the envelopes at the federal courthouse in downtown Sacramento forced a partial evacuation.

Preliminary tests later determined the powder was non-toxic, officials said, but county health officials expected to continue studying the origin of the substance.

The incident at the federal building began about 12:30 p.m. as employees of the courthouse were sorting mail and a small amount of white powder was found inside one of the mail bins the envelopes were delivered in.
The envelopes were addressed to judges who have recently presided over prosecutions of medical marijuana advocates.

The four employees in the room where the mail was being handled were isolated for several hours, while four other employees - a judge and his three-person staff - were evacuated from the 16th floor.

A county hazardous material team and Sacramento Fire Department personnel arrived to secure the area and search the mail bins.

Both envelopes had return addresses from Washington, D.C., and appeared to have been designed to appear as though they came from a government agency.

Both came in legal size, white envelopes and were typewritten, with one addressed to U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. and the other addressed to U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski.

Tuesday, March 18, 2003
White powder on letters causes scare

Suspicious material identified as wheat farina, drywall dust

By MATTHEW CRAFT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Seattle police and fire departments responded to a flurry of reports yesterday morning from callers who found envelopes covered in a white powder.

In six of the cases, all in West Seattle, an envelope with writing on it was found covered in what turned out to be wheat farina, according to the Seattle Fire Department. The flour or meal is used in cooked cereal.

At the Internal Revenue Service's office in the Federal Building downtown, workers found white powder on the doorknob. It turned out to be drywall dust left from construction done in the building.

Poon Lee, the service manager at Dere Auto Repair in West Seattle, said a mechanic found the envelope when he opened the shop. It was dropped through the mail slot and he could only make out the word "America" written on the envelope. Wheat farina obscured the rest.

"It's just weird," Lee said. "If they wanted to scare somebody, I'd expect them to put it where there are lots of people, a big building."

The first call came at 6:44 a.m. from the post office on California Avenue in West Seattle. Police removed 28 employees and closed off the two blocks around the post office after workers found an envelope left in a drop-off box outside the building.In the four other instances, the envelopes were found on top of large, blue mailboxes along sidewalks in West Seattle.

When responding to the report on 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Henderson Street, the Fire Department's hazardous-materials team was already at Dere Auto Repair. So the officers just walked up the street.

Police kept the envelopes and are investigating. Seattle police spokesman Duane Fish said he wasn't sure with what the culprit, if caught, could be charged.

P-I reporter Matthew Craft

Envelopes with white powder determined to be hoaxes, officials said

By Dave Birkland
Seattle Times staff reporter

Envelopes containing white powder, some containing anti-war messages, were found at six locations in West Seattle this morning, and all were quickly determined to be hoaxes, officials said.

At mid-morning, no one had taken responsibility, nor were there any suspects, according to Seattle police, whose bomb squad responded to the sites.

All six appeared to be linked. The white powder on each was determined to be wheat flour, according to Helen Fitzpatrick.

It started about 7 a.m., when an employee at the West Seattle Post Office, 4412 California Ave. S.W., found a large envelope containing white powder and an "anti-war message" written on a piece of paper, said Ernie Swanson, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

Twenty eight postal employees were evacuate, but were returned to the building when powder was determined to be flour, Swanson said.

About 9 a.m., an employee at the Westwood Village post office on Southwest Trenton Street found an envelope, also with white powder and an anti-war message. The building was evacuated but everyone was returned when the powder was determined to be harmless.

"They seem to be very similar, and the post offices are only three or four miles apart," Swanson said.

The third site was an auto repair shop at 9201 35th Ave. S.W., where someone slipped an envelope with powder on it inside the mail slot, Fitzpatrick said. About the same time, another such letter was found inside street-side mail box at 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Henderson Street.

The fifth and sixth sites were in the 6000 block of California Avenue Southwest, and then the 2900 block of Southwest Avalon Way. The powder on each letter was determined to be the same, wheat flour, Fitzpatrick said.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Local News

White substance in anthrax scare deemed not lethal
Officials still unsure what powdery substance is, but have ruled out anthrax
By Tim Koehler
The Marion Star

MARION -- It was business as usual Wednesday for one Kable Fulfillment Services of Ohio Inc. mail clerk, just one day after she discovered an unknown white powder spilling from an envelope. This marked the second time for a substance scare at this letter and package business, since the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Marion Township Fire Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Office, responded to the scene Tuesday at 12:40 p.m., and treated the suspicious substance as if it were anthrax. Forty employees were removed from the vicinity and the air conditioning system was shut down to prevent the substance from spreading.

The envelope with a Pittsburgh postmark was placed in a plastic bag and then sealed in a second bag. The sheriff's office submitted the white substance to the Ohio Department of Health for its analysis. Kable learned Wednesday morning that the substance was not lethal.

"ODH called us between 9:30 and 10 a.m.," said Ed Danner, vice president of operations at Kable. "They said the substance was nonhazardous. We're free and in the clear."

Deborah Shurtleff of Marion was working at Kable, located at 1290 Mount Vernon Ave., when the powder spilled. She notified a fellow employee nearby of the substance spill. They called 9-1-1.

Firefighters advised her to wash her hands in an anti-bacterial soap. The sheriff notified her husband to bring a change of clothes for her. She removed her clothes behind a couple of blankets. The clothes were quarantined. Shurtleff was advised to go home and shower twice. Clorox was used to sanitize the work area.

"I came back Wednesday at 7 a.m.," said Shurtleff, who was worked at Kable since Sept. 1996. "They (ODH) called me back and I found out from my supervisor. I called my husband right away. What helped me was that I went to church on Tuesday night. People joined hands with me and prayed for me."
Marilyn Patton of Marion experienced a similar incident in 2001 at Kable. In that instance, the substance proved to be nonharmful, also.

Bob Cramer, facilities director for Kable, said that following 2001, Kable isolated its mail-opening department and spent $50,000 to install a separate air system, seal the area with double doors and installed a negative air-pressure system to keep the air inside.

Kable, which employees 300 people, trained its employees on how to enclose suspicious envelopes in plastic bags and remain still if such a substance were found.

"She followed the guidelines to a T," Danner said of Shurtleff. "I feel good about what we've done for our employees."

According to the Center of Disease Control, anthrax is a disease associated with animals, which rarely spreads to humans. A bacterium called Bacillus anthracites seeds itself by forming long-lasting spores. The spores grow rapidly inside the body, causing dangerous infection. Anthrax can be treated if caught early.

Anthrax can be spread from infectious animals or contaminated animal products. Uncommonly, it is spread from eating raw meat. Even more uncommon is from inhaling several thousands of spores.

Natural strains of anthrax may be resistant to antibiotics, but are sensitive to penicillin. Doxycyline and ciprofloxacin are the most effective treatments. Treatments may last for 60 days.

Anthrax cannot spread from person to person.

Kristopher Weiss, a spokesman for ODH, said his department received more than 1,000 substance samples after Sept. 11, 2001. However, anthrax was never found, only substances like baby powder. Now his office sees only a trickle of samples.

Originally published Thursday, April 10, 2003

http://www.marionstar.com/news/stories/20030410/localnews/96051.html

Rather then rest on his laurels, perhaps the Anthrax Mailer is keeping himself in minor league headlines:

White powder in envelopes sent to Sacramento federal judges

By Sam Stanton and Denny Walsh -- Bee Staff Writers Published 5:14 p.m. PST Monday, March 3, 2003

Two federal judges in Sacramento received envelopes containing a mysterious white powder Monday.

The FBI said no one was injured, although the receipt of the envelopes at the federal courthouse in downtown Sacramento forced a partial evacuation.

Preliminary tests later determined the powder was non-toxic, officials said, but county health officials expected to continue studying the origin of the substance.

The incident at the federal building began about 12:30 p.m. as employees of the courthouse were sorting mail and a small amount of white powder was found inside one of the mail bins the envelopes were delivered in.

The envelopes were addressed to judges who have recently presided over prosecutions of medical marijuana advocates.

The four employees in the room where the mail was being handled were isolated for several hours, while four other employees - a judge and his three-person staff - were evacuated from the 16th floor.

A county hazardous material team and Sacramento Fire Department personnel arrived to secure the area and search the mail bins.

Both envelopes had return addresses from Washington, D.C., and appeared to have been designed to appear as though they came from a government agency.

Both came in legal size, white envelopes and were typewritten, with one addressed to U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. and the other addressed to U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski.

*****************

Envelopes with white powder sent to four GOP lawmakers Initial field tests for anthrax negative

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Envelopes containing white, chalky powder were delivered to four Republican lawmakers Friday, but initial field tests were negative for the presence of anthrax, authorities said.

More tests are planned and an investigation is under way. One source said the FBI has picked up "three batches" of letters.

One congressional aide said he was told by Capitol Police there was nothing to worry about. But further tests, which could take up to three days, are planned to determine if the powder contained any anthrax spores that were killed in the irradiation process that all Capitol mail must go through.

One of the envelopes was sent to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and the other three were sent to the offices of freshmen Republican senators: Georgia's Saxby Chambliss, Minnesota's Norm Coleman and Tennessee's Lamar Alexander.

John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, said all of the envelopes had a Seattle, Washington, postmark. The envelopes, described as normal business type, were received at the offices Friday.

A spokeswoman for the Capitol Police said the envelopes appeared to come from the same source because of the postmark, but none of them had a return address. She did not know if they contained any threatening messages.

Michelle Hitt, press secretary to Chambliss, said the envelope was opened at about 11:45 a.m. by a staff assistant. It contained a single blank, white sheet of paper, she said. When the assistant opened the letter, white powder fell into his lap. He immediately called police. There was no evacuation.

Chambliss' office is in the courtyard of the Russell Senate Office Building, a temporary location because of crowding.

At Coleman's temporary office, in the basement of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, an aide said the envelope was opened at 10 a.m. Chief-of-staff Tom Mason said the envelope was empty except for the white powder, which fell onto the shirt of the attendant who opened it.

After testing the substance, Capitol Police told staff members there was nothing to worry about, Mason said.

He described the reaction to the suspicious envelope as "terrific, calm and professional."

The envelope sent to DeLay's office was not opened as the staffer who handled it felt a "crunchy" substance inside and called authorities.

-- CNN Capitol Hill Producer Ted Barrett, Correspondent Mike Brooks and CNNRadio Congressional Correspondent John Bisney contributed to this report.

*************************

Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 01:09 a.m. Pacific

Letters with white powder sent to U.S. Capitol from Seattle

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Capitol police this morning were investigating at least four letters containing white powder - all postmarked from Seattle - that were addressed to several U.S. senators and the House Majority leader.

The powder was tested and police determined it was not anthrax, said Kimberly Ballinger, Capitol Police spokeswoman. All postage to the Capitol is taken to an outside location by the US Postal Service and irradiated. Even if the white powder was Anthrax, it would have been harmless by the time the letters were opened, said Ballinger.

The letters were addressed to Rep. Tom DeLay, House Majority leader, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman and Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, according to MSNBC.

The letters had a Seattle post-mark, but no return address, Ballinger said.

"It happens everyday here," she said. "We don't consider it an issue unless it (the tests) turn out positive."

************************

Letters containing white powder sent to 4 Republican lawmakers

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (February 28, 2:20 p.m. PST) - Suspicious letters with white powder inside were found in the offices of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and at least three freshmen senators Friday, but police determined the material was not dangerous, aides said.

The House Emergency Communications Center, in an internal memo to House offices, said Capitol Police conducted tests that were negative. Police took the letters and were investigating, the memo said.

"It appeared to be a hoax," said Angie Lundberg, spokeswoman for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.

The offices of Chambliss, Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., received the letters in the Senate, aides said.

In October, 2001, envelopes laced with anthrax were sent to the offices of Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Since then all mail addressed to Capitol offices is screened and irradiated before being delivered.

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Suspicious parcel found at Auckland mail centre

05 March 2003

Police were called to a central Auckland mail centre last night after a package leaking white powder was discovered.

The scare came hot on the heels of a threatening letter sent to the New Zealand Herald yesterday setting a deadline for terrorist action.

The letter was taken away immediately by police, who are already investigating four similar threatening letters sent to the newspaper, American embassy and British and Australian High Commissions.

Inspector Dave Montgomery, from the police northern communications centre in Auckland, said police were called by postal workers at the Victoria St West Post Office in the central city about 6.50pm yesterday when a parcel leaking white powder was found.

A special police team was sent in to recover the package and ensure no further powder leaked.

Mr Montgomery said it was not unusual for white powder to be found amongst mail but postal staff were being cautious after one of the previous letters which was sent to the British High Commission tested positive for cyanide.

The package had been forwarded to the ESR for testing.

Mr Montgomery said postal staff called police every time white powder was found in mail.

"With all the packages containing white powder that we have dealt with we haven't had anything, any anthrax, yet.

"The postal service definitely look out for these sorts of things, its just we don't usually get so much interest."

He said it was appropriate for police to be called in such cases.

***************************

Postal employees in isolation after exposure to powder Wednesday,March5,2003,2:35 PM

By NewsRadio WMTW Staff 870/1470 AM and 106.7 FM

AUBURN -- The postal service now says a handful of employees exposed to some kind of white powder in Auburn Wednesday morning are in isolation.

They're not releasing a lot of details, spokeswoman Christine Dugas said they were near a co-worker who discovered the powder while sorting mail around 6 a.m. at the Rodman Road plant.

"An employee that came in contact with that white powder was taken to a medical facility for observation just to make sure that he was tested and make sure there was no danger to that employee," Dugas said. "And the standard operating procedure that the postal service put in place a year and a half ago was followed."

The Rodman Road building has been evacuated. Dugas says an environmental team will be brought in to scrub it down. She says mail service to Auburn could be disrupted Wednesday

**************************

Web Posted Feb 26 2003 04:28 PM CST

Another hoax at Edmonton post office

Edmonton - For the second time in two months, an envelope containing white powder has been sent to a postal station, alarming staff and customers and requiring the presence of the emergency response team.

Edmonton post office

The white powder was tested to determine whether it was anthrax, but those came back negative, just as it did the first time. The building was re-opened after about an hour.

About 1 p.m. Wednesday, emergency crews were called to Postal Station D in the city's northwest, the same postal station where last month authorities mistakenly classified white powder in an envelope as anthrax. In both cases, white powder had fallen out of an envelope.

On Jan. 2, about 150 postal workers were quarantined for more than three hours when white powder fell from an envelope addressed to the federal gun registry. It initially tested positive as anthrax, but additional tests came back negative.

Edmonton emergency officials say the false-positive was created because the sample put in the machine wasn't large enough.

******************

Jewish Group Gets Threatening Powder Letter

February 27, 2003, 5:44 PM EST

The office of a Jewish women's group received a threatening letter that contained white powder Thursday, police said. No one was hurt, and the letter was being tested.

The letter arrived just before noon at the New York office of Hadassah, at 50 W. 58th St. in midtown Manhattan. Police said the letter contained threatening anti-Jewish statements, but they would not elaborate.

The letter was sent to the city health department for testing, and police were investigating.

Letters containing harmless white powder have been sent as pranks since October 2001, when deadly anthrax circulated through the U.S. mail.

A man who answered the telephone late Thursday at the Hadassah office had no comment.

Hadassah, founded in 1912, is a volunteer women's organization whose members "are motivated and inspired to strengthen their partnership with Israel, ensure Jewish continuity and realize their potential as a dynamic force in American society," according to its Web site

****************************

Jewish Group Gets Threatening Powder Letter

POSTED: 8:22 a.m. EST February 28, 2003

NEW YORK -- The office of a Jewish women's group received a threatening letter that contained white powder Thursday, police said. No one was hurt, and the letter was being tested.

The letter arrived just before noon at the New York office of Hadassah, at 50 W. 58th St. in midtown Manhattan. Police said the letter contained threatening anti-Jewish statements, but they would not elaborate.

The letter was sent to the city health department for testing, and police were investigating.

Letters containing harmless white powder have been sent as pranks since October 2001, when deadly anthrax circulated through the U.S. mail.

A man who answered the telephone late Thursday at the Hadassah office had no comment.

Hadassah, founded in 1912, is a volunteer women's organization whose members "are motivated and inspired to strengthen their partnership with Israel, ensure Jewish continuity and realize their potential as a dynamic force in American society," according to its Web site.

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.

**********************

NY High Court Building Evacuated After Suspicious Powder Is Found

February 28, 2003, 1:22 PM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The state Court of Appeals building was evacuated Friday morning after an envelope containing white powder was opened, authorities said.

Two court officers, who were opening mail, six construction workers nearby, and another court employee were taken to Albany Medical Center to be evaluated as a precaution.

A hazardous materials team was called in, and the substance was taken to the state Department of Health's Wadsworth Labs, said Court of Appeals spokesman Gary Spencer.

About 120 people, mainly construction workers, were evacuated after the 10 a.m. incident.

Spencer did not know who the envelope was addressed to, but said there was no return address.

"Construction work has been shut down for the day," Spencer said. "Resumption depends on what the lab finds."

Court is not in session this week or next week, Spencer said.

"We don't know if this is connected to what's going on between the U.S. and Iraq, or if it's a court issue that someone was displeased with something going on there. It's too early to say," Department of Public Safety spokesman James Miller told WNYT-TV.

While cases are still being tried in the courthouse, the building near the state Capitol is undergoing a $37.3 million restoration. About 100 employees of the state's highest court administrative offices have been temporarily relocated to a building in suburban Albany during construction.

The project is expected to be completed in late summer.

Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

****************************

Powder alarms post office

Employee found substance on letter

02/21/03

Christi Stevens

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Hazardous materials officials were called to the Homosassa Post Office on Thursday after a mail sorter discovered a mysterious white powder on an envelope.

The 911 call was made at 9:48 a.m. from the post office on U.S. 19, just south of the Yulee Drive intersection.

Mark Hannah, the office supervisor, said an employee noticed a substance he described as similar to crumbs on a letter.

He said the mail sorter notified him and they placed the letter inside a plastic bag.

"It looked like cookie crumbs," he said.

Hannah said no one was injured in the incident and employees returned to work. He said the mail from that route was isolated while office personnel waited on word from hazardous materials officials.

"We're going to see some people who aren't happy that their mail is late," he said. "But there was no panic."

Christa Starkey was the employee who found the substance.

She said it spilled down the front of her shirt. She said she brushed it off and then realized it could be something dangerous. She said she alerted her supervisor, washed down with bleach and changed her shirt.

While the office was returning to business as usual, she worried that she may have come in contact with a dangerous substance.

"You see it every night on the news: high alert, high alert," she said. "It could be anything. It could be any kind of poison."

Starkey said her first thought was that it might be another anthrax-tainted letter, like the ones discovered after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Just to be safe, Starkey said she left work and had her husband take her to an emergency room to be checked out.

Public Safety Director Charles Poliseno said Thursday that preliminary field tests revealed the substance was not any kind of biologic weapon or toxic chemical. He said it's definitely not anthrax.

"It does not appear to be anything significant," he said, adding that hazardous materials officials don't know exactly what the substance is.

Poliseno said the investigation would be turned over to the U.S. Postal Inspector's Office

*************************

Anthrax Scare Closes N.J. Post Office

Sunday February 16, 2003 5:20 PM

LONG HILL TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - Authorities in New Jersey, where at least five anthrax-laden letters were mailed in 2001, closed another post office after white powder fell from a package containing a threatening letter.

An initial test was negative for anthrax, but a secondary test was inconclusive, Postal Service spokesman Tony Esposito said. He said one employee came in contact with the powder but didn't appear to have symptoms.

The post office was closed Saturday as a precaution, pending tests by the state health department.

The substance was discovered Friday night when a postmark machine stamped a padded envelope addressed to an eastern Pennsylvania residence and the powder spilled out, Esposito told The Star-Ledger of Newark. He wouldn't say what town the letter was destined for.

The substance was discovered Friday night when a postmark machine stamped a padded envelope addressed to an eastern Pennsylvania residence and the powder spilled out, Esposito told The Star-Ledger of Newark. He wouldn't say what town the letter was destined for.

Five stores surrounding the post office branch were also closed through Saturday afternoon.

New Jersey became a focus of anthrax fears in 2001, when tainted letters stamped with Trenton postmarks were sent to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, the New York Post and the Washington, D.C., offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy. Five people died and 13 others were sickened in anthrax attacks.

The FBI has yet to name a suspect, though officials say there are about 30 ``persons of interest.''

The post office closed Saturday is about 45 miles north of Trenton.

***************************

Anthrax Scare Closes Morris County Post Office

(Long Hill Township-AP, February 16, 2003) - Authorities closed a post office after white powder fell from a package that contained a threatening letter intended for a Pennsylvania resident, police said.

Learn More about Anthrax

The substance was discovered around 6:30 p.m. Friday when a postmark machine stamped a padded envelope and the powder spilled out, Postal Service spokesman Tony Esposito said.

An initial test was negative for anthrax, but a secondary test was inconclusive, Esposito said.

The post office in the Gillette section of the township was closed Saturday as a precaution, pending tests by the state Department of Health and Senior Services. Those results will be ready Tuesday, Esposito said.

Esposito declined to name the intended recipient of the letter or the town in eastern Pennsylvania to which the letter was addressed.

"Just one employee came in contact with the substance," Esposito told The Star-Ledger of Newark. "The employee did not seem to have any symptoms of anything."

The five stores surrounding the post office branch were closed until 1 p.m. Saturday, and police recommended voluntary evacuations of several apartments located above the shops.

"They offered the residents in the apartments above to leave," said Capt. Sam Hishmeh of the Long Hill Township Police. "No one decided to leave."

New Jersey was has been a focus of anthrax fears since 2001, when tainted letters were addressed to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, the New York Post and the Washington, D.C., offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy. All bore Trenton postmarks.

Five people died and 13 others were sickened in the attacks last fall. There were five confirmed anthrax infections and two suspected cases in New Jersey - all but one in postal workers - but no fatalities.

The FBI has yet to name a suspect, though officials say there are about 30 "persons of interest."

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.

*********************

Powder in letter closes Gillette post office

02/20/2003

LONG HILL TWP. - At a time when the nation was holding its collective breath over terrorism, another sad reminder of the fall of 2001 forced the closing of the Gillette post office Friday, Feb. 14 when it received a suspicious letter containing a powdery substance.

Township police said the large padded envelope, received at 4:15 p.m. was addressed to a Pennsylvania location and contained a threatening message. Police responded at 6:26 p.m., later joined by the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and the U.S. Postal Service.

The letter was collected by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for further examination and testing of the powdery substance, which Long Hill Police Chief Michael Peoples said was "white or light brown" in color. Two tests were conducted over the weekend, with one testing negative and another inconclusive. A third test was scheduled for Tuesday morning, Feb. 18.

The Gillette post office remained closed as of Tuesday morning. Postal delivery for the Gillette area was being handled through the Berkeley Heights Township post office, although Postal Service authorities would not elaborate.

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office and the Newark branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined comment Tuesday, Feb. 18.

Anthrax Caused Anxiety

In October 2001, weeks after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, several citizens and postal workers died from contact with letters laced with the toxin anthrax.

The incidents forced the closing of postal distribution centers in Hamilton Township and Washington, D.C., and for several months, people throughout the nation used plastic gloves and other precautions when opening mail.

The person responsible for the 2001 incidents has yet to be found.

After consultation with the township Board of Health, police ordered all businesses in the Gillette mall, a small strip center on Valley Road just east of Mountain Avenue, to close Friday evening. They remained closed until the Board of Health met with the DEP on Saturday and gave them the green light to open.

"The post office has its own ventilation system," Peoples said.

Some Open, Some Close

Several businesses, such as the Lung Yan Chinese restaurant, were open Saturday afternoon. One business, America On Rye, didn't open at all Saturday and posted a sign saying it was due to the incident at the post office.

Another sign told those needing postal services Saturday morning, Feb. 15 to visit the Stirling post office on Valley Road or to head east to the Berkeley Heights Township post office.

All post offices were closed Monday, Feb. 17 for Presidents' Day.

Residents of second-floor apartments directly above the businesses were given the option to voluntarily leave. However, Peoples said, none of the residents exercised that option.

©Recorder Newspapers 2003

****************************

Anthrax scare closes Morris post office

Tests results are awaited on powder found in threatening letter

Sunday, February 16, 2003

BY MATTHEW J. DOWLING

Star-Ledger Staff

Authorities closed a post office in Morris County yesterday after a white powdery substance leaked from a small package that contained a threatening letter intended for a Pennsylvania resident, police and postal officials said.

The substance was discovered Friday evening at the post office in the Gillette section of Long Hill Township when a postmark machine stamped a padded envelope, said Postal Service spokesman Tony Esposito. A white powder shot out of the envelope, he said.

The powder was immediately tested for anthrax, officials said. An initial test came up negative, Esposito said. However, a secondary test was inconclusive, and the post office was closed yesterday as a precaution, he said.

Conclusive tests by the state Department of Health and Senior Services will not be available until Tuesday, Esposito said.

"Just one employee came in contact with the substance," Esposito said. "The employee did not seem to have any symptoms of anything."

People who inhale anthrax spores might at first feel as if they are coming down with a cold. The illness rapidly progresses to severe breathing problems and can become fatal within days. About 95 percent of all known infections occur when the bacterium enters through an opening in the skin, causing a raised, itchy bump that can develop into a large ulcer.

Anthrax is easily treatable with antibiotics. The post office employee and a postal inspector who responded from Newark to help investigate the substance may take the antibiotic Cipro as a precaution, Esposito said.

He described the parcel as a standard padded envelope addressed to an individual in eastern Pennsylvania, though he declined to name the intended recipient or the exact town.

The letter contained threats directed specifically at the individual. The package had a Pennsylvania return address, which was determined to be fictitious, he said.

The five stores surrounding the post office branch in the Gillette Mall were closed until 1 p.m. yesterday, and police recommended voluntary evacuations of the several apartments located above the shops, police said.

"They offered the residents in the apartments above to leave," said Capt. Sam Hishmeh of the Long Hill Township Police. "No one decided to leave."

The stores in the strip mall were allowed to reopen after it was determined that none shared a ventilation system with the post office, Hishmeh said. The post office is expected to remain closed at least until Tuesday, though the branch would have been closed tomorrow anyway for Presidents Day.

Hishmeh said postal officials contacted his department at 6:26 p.m. Friday, about two hours after the substance was first discovered. Investigators believe the package was placed in a drop box in Gillette and brought to the post office for processing, he said.

Hishmeh said about three postal employees handled the package at some point before the white substance spilled out. One employee had direct contact with the envelope after the powdery contents were expelled, he said.

"The exposure was limited," Hishmeh said. Clothing was collected from the employees, and they were told to shower immediately as a precaution, he said.

Esposito said the postal service has implemented extensive procedures and training for responding to suspicious packages following the postal anthrax attacks that gripped the nation in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"Everything was handled very well," Esposito said. "We'll be working to identify the person responsible for mailing this."

Since the anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, postal officials have responded to occasional incidents of an anthrax-like substances found in the mail. None of the threats have turned out to be real.

Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger

**********************************

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 9:15 p.m. EST

Hannity, O'Reilly Hit by Anthrax Scare Letters

"In addition to the letters with an Indianapolis postmark, "one or two were from Trenton (N.J.)"

Fox News Channel personalities Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were hit by threatening letters similar to those laden with anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, the New York Post reported Thursday.

"In my gut, I know it's the same person," Hannity told his nationally syndicated radio audience Thursday afternoon, explaining that he'd kept quiet about the suspicious letters because they were the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation.

The letters arrived before Sept. 11 but were addressed in the same kind of block letter handwriting used in Daschle and Brokaw missives. They apparently contained no anthrax.

Each line in the printed address clearly sloped downward to the right, the paper said. The envelopes bore a postmark from Indianapolis, where the Post Office discovered yesterday that some of its equipment is contaminated with anthrax.

Hannity said that he'd begun receiving the suspicious mail last winter and again in August.

"When I saw the Tom Daschle envelope and the Tom Brokaw envelope, I immediately was stunned," Hannity told listeners. "It was the exact same handwriting that I had recognized. ... When I saw it I said, 'Oh my God, that's the same guy.'"

The "Hannity & Colmes" co-host revealed that in addition to the letters with an Indianapolis postmark, "one or two were from Trenton (N.J.)," where traces of anthrax have also been reported.

Hannity said he hasn't gotten any more of the letters since the Sept. 11 attacks and hasn't been tested for anthrax exposure.

B'nai B'rith 1997

"On April 24, 1997, a petri dish labeled "anthrachs" (anthrax mispelled) arrived in a package mailed to the offices of B'nai B'rith - a Jewish social service agency in Washington, D.C. The dish contained a red, gelatinous material which, nine hours later, was determined to be harmless. Meanwhile, police cordoned off the area around the building, rerouted traffic, and quarantined more than a hundred B'nai B'rith employees and residents of a nearby hotel.

Some of the police who walked into the "hot zone" without protective gear balked at the emergency medical team's orders to take their clothes off and shower. In one instance a policeman struck an emergency service worker before high-ranking officers prevailed on him to obey."

The substance in the envelope turned out to be bacillus cereus* -- a non-pathogenic cousin to anthrax that is not widely available outside of hospitals and labs.
The envelope came complete with a typed,
two-page rambling note that included such statements as,

"the only good Jew is an Orthodox Jew."

July/August 1999
Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 7-13

Bulletins

Anthrax hoaxes: hot new hobby?

Anthrax hoaxes: hot new hobby?

On April 24, 1997, a petri dish labeled "anthrachs" arrived in a package mailed to the offices of B'nai B'rith in Washington, D.C. The dish contained a red, gelatinous material which, nine hours later, was determined to be harmless. Meanwhile, police cordoned off the area around the building, rerouted traffic, and quarantined more than a hundred B'nai B'rith employees and residents of a nearby hotel.

Some of the police who walked into the "hot zone" without protective gear balked at the emergency medical team's orders to take their clothes off and shower. In one instance a policeman struck an emergency service worker before high-ranking officers prevailed on him to obey.

It was the nation's first major anthrax hoax. But not the last.

In February the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that between October 30 and December 23 of last year, seven major anthrax threats were recorded. Letters claimed to contain bacteria, or phone calls warned that anthrax had been placed in ventilation systems at health clinics and other buildings in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and California.

As many as 1,800 potential victims were prescribed a variety of protective measures. At some locations they were told to go home, place their clothes in plastic bags, and shower. At others, they were quarantined, made to take their clothes off and shower with soap and diluted bleach, and begin taking antibiotics. In a few cases, presumed victims were hospitalized for observation. In each case, after a day or two--or sometimes longer--lab tests showed no evidence of anthrax contamination.

The surge in incidents had just begun. On Christmas Eve, a day after the period covered by the CDC report, a Palm Desert, California department store received a phoned anthrax threat. Two hundred shoppers and employees were made to strip and shower in a makeshift outdoor facility. A few days later, a similar threat was made to a Pomona nightclub, and 800 people were evacuated and quarantined for four hours.

On February 5, the very day the CDC issued its report, the media reported four more incidents. Letters claiming to contain anthrax arrived at the Washington Post and a federal building in Washington, at a post office in Columbus, Georgia, and at an NBC news office in Atlanta. The Atlanta threat prompted the evacuation of a three-block area; a dozen people underwent decontamination and were taken to a hospital.

In the following weeks, the hoaxes kept on coming. Between February 18 and 22, there were 35 more anthrax alarms. One threat, made during a snowstorm in Kansas City, Missouri, resulted in 20 people being made to leave a Planned Parenthood Clinic. They then endured an outdoor shower and scrub-down (with their clothes on) in freezing temperatures.

By March, Neil Gallagher, assistant director of the FBI's national security division, reflected on the Bureau's frustration: "Not a day goes by without us hearing from somewhere in the United States about an anthrax threat" (Deseret News, March 3, 1999).

By May, sending a letter or making a phone call claiming to have spread anthrax seemed to have surpassed the time-tested phoned-in bomb threat in popularity. Reports of anthrax hoaxes were averaging more than one a day, and had disrupted the lives of more than 10,000 presumed victims.

So how did anthrax hoaxes become so popular? Was it the success of the hoax at B'nai B'rith? Did would-be hoaxers pick up on dire government warnings of apocalyptic events? Were they influenced by imaginative novels like The Cobra Event, or did they get the idea at the movies? Or was it the result of some local TV station's sweeps-week story touting how easily the water supply might be contaminated?

We all remember Defense Secretary William Cohen, a 5-pound bag of Domino sugar in his hand, claiming that an equal amount of anthrax would wipe out half the population of Washington. And did the military's controversial decision to vaccinate U.S. troops against anthrax give the threat a special cachet?

Anthrax was mentioned as a possible Iraqi weapon during the Gulf War in 1991. But interest in it faded quickly after the war. In the mid-1990s, however, U.N. weapons inspectors expressed suspicion that Iraq might still be harboring anthrax weapons. Also in 1995, chemical terrorism captured headlines when the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin, a nerve agent, in the Tokyo subway.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon had begun to lump biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons into an inclusive new category as "WMD," or "weapons of mass destruction." These threats, reportedly brandished by an assortment of "rogue states," also helped the Pentagon, not inconveniently, justify its still sizable post-Cold War military budget.

Still, on the domestic front, official Washington remained unconcerned. On February 22, 1996, a spokesman for the Defense Intelligence Agency told the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence that his agency knew of no terrorist organizations that were actually "developing chemical, biological, or radiological weapons." Similarly, an FBI spokesman said that the Bureau was unaware of any bioweapons threat from any international or domestic groups.

But things change. In May 1997, within days of the anthrax hoax at B'nai B'rith, FBI director Louis Freeh offered a very different view. The acquisition or use of biological or other weapons of mass destruction by individuals or terrorist groups, he said, "constitutes one of the gravest threats to the United States."

Stories about the threat of germ warfare and bioterrorism, often naming anthrax as a likely weapon, began to appear with greater frequency: The New York Times publishes an annual index listing the stories it prints by category. There were 27 stories in the Times's "Biological and Chemical Warfare" category in 1994. By 1998, there were 278.

Then, too, the media often treated stories about hoaxes as if they involved real germs. This was especially true in February 1998, when two men suspected of carrying vials of anthrax were arrested in Las Vegas. The material turned out to be a harmless vaccine, but government officials and the press reacted as if the men were carrying the genuine article.

The result was a spate of stories about how easy it was to develop bioweapons, how devastating they were, and how vulnerable the country was. Anthrax was usually touted as the "bioagent most likely."

Bioterrorism movies like "Outbreak," and novels like The Eleventh Plague (not to be confused with my own nonfiction book of the same name) mixed fact and fiction in ways that obscured the lines between fantasy and legitimate worry. In an April 26, 1998 story, the New York Times's Judith Miller and William J. Broad claimed that a popular bioterrorism novel, The Cobra Event, heightened President Clinton's sense of alarm about germ weapons.

With funding for combating bioterrorism soaring to $1.4 billion this year, even bioscientists who think the threat is exaggerated are reluctant to contradict officials who say it is "only a matter of time" before one of the many anthrax alarms turns out to be real. [For more on fact v. fiction on the bioterrorism front, see "An Unlikely Threat."]

Certainly at some level the threat is real enough and should not be ignored. But before panicking, it might be wise to recall that, during the last 100 years, the sum total of deaths in the United States known to have been caused by bioterrorism is zero.

Leonard A. Cole, the author of The Eleventh Plague: The Politics of Biological and Chemical Warfare (1998), is a political scientist at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.


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