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Federal law enforcement officials said late Friday that all three letters postmarked St. Petersburg tested negatively for anthrax.

[However, the test for the letter sent from St. Petersburg to the Brokaw aide must have been unsuccessful (too small a sample size?) because the aide in fact did contract Anthrax. This point was made by Ted Kopel on ABC Nightline last night. This calls into question the negative test results for the other two letters since they were also sent from St. Petersburg and may not have had inadequate sample size].

Be careful of your assumptions... The article says that the St. Petersburg "white powder" letter tested negative for Anthrax.

Just because the aide contracted Anthrax several days after reading a weird letter with white powder, that doesn't mean that that letter was what infected the aide.

A weird letter may have been the first to be suspected, because it was strange, but if it tested negative, then the infection could have been delivered to NBC by some other means and the weird letter had just gotten the blame because it was creepy.

I doubt if "sample size" was a problem, since modern techniques can analyze microscopic quantities of material, especially for biological agents which can be multiplied by PCR or simple growth on a suitable medium.

Just because the aide contracted Anthrax several days after reading a weird letter with white powder, that doesn't mean that that letter was what infected the aide.

You are correct. In the press conf. this morning (10/13), Gulliani said that they found an earlier dated
letter that did test positive for anthrax - it was postmarked NJ.

A weird letter may have been the first to be suspected, because it was strange, but if it tested negative, then the infection could have been delivered to NBC by some other means and the weird letter had just gotten the blame because it was creepy.

Thanks Dan Day! Looks like we are dealing with something more than letters and white papers here.

Well, since you're a-technical-kind-of-guy I'll add that "a white powder" is not an accurate description of anthrax spores. Let's not discuss specifics though. If this keeps the OKC kooks happy (and busy) thats fine with me. It just gets so gd boring tho.

Ted Kopel specifically asked a scientist at the CDC (in charge of anthrax analysisi)on Nightline on Friday night why the test of the letter contents for the Brokaw aide showed up negative when in fact she came down with anthrax. The scientist said it was because the sample size was too small. Either the scienteist was making excuses or he was right.

The other point I was careful to make was that it was significant that the three letters came from St. Petersburg. And I also stated it was significant even if no anthrax or ME terrorists were involved because then if it were a hoax, the hoax itself would be a terrorist act by someone, even a domestic group.

BTW, the St. Pete Times thought it was significant. ANd the story was carried tonight in OKC by KWTV9 NEws as being related to the Oklahoma bombing. THey took it seriously enough to report. If it turns out that nothing is really here, fine, I still would post the story because there is a possibility more could be too it as things unfold.