Posted on 10/17/2001 4:21:30 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Anthrax anxiety surged in South Florida on Tuesday as two more people were hospitalized and tested for anthrax in Broward County and a letter sent to a Planned Parenthood office in Martin County tested positive for anthrax in an initial screening.
The letter -- one of 15 similar letters sent to Planned Parenthood clinics in Florida and at least 91 nationwide -- was sent to a lab in Miami for further testing. Police field-tested it with positive results but cautioned that the initial tests sometimes give false positives. Results from more conclusive tests are expected Thursday.
As health officials repeatedly called for calm Tuesday and postal authorities staunchly maintained the mails are safe, Gov. Jeb Bush flew to Boca Raton -- where the deadly germ was first detected two weeks ago at tabloid publishing house American Media Inc. -- to issue a warning against anthrax hoaxes.
``If the perpetrators are caught, they are going to be prosecuted,'' he said. ``We will find you and when we do, we will do all we can to send you to prison for 15 years.''
Still, the alarms continued:
In Martin County, police intercepted the Planned Parenthood letter at a local post office, alerted because it fit the description of other letters containing a powdery substance sent to clinics.
Like the other letters, it contained powder and had a return address of the U.S. Secret Service in Atlanta. Police described it as a rambling anti-abortion letter with references to ``Army of God.''
A commercially available anthrax test was used on the substance, with a positive reading. But Joe Lyons, assistant police chief in Stuart, cautioned Tuesday night that the tests can be unreliable. The manufacturer of the test kits claims 95 percent reliability.
Ex-intern Jordan Arizmendi, who briefly came under FBI suspicion because of an unusual farewell e-mail he sent co-workers, checked into Holy Cross on Sunday with pneumonia-like symptoms.
Bob Nichols, spokesman for Florida Atlantic University where Arizmendi is a senior, confirmed the student is being tested. Results are expected Wednesday, Nichols said.
Hank Arizmendi, the student's father, said nasal swab tests on his son had come back negative for anthrax. More sophisticated blood tests and cultures art due back today.
Though the student's internship at AMI ended Aug. 17, Jordan went back to the AMI building to visit colleagues in mid-September, his father said.
``But Jordan was never in the mailroom, and he's doing better already,'' Hank Arizmendi said. ``We hope we'll have him home tomorrow.''
The lesions each had a black center and were draining fluid, said Jeanne Eckes, the clinical director of trauma services at the hospital. ``The symptoms are consistent with a certain type of anthrax.''
The boy, whose identity was not released and had no known connection to AMI, showed no other symptoms of the illness. He did not recall coming into contact with suspicious packages or powder, Eckes said.
Meanwhile, AMI officials announced that they will not return to the three-story Boca Raton office building where the spores were first detected.
American Media CEO and President David Pecker said his employees will not go back to work there, even if officials give it a clean bill of health.
Though most employees were willing to return to the building, Pecker decided against it, ``out of respect for the handful'' of workers who won't ever feel safe there again, a company spokeswoman said.
More than 300 AMI employees, who are being tested for anthrax a second time this week, met with state and federal health officials and the FBI on Tuesday in an information session.
Workers said they learned:
Mike Hanrahan, 62, a reporter at The National Enquirer, said the meeting, while helpful, left workers wondering.
``The FBI is wearing two pairs of boots and protective clothing when they go in the building -- yet they tell us we're OK,'' Hanrahan said. ``It makes you feel uneasy.'' What they're saying and doing is not consistent.''
And at the Boca Raton post office where more anthrax spores were detected Monday, postal officials said an overnight cleaning by the Environmental Protection Agency had removed the contamination.
``Our customers do not have to be concerned,'' said Ellen Bohde, customer relations coordinator in Boca Raton. ``The mail is safe to handle.''
But that didn't stop dozens of Boca residents from calling elected officials with questions about mail safety.
``The quantity of spores was so isolated and so minuscule that even if they were all in one envelope it wouldn't matter,'' said state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.
I ask because the letters to Daschle & Brokaw were postmarked so long ago and due to the volume of mail, etc. were just discovered.
Is it possible that there is a copycat domestic terrorist going after PP? link to Rudolph's Army of God letter/envelopes
It might make sense?
There was no anthrax in any of the letters to Planned Parenthood. It was FAKE. It was a HOAX. And given how forthcoming PP has been with those letters (now that everybody knows they had no anthrax), the suspicion grows that Planned Parenthood or their friends actually prepared and sent the letters to themselves.
Again, this was FAKE, UNTRUE.
Besides which, Planned Parenthood is a terrorist organization itself. They should go on Bush' big list.
IMHO, we need to keep this issue front and center. Planned Parenthood tried a fast one and we need to find a way to get them some press coverage regarding their hoax.
This is more plausible, IMO, than the all-to-easy VRWC that will inevitably come out across the liberal airwaves.
I would tend to believe intelligent adversaries may have been watching our 8 year civil war (Clinton-era politics) on CNN. Why else Florida? President Bush said we would turn them against each other.
Do we at all doubt they would seek to do the same?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.