Second Anthrax victim in same location; building shut down.

FedEx would probably do it for an agreeable price.

 

....or sneaked through a US port, I guess...or across the Canada or Mexico border...

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,35975,00.html


FBI Probes Possible Terror Link to Two Florida Anthrax Cases

Monday, October 08, 2001


BOCA RATON, Fla. — Amid increasing fear over biological warfare, the FBI on Monday took over the investigation of a Florida man's anthrax death after the germ was found in the nose of a co-worker and on a computer keyboard in their office.

"We regard this as an investigation that could become a clear criminal investigation," Attorney General John Ashcroft said during a news conference in Washington. "We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not."

The FBI sealed off the Boca Raton office building housing the supermarket tabloid The Sun, where the men worked. How the bacterial spores got into the newspaper's office was still under investigation.

Ashcroft said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was providing expertise, but Florida Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan confirmed that the FBI is "in control of the investigation."

Anthrax cannot be spread from person to person, but all 300 employees in the building — and anyone who spent more than an hour in the building since Aug. 1 — were advised to visit the Palm Beach County health agency.

"I feel nervous. I'm worried for everybody," said David Hayes, an editor for the Star, another tabloid headquartered in the building.

He was among more than 200 people lined up outside the health department, where employees were given antibiotics and others were tested for anthrax.

Bob Stevens, 63, a photo editor for The Sun, died Friday of inhalation anthrax, an extremely rare and lethal form of the disease. The last such death in the United States was in 1976.

On Monday, officials said another Sun employee, whose name was not released, had anthrax bacteria in his nasal passages. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs.

The co-worker was in stable condition at an unidentified Miami-Dade County hospital, according to health officials. He had been tested for anthrax because he happened to be in a hospital for an unrelated illness.

The man has not been diagnosed with the disease, and CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said authorities may never know whether he actually had anthrax because antibiotics may have killed it before it was detected.

David Pecker, chief executive of the tabloid's publisher, American Media Inc., said the man worked in the mailroom.

A sample of anthrax was taken from Stevens' computer keyboard at the Sun, said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida secretary of health. It was not known immediately whose keyboard was involved.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have raised fears of bioterrorism across the country, but there is particular concern about the origin of the anthrax here.

Stevens lived about a mile from an air strip where suspected hijacker Mohamed Atta rented planes, said Marian Smith, owner of the flight school, said Monday. Several suspected hijackers also visited and asked questions at a crop-dusting business in Belle Glade, 40 miles from Stevens' home in Lantana.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer would not rule out terrorism as a possible explanation, though there "is no evidence to suggest anything yet."

Pecker said he did not believe the company was being targeted by terrorists because of the papers' coverage of the attacks and suspected terrorist mastermind Usama bin Laden.

Only 18 cases of anthrax contracted through inhalation in the United States were documented in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. More common is a less serious form of anthrax contracted through the skin.

Anthrax can be contracted from farm animals or soil, though the bacterium is not normally found among wildlife or livestock in Florida. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman and gardener.

County medical examiners are looking over any unexplained deaths, but have not found any cases connected to anthrax.

The largest experience with inhalation anthrax was in Russia in 1979, when anthrax spores were accidentally released from a military biology facility. Seventy-nine cases of anthrax were reported, and 68 people died.

An injectable anthrax vaccine has been around since the 1970s, and the U.S. military has required anthrax vaccinations for service personnel since the Persian Gulf War.

 

There were a couple of experts on the O'Reilly factor. If I understood them correctly, they said spreading anthrax is extremely difficult and to catch it through respiration the spores would have to be very thick like a smoke or a fog.

 

Other developments in this case -

- An "odd" letter, described as a love letter to Jennifer Lopez, was sent to and circulated about the Sun offices a week before the WTC bombings. Inside the letter were a small star of David and a "soapy, powder-like substance". The letter was circulated throughout the office, and both victims did handle it. The time frame fits withing the incubation period for anthrax.

- The FBI is looking for a former intern at the Sun (who happens to be from the Middle East) who quit late last summer and apparently sent a strange email to the Sun after he left. The email reportedly threatened "bad times for America coming soon".

- Authorities are certain now that the anthrax does not have a natural source. In other words, it has been modified in the lab.

This looks like a biological attack, but on a small scale. It proves that our enemies have anthrax, at the minimum. I think it's time to flip the switch on those neutron bombs and get 'em ready...

 

"soapy-powder like substance" this too was reported on CNN...

I can totally see Jeff's runners post taking on a new light...
those runners will definately have to find something else to sprinkle on the ground when they run...

rH

 

THIRD ANTHRAX VICTIM FOUND!

According to the article, the employee they believe is responsible was a Sudanese (Sudan) student from a local college. OBL has Sudanese connections.

from the article:
...the FBI wants to question a summer intern who left the company recently after sending out an e-mail to employees saying thank you and "I left you all a little present."

rH

 

Sudan? !@#$.


I heard that student visas are fairly easy for foreign nationals to obtain...and that hardly any 'monitoring' occurs...can anyone confirm?

 

Which switch would that be? And, whom should we bomb, Boca Raton?

Has anyone considered that this may not be specifically related to Osama? One of the dangers in these situations is copycat or mimic crimes where a person does it on their own.

Also, am I the only one who thinks that it can't be good that the media does nothing but talk constantly about the threat of biological and chemical weapons? I mean, way to give them freakin' ideas!

 

yes they are easy to obtain (not speaking from personal experience) I heard an excellent story on NPR a couple of weeks ago about how easy it easy for foreign nationals to get student visas and that there is no sort of monitoring of these students or their visas. the group that issues the visas considered monitoring students, but found it would be too difficult and daunting...
harumph... look where we are now.

rH

 

FYI

 

I'm starting to get the sneaking suspicion that Osama bin Laden does have a connection to this. There's rumors of a case of Anthrax in Virginia.

 

RM... where did you hear about Virginia?
rH

 

I do not remember the warhead designation (and don't have my books with me), but the neutron bomb is actually a thermonuke that has a variable detonation mechanism. You "throw the switch" and it has a neutron yield, with only a small blast...

I would only really use them in the case of a large, successful chem/bio attack, and even then maybe not. I would definitely use them in the case of a nuclear terrorist attack. Baghdad and Tehran would be erased, no questions asked. I'd drop the neutron bombs all over the Taliban's bases. The Bekaa Valley would get one. Gadhafi would get one. Then I'd consider if anyone else needed one...

Now I hate to sound like Dr. Strangelove or Curtis LeMay, but just imagine how you'd feel knowing that they had nukes or could actually successfully carry out large-scale plague attacks? Seeing a mushroom cloud hanging over Houston would get the rest of the country pretty pis*ed off. It would also be the most pointed way possible to expose our vulnerability.

As for this attack, it is possible that it is a sick joke, but the evidence is starting to make that seem unlikely. Particularly if the strain is found conclusively to be lab-modified. That means that it wasn't just some whacko with enough science know-how to collect a small sample himself; that means that someone with extensive genetic knowledge - backed by years of expensive research - supplied this strain to our intern. But even without the full facts (which will never come), you eventually just get to a point when you have to say that this is neither a coincidence, nor an isolated act of crime.

And I'm personally not too concerned about the media overplaying the threat, even though the more likely and immediate threat would be truck-bombs and "conventional" suidice bombers. Saddam appears to have alot of confidence in his germs. Possibly because he knows that if the research is unfettered and is done right that they are a threat?

 

I saw it on a local newscast rH and I'm hoping it's wrong because I can't find a link to it. But there have been many times where people have posted news on the BBS that hasn't popped up on the mainstream webpages until a little later. Hopefully it's not true. I heard somewhere where the U.S. dropped a missile or something somewhere and it went several miles into the ground I think yesterday, so I think that's a message to bin Laden.

 

Ok, this is secondhand...

FoxNews reports:


- there is no third case.

- intern was Hispanic, not Sudanese or Middle Eastern

- 'powder in letter' delivery of anthrax ruled out

 

Where did you hear that???? The only weapon we have that doesanything close to that is the spiked nuke. Other penetrators can only go a hundred or so feet down... But really, where did you hear that?

 

There are reports of tactical nukes that can destroy tunnels and caves 'deep' inside a mountain...not sure how far though.

I don't recall it being "miles" down, but it sounds like they can reach Osama's playpen.

 

That's the spiked nuke, MrSpur. It's the only nuke I'd actually use at this point, because radiation isn't a problem and no one really notices when they're used. It just seems like a minor earth quake... I'd be interested to know if we're already using them, tho. Wouldn't really surprise me.

 

Sorry, my mistake, I meant several <i>feet</i> not miles!