Did these State Dept. stories bear out? Of course, there could be more letters we don't know about.
Anthrax found in State Dept. mail pouch in Austria
December 13, 2001 Posted: 5:05 PM EST (2205 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/12/13/anthrax.austria/index.html?related WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tests revealed traces of anthrax on a U.S. State Department mail pouch in Vienna, Austria, department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday.
No letter laced with anthrax had been found in the bag so far, Boucher noted. The mail pouch was not at the U.S. Embassy in Austria when it was held for tests, sources said.
The pouch had been held in late October, when the State Department ordered that all such pouches must be quarantined and tested, Boucher said.
That order followed positive tests for anthrax at the State Department mail facility and the diagnosis of a State Department mail handler with inhalation anthrax. Authorities also found trace amounts of anthrax in two mailrooms at the State Department headquarters and on letters sent to the agency's Rewards for Justice Program.
Mail pouches bound for the U.S. embassy in Lima, Peru, and Vilnius, Lithuania -- held along with the Vienna pouch in October -- also tested positive for traces of anthrax last month.
Following release of the positive test results in Lithuania, the embassy staff there was offered antibiotics to treat possible anthrax contamination.
State Dept. briefing, Dec. 14, 2001
http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01121413.htm "...Question: Richard, can you bring us up to date on anthrax in the State Department, and whether or not there has been talk about the situation in Austria, and whether or not there are any other things out there we haven't heard about yet?
Mr. Boucher: Nothing new that we know of, other than the situation in Austria. And there, I think we have said Austrian officials have told us that they found trace anthrax spores in a mailbag that arrived at our mission in Vienna in late October. It was sent out for testing. Long before these results came back, the embassy had decontaminated the mail room, and the employees involved in mail room activities have been taking antibiotics.
So we have taken appropriate precautions. We have, I think, sealed up and sent back to the States the bags in question so that they can be completely tested. There is no danger in terms of our mission personnel or our people in Austria.
Question: Number of bags in question?
Mr. Boucher: They tested 10 bags. There were 10 pouches, and all those have been sealed and returned. Only one of the pouches tested in any way positive. They found traces of anthrax. The traces were small. They required several tests in order to ascertain the presence.
So that is what we know at this point from the Austrians.
Question: So would that go through the Sterling facility, do we know? Or not?
Mr. Boucher: All our pouch bags have some connection with the Sterling facility. That is where all our pouch mail is handled.
Question: I was just trying to get the time. Was Sterling closed by the time these bags went out, or is this still --
Mr. Boucher: No, they got to Austria in late October, or in October. So they would have passed through Sterling, presumably -- well, I won't make presumptions -- but they would have passed through Sterling, and they would have gotten there before Sterling was closed, or before the whole pouch system was closed down.
Question: How much of the mail has now tested? Can you -- do you have any guess whether they are almost finished?
Mr. Boucher: I will have to go back and see. How much of that frozen mail is tested, I will have to check on that.
Question: Richard, maybe I missed this, but have you guys finally determined that it was in fact the letter to Senator Leahy that was the culprit?
Mr. Boucher: I don't believe there is a final determination, even a preliminary one of that kind. That was an assumption that was being made as one of the possibilities. But until we have tested mail, until the FBI comes back to us on some of these other things, I don't think we will know.