Anthrax In Senate Ventilation

Sky News ^ | Last Modified: 15:39 UK, Wednesday October 17, 2001

[maquiladora]

Anthrax may be in the Senate ventilation system, according to a Senate speaker.

More than 20 staff working for one of America's most powerful politicians have already been contaminated by powder sent in a letter.

US government sources said the anthrax powder sent to Senator Tom Daschle's Capitol Hill office was weapons-grade, and thus almost certainly produced by experts.

Preliminary tests on the powder sent to Mr Daschle, leader of the US Senate, indicated it had been refined for easy airborne dispersal, the sources said.

And, as a purified form ideal for use as a chemical weapon, it was also more likely the powder was produced in a military laboratory.

Weapons-grade anthrax must be clinically refined to a specific size, making it small enough to be sprayed efficiently, but not so small as to be immediately exhaled by its targets. Larger particles land on the skin and produce a less dangerous form of anthrax infection.

Anthrax is not contagious and a person must come into direct contact with the bacterium to be infected.

Hundreds of people working in the Senate have been taking precautionary antibiotics. And security officials closed an entire wing of the eight-storey Senate office building as testing continued.

Mr Daschle said the letter sent to his office contained "a very potent form of anthrax that clearly was produced by someone who knew what he or she was doing".

Anthrax powder has also been sent to NBC Nightly News anchorman Tom Brokaw in New York. The powder infected his assistant, Erin O'Connor, 38.

The Daschle and Brokaw letters were written by a nearly identical hand and were both posted from Trenton, New Jersey, on September 18. They both contained anti-American, anti-Israeli and pro-Islamic statements.

One man has already been killed after contracting the disease at a newspaper office in Boca Raton in Florida.

[grimalkin]

lol!

[corriee]

Seeing as how our news media have been telling people on national news just how small or large these particles have to be to do the most damage, I am not surprised.

[zeaal]

Okay ... so, the jet plane they hijacked, Flight 93, was unable to complete their deadly mission due to the heroic passengers aboard ... but, the terrorists will not be stopped and they HAVE found a way into the halls of our Nation's leadership.

[wjeanw]

An anthrax expert interviewed last night on MSNBC said military grade anthrax is like "feathers" in its ability to float through the air. If they didn't seal off the ventilation in Dashche's office as soon as they received it, it probably IS all throughout the office building.

[jwalsh07]

If on the other hand they knew what they had immediately, then the spores in the ventilation system don't make sense.

Actually it makes perfect sense. The spores are extremely small, 1 to 5 microns, one millionth of a meter. Weapons grade spores are designed to drift through the air like super small money stealers.

Ventilation systems are designed to deliver air and return it. One vent sucks and the other blows. It would undoubtedly find its way into the ventilation system.

[zeaal]

Saddam is rolling on the floor giggling right now ... knowing full well HE DID IT and that the US Gov't refuses to name him as the terrorist.

[TKEman]

I still think this is a diversionary tactic. Get our attention focused on this, and then hit was with the next WTC like blow.

[motexva]

We won't ever use nukes there. We can do more damage with conventional bombs (look at relative damage of nukes vs. conventional bombs in Japan, WWII) with no fallout drifting over non combatants or supposed allies. I agree with your core sentiment though - our enemies must be destroyed, along with their homes, farms, resources, everything. Then put our handpicked allies in charge and rebuild them like we did Japan and Germany. I say do this to most of the countries in the middle east. Of course, this means in 50 years we'll all be buying Arab cars!

[motexva]

Smallpox

[First Officer]

Can there be any remaining doubt about the involvement of Iraq? Or, perhaps by proxy, China? They, along with the US, Britain, and Russia are the only people with the facilities to mass-produce weapons-grade anthrax; ergo, their involvement is nearly assured. I would hope that it's only a matter of hours before every Iraqi facility that has denied UN inspector access in the last five years is reduced to rubble.

And, is it just me, or does this seem like a bad time for GW to be in Beijing?

[wjeanw]

Another thought: if this is indeed the same quality as what was sent to NBC, my guess is that there are going to be more people sick there as well. The other question is if this is a strain has also been created as being more resistant to antibiotics?

[Jeff Head]

You may well be right ... but the more effective the diversion, meaning the more "real" it it, the more distracted we are.

At some point, the effectiveness of the diversion cannot itself be ignored, particularly when dealing with bio-weapons.

At that point, it becomes simply a major attack on another front.

[TKEman]

I think your husband is right. Mr. bin Laden has planned all this out for three or four moves in advance. These letters are just a tactic to keep everyone's nerves a mess, while the really horrible attack is coming down the pike.

[norton]

Sounds like a reasonable assessment -
But,
I will be very surprised if it turns out that only "peace loving muslims", particularly ethnic arabs or other natives of the muslim lands, turn out to be the source(s).

Given the history of the past decade or so, OK, the last forty years, I don't doubt for an instant that there are non-muslims, non-arabs, non-remarkable, terrorists in the populace who are quite willing to take a hand in this stuff.

I'm also still puzzled at the pattern itself: liberal, liberal, liberal, liberal clintonista,....everybody else. Does not smell right.

[Pearman]

Looking back at some of the decisions the Senate has made over the past 30 or 40 years, I always suspected SOMETHING was in its ventilation system.

[Hila]

He won't laugh long, now. And you seem to be on their side.

[is_is]

Our response on 9/12 should have been to nuke the country we know to be most responsible for sponsoring terrorism. Then we should have sent a letter to the "others" on our list that unless they reign in the terrorist one of them will be next !!! Let them decide who "next" is !!!!

We cannot try and appease these people...they hate us...period. We can make them fear us though!!!

American has to decide what is more important....or children living free and SAFE or theirs.....WAR requires tough choices.....

[jwalsh07]

And, is it just me, or does this seem like a bad time for GW to be in Beijing

I think he has to go, because what he has planned for some people is going to be of such a magnitude that we want China on board or at least reassured. That's JMHO.

[StriperSniper]

He got a fifteen page fax from the CDC yesterday and another today. So the CDC is notifying people.

Is this secret information or where have you posted it?;-)