Investigators look for links between anthrax and terrorism

The FBI released photo copies of the letters sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle. Click to view

(CNN) -- Federal investigators are searching for possible links between the September 11 attacks on the United States and the recent anthrax cases that have triggered bioterrorism scares across the country.

Public health officials have discovered anthrax in New York, Florida and the District of Columbia in the past two weeks. Tests indicate that at least 13 people either have anthrax or were exposed to the anthrax spores.

"So far, we have found no direct link to organized terrorism," FBI Director Robert Mueller said Tuesday, although he and Attorney General John Ashcroft would not rule out the possibility that the anthrax cases could be connected to the September 11 attacks. (Full story)

Mueller said there are similarities between the letters sent to NBC and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office. Both were mailed from Trenton, New Jersey, and the handwriting on both was similar, he said. Senate sources said both letters had a threatening tone.

The FBI released pictures of the envelopes Tuesday. Ashcroft said he wanted the public to know what the letters looked like because "we believe there might be other envelopes." (Click to view)

Daschle said investigators had determined the anthrax in the letter opened in his office Monday was particularly strong.

"We were told that it was a very strong form of anthrax, a very potent form of anthrax that clearly was produced by somebody who knew what he or she was doing," Daschle said.

Latest developments

• Laboratory results on anthrax samples tested so far in the widespread investigation indicate the anthrax had not been "weaponized," or genetically altered, sources involved in the investigation told CNN. They said it was natural in origin and matched strains that had been around for some time. There was no indication which samples were involved in the testing.

• A few dozen workers at USA Today's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, were evacuated after a reporter received what she thought was a suspicious envelope. A spokesman for the company said the woman thought she saw a powdery substance after she opened a corner of the envelope. The envelope was sent to the FBI for tests. Results are expected Wednesday.

• Parts of eight floors of the Hart Senate Office Building were closed Tuesday to search for anthrax after tests confirmed the letter opened Monday in Daschle's office contained the potentially deadly bacteria.

Offices on the southeast corner of the building between the first and eighth floors were closed for the search, the Capitol physician said. (Full story)

If you receive a suspicious package: Handle with care; don't shake or bump Isolate and look for indicators Don't open, smell or taste Treat it as suspect; call 911 Source: FBI  Investigating for anthrax Law enforcement receives a call of a package suspected of having anthrax. Scientists in the field dissolve a sample of the substance (powder) into a liquid and process the liquid through a machine that determines if the substance is of the bacillus family of bacteria. Positive results are suspicious, but not regarded as confirmation of anthrax. Negative is not conclusive -- possibly not enough sample available. To confirm anthrax, scientists place the powder in a culture to encourage the bacteria to grow. Bacterial growth may take as little as six hours if a significant amount is present. Scientists test what has grown to determine genetically if it is anthrax. Scientists won't declare a substance anthrax-free until culture has had 48 hours to grow, allowing small amounts of the bacteria time to develop. Source: Associated Press  VIDEO An already jittery Washington grows more nervous after a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office tests positive for anthrax. CNN's Jonathan Karl reports (October 16) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Thelma Gutierrez looks at an Arizona laboratory that could help the FBI identify the fatal anthrax strain found in Florida. (October 14) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   RESOURCES • Senate offices closed  • FBI: Daschle, Brokaw letters • Skin anthrax less dangerous    EXTRA INFORMATION In Depth: The anthrax investigation

• Two men have been indicted on federal charges of making false anthrax threats. Both men are from Connecticut, but authorities said there was no apparent connection. Ashcroft said on Tuesday that hoaxes prompted by the anthrax scare will be dealt with strongly. (Full story)

• U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D- New York, said Tuesday a generic version of ciproflaxin, the antibiotic used to treat anthrax, should be made available immediately for government use even though German drugmaker BayerAG holds the patent for the drug. In response, Bayer promised to increase production and make 200 million tablets over the next three months, officials said.(Full story)

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that Ernesto Blanco, a mailroom employee at Boca Raton, Florida, tabloid publisher American Media Inc., was diagnosed with "anthrax disease." Florida health officials insisted more tests were needed for a final diagnosis. Blanco, 73, was a co-worker of Robert Stevens, a photo editor at The Sun, who died of anthrax. A third employee has tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.

• An American Media Inc. spokeswoman said the company would sell its Boca Raton facility and would not reopen in that building because many employees are concerned about returning to work there.

• Two postal employees near Trenton, New Jersey, have been tested for anthrax after investigators traced anthrax-tainted letters from New York and Washington to a post office sorting facility, sources told CNN Tuesday. Investigators also found traces of anthrax spores at the Boca Raton, Florida, post office. More than 30 employees there were tested for anthrax, and their tests were all negative.

• In New York, the 7-month-old child of an ABC news producer tested positive for the cutaneous (skin) version of the disease. The boy is expected to make a full recovery. The infant had visited ABC with a parent September 28.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that a letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office in Reno, Nevada, tested negative for anthrax spores at a laboratory in Nevada. Earlier tests had come back positive for anthrax, but health officials had already said the six people who handled the letter were not exposed. Further tests are planned at the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine definitively whether the letter contains anthrax.

• Health officials said they found minuscule amounts of anthrax in a corner of a U.S. Postal Service mail-sorting facility near the American Media offices in Boca Raton. The bacteria were found in a 5-by-5-foot mail-processing area in a remote, nonpublic part of the building, a postal official said.

• Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Monday the recent anthrax cases and spate of suspicious letters in the United States "must be another attempt by terrorists to impact the situation and to destabilize the country and to start panic." (Full story)

• Police and health officials were combing the offices of major news media outlets in New York -- CBS, CNN, Fox News, The Associated Press, The New York Post and the Daily News -- for possible anthrax. Offices of The New York Times and NBC News were checked last week.

• Ninety offices of Planned Parenthood and at least 80 clinics of the National Abortion Federation across the United States have received envelopes containing unidentified powdery substances and letters with threatening language, according to spokesmen for the groups.

• The Immigration and Naturalization Service shut down mail processing at all of its offices Monday after suspicious packages were received at two INS facilities, the agency said. Three mailroom workers at a Burlington, Vermont, facility were taken to a hospital as a precaution after a powdery substance fell out of a small Federal Express package. Preliminary tests on the package and a letter received two days earlier were "inconclusive," the agency said. A hazardous materials team was called to a Providence, Rhode Island, facility to investigate a suspicious package from the United Arab Emirates.