Workers Can't Sue Postal Officials Over Anthrax, Judge Rules

Washington Post ^ | 11/20/04 | Carol D. Leonnig

[TrebleRebel]

A federal judge ruled yesterday that U.S. Postal Service officials had no special responsibility to alert workers at the Brentwood postal facility to deadly anthrax contamination in the building and cannot be sued by the employees.
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U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said she found ample reason to believe that the officials showed deliberate indifference to worker safety by keeping the plant operating for four days after they privately confirmed the toxic spores had spread through the facility.
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Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said, "We can't imagine that in the end that courts will sanction government supervisors lying to workers about biological toxins infecting their workplace. Let's be clear about the consequences here: People are sick to this day and some are dead, and the courts are saying 'Tough luck.' "

[TrebleRebel]

ping

[Mitchell]

Ping.

[Ciexyz]

I remember when the original incident occurred. The postal unions were decrying the Postal Service's lack of concern for their safety. The Brentwood facility should have been shut down immediately.

[Shermy]

You might find this of some interest:


http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=12812
Anthrax revisited - Life back to normal in Oxford despite continuing probe into woman's death

[Ciexyz]

Off to check that link.

[Khan Noonian Singh]

With a lull in the anthrax news, and with the U.S. election campaigne over, it is time for another freewheeling anthrax discussion. This is as good as any a thread to do it on.

Here is the topic:

Many of us must have noticed isolated interesting factinos in relation to the anthrax mailings that we have yet not found occasion to remark on. This thread is for these little facts, which together may add to more than the summation of the parts.

So what observations have *you* noticed that you have not posted or that may not be known widely? Never found the right thread to post it on? This is it.

Discussion on the facts posted by others? Post them too, naturaly.

Book-mark this thread and come back a few times to see what nuggets other FReepers will have posted.

I have addressed this to a large list of previous anthrax-thread participants, in hopes of pulling in many little facts. I will not do any other mass-ping on this thread. My apologies if I missed you.

Let's start things off with............

Background: The postmarking date of the anthrax letters to Senators Daschle and Leahy was Tuesday, 9 October 2001. There is no mail pickup on Sunday, nor on that Monday because of Columbus Day that year. So the letters were mailed some time between 6 October, late in the day after last pickup, and 9 October.

Observacions: Two unusual Internet postings were made at the same time. Read them. Were these posted by the anthrax mailers?

• Posting 1: On 7 October 2001, in a Brazilian chatroom, appeared the following:

  Assunto: ANTRAX EM LOS ANGELES 
  Data: 7 Oct 2001 15:44:16 -0300 
  De: <.@..> 
  Grupo: uol.politica.internacional 
  
  Comecou a ser espalhado em Los Angeles 10 Kg de
  antrax. Estima-se 80 mil mortes nas proximas semanas
  

  Translating from portuguese to english:

  Subject: ANTHRAX IN LOS ANGELES
  Date: 7 Oct 2001 15:44:16 -0300 
  From: <.@..> 
  Group: uol.politica.internacional 
  
  
  10 kilograms of anthrax have started to be spread in Los Angeles.
  One estimates 80,000 deaths in the coming weeks.
  

  The chatroom posting has disappeared into the ether, but it was documented on 8 October 2001: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=Muslim-terrorism-1900.20011007%40news.mantra.com
   
• Posting 2, even more curious: On 9 October 2001, or very late on 8 October 2001 depending on the time zone, appeared the following newsgroup post:

  From: intheknowcia@aol.com (Intheknowcia)
  Newsgroups: alt.prophecies.nostradamus
  Date: 09 Oct 2001 05:12:54 GMT
  Subject: USA to use Nukes against Iraq
  Message-ID: <20011009011254.21640.00000886@mb-bj.aol.com>
  
  Just a little inside info to let you all know
  that the USA plans to use Nuclear missiles
  against Iraq to totally destroy and burn up
  their supplies of Biological weapons, otherwise
  they fear these germs spreading across the
  region.
  
  Inside
  

  Source url is http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20011009011254.21640.00000886%40mb-bj.aol.com&output=gplain.
   

Someone might argue that I have just fished 2 posts out of many, selecting those that happened to be around the right date. It is true that if postings like these were a common-place, I could have looked for two from around the right date, and those 2 would then mean Zilch. Howsoever, postings like these are not a dime a dozzen. I know of nothing similar. These are the only postings of this type of which I know, and, as such, the timing of them is remarkable, as is the very early referral to a war by the U.S. on Iraq over WMD.

[genefromjersey]

I'm in !
In addition,if space gets crowded here,I have a bulletin board website ( no fees,no ads,just register)where parts of this discussion could be moved:

http://listeningpost.mywowbb.com

It's not intended to divert anything from FR,but might offer a more "private" discussion forum for anyone who is skittish.

[riri]

Thanks for the ping. The anthrax story is as good as dead. I just got in a rather heated argument with some left winger over this just before the election...

I still visit The Great Satan's Blog to see what he has to say. I still, to this day, think he is pretty close with his theories.

[genefromjersey]

Just to refine things a bit further, I've set aside a special forum for discussing this matter:

http://listeningpost.mywowbb.com/forum1/15.html

[jpl]

The anthrax story is as good as dead.

I think you're right; coverage by the so-called "mainstream media" has dried up to virtually nothing. I think by now even the most hardened press lefties realize that "Amerithrax" is a tapped-out dry well. In other words, no suspects, no forthcoming arrests, no solution, and all of us can spend the rest of our lives believing whatever we wanted to believe to begin with.

[maestro]

......Hmmmmmm.....The U.S. Postal 'Military' Service.....is now the 6th branch of the Military?

/sarcasm

?......Can the Canadian 'Service'.....sue?

[OrioleFan]

There goes career #3 for John Edwards. Guess he'll have to move to New York and become a Senator. No wait! Some so-called lawyer already did that.

[rabidralph]

"I'm the walking dude. I can see all the world."--Anthrax

[Mitchell]

I remember wondering if there was a connection between the two Padillas, but it turns out that Padilla is a very common name. I don't know of any indication that this is anything more than a coincidentally shared last name.

[genefromjersey]

I'll be happy to have you aboard !