11/25/2001 - Updated 03:33 PM ET
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Patrick Leahy says there was enough anthrax in the letter sent to his office to kill more than 100,000 people.
The letter to the Vermont Democrat was discovered Nov. 16 in a batch of unopened mail sent to Capitol Hill and quarantined since the discovery of an anthrax-contaminated letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., on Oct. 15.
"We still haven't got the letter open," Leahy said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press."It is so powerful that they're having difficulty figuring out how best to open it and preserve the evidence."
An FBI microbiologist said last week that there were billions of spores inside the letter, which was taped around the edges. "You could feel the powder inside," the microbiologist told reporters.
Daschle, speaking a day after a memorial service for a 94-year-old Connecticut woman who died from inhalation anthrax, said Americans should be careful opening the mail.
"I would be very skeptical about opening envelopes that aren't recognizable, that look suspicious," Daschle said on "Fox News Sunday." "And we can't possibly protect every single one of our citizens from the possibility of another attack."
Leahy said he would leave it to the FBI to determine whether the anthrax came from a domestic or foreign source.
Bush officials want to reshape safety agencies --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally published November 26, 2001
WASHINGTON - Worried that bioterrorists might strike next at the nation's food supplies, the Bush administration is reviving a proposal to bring the government's patchwork of food safety agencies under one roof.