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.
From: http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-02-02/feature.html/page2.html
"On a number of occasions since the 1970s, the ADL has been caught distributing lists of its enemies, replete with detailed descriptions of "black demagogues" and "pro-Arab propagandists," including poet Amiri Baraka in the list of demagogues, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Noam Chomsky under the propagandist label. Then, in 1993, a longtime ADL investigator admitted to working with a member of the San Francisco Police Department to illegally gather information on almost 10,000 people, including members of socialist, labor, and anti-apartheid groups. "
"Some of the targets of that information-gathering effort have gone to court in an attempt to gain access to their dossiers, currently in possession of the ADL, but the ADL has refused to release the files, claiming that its investigator was an "investigative journalist" whose unpublished reporting materials are protected against disclosure by the California shield law, which was originally adopted to help journalists keep confidential sources who reveal important public wrongdoing confidential. "
There you have it. An ADL investigator illegally tried to get files from a police department.
I thought this initially, too, believing the Planned Parenthood letters to be self-inflicted baby-powder envelopes. I'm sorry now I was so cynical. NOBODY deserves to die a horrible anthrax death, even if their living is earned by inflicting horrible death on innocent little babies. This is getting scary. I'm glad I live out in the middle of nowhere and won't be opening any mail for some organization. (I wonder if the White House is still opening envelopes with dollars in them from the children?)
Yeah, I saw that on his website. You mean the police didn't investigate his anthrax threat?
I did so enjoy Mr. Horsely's appearance in the HBO special, "Soldiers in the Army of God." My hubby left the room when the Army of God guy from Alabama described his do-it-yourself circumcision.
But letters either reference or are signed, "Army of God." Where do you think law enforcement is going to look first?
Planned Parenthood in addition to health education, pre and post natal care help to provide C O N T R A C E P T I O NSay it with me slowly now:
FORCED STERILIZATION OF THIRD WORLD WOMEN
MEXICAN WOMEN TERRORIZED INTO TUBAL LIGATIONS
BURNING OF PERUVIAN WOMEN'S FALLOPIAN TUBES WITH DANGEROUS DRUGS
PAID FOR BY YOUR TAX DOLLARS
There. That was easy, wasn't it?
I post information concerning an injunction from a COURT HOUSE, a Wall Street Journal report on the the TEN years
Planned Parenthood has been the target of domestic terrorism, in terms of biological agents" Peter Gulotta, an FBI spokesman in Baltimore, confirmed an investigation [regarding anthrax and biological agents] is under way. "We've gone through this before with abortion clinics," he said.
Ann Glazier, director of Planned Parenthood's security group, comprised of former clinic workers and law enforcement agents, says her organization was among the first to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and with law-enforcement agents four years ago to start preparing for anthrax attacks. The security group was set up in 1994."
THEN you say: " I said that authorities have NEVER said that anti-abortion groups have attempted to or threatend to us ANTHAX...PERIOD...PAY ATTENTION."
I *am* paying attention, Boy, but unless you clarify further , I am sticking by my statement: You are wrong.
And a good day to you too, sir.
No I DO NOT believe right wingers were behind the WTC attack.
Tell me: Do you post on a "debate forum" just to hear the echos of your own voice? Are varying opinions that much of a threat to you?
LOL. You either, huh? Thanks for your input. He had me scratching my head a few times too...
Nothing like a little pseudo-biblical hyperbole to get the ball rolling . . .
MEXICAN WOMEN TERRORIZED INTO TUBAL LIGATIONS
BURNING OF PERUVIAN WOMEN'S FALLOPIAN TUBES WITH DANGEROUS DRUGS
PAID FOR BY YOUR TAX DOLLARS
Two questions: 1) Where did you get this awful information, and 2) Why do you think it has anything to do with Planned Parenthood?
So Why now does this man's name surface now? Is it a direct attack on the pro-life movement during this horrendous time? Who offered free abortions after the WTC catastrophe? Is it because a court of appeals said his website is legal and doesn't incite violence? Who brought this lawsuit against him anyway? Who offered free abortions after the WTC catastrophe? Mp>From what I have read and heard him say: He just wants to have the names of those who participate in the killing of unwanted American children to be used in a future Nuremberg Trial held for crimes against humanity.
And if you go to the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood et al websites they list openly where their clinics are and what is involved in their so-called "abortion procedures". They also advertise in the Yellow Pages every local community.So what the heck is the big deal about Mr. Horsely?
Public information is public information.Horsely has repeatedly said he wants the names for future Nuremberg Trials.
I am not defending his strategy. I am merely reporting the facts.
No, dear, what you're doing is attempting to reframe the issue to make this about abortion and not that a letter which tested positive for anthrax, addressed to a Planned Parenthood office and intercepted at the post office, contained a reference to "Army of God." Horsely made a film for HBO, in which he was prominently featured, called, "Soldiers in the Army of God." He's a proud member of the Army of God, as are others, including Paul Hill and Shelley Shannon.
You want to defend people who murder, like Hill, or attempt to murder, like Shannon, or encourage murder, like Horsely--and that's your choice. Just be honest about your motives and your fundamental beliefs. And if you're a member of the Army of God, or sympathize with them, it's okay with me as well. But honesty from you would be refreshing.
What a crappy, shameful thing to say at a time like this. You may wink at poison in the mail, but it's the most digusting perversion of pro-life sentiment I can think of. I certainly take no pleasure in it.
Besides, Even if you hate the recipient, even a moron like you should know it could affect any number of "unintended" targets. I'm sure you forgot the mail carriers and other mail handlers who were at risk of exposure. Did it ever occur to you that planned parenthood worker and volunteers might be carrying an unborn child? Or that some pregnant women whom come for inexpensive pre-natal care, not to get abortions? Did it ever occur to you that women who go to get abortions sometime change their minds at the clinic? You approve of these women and their unborn children being dosed with spores, too? I suppose you take equal satisfaction that the women who just go there for cheap exams and pills could be exposed.
Terrorist mailings cheer you up? Unbelievable.
Since when is an abortion clinic a democratic institution?
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