Officials investigate labs, pharmacies
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 18, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 The Associated Press FBI Director Robert
Mueller (center), along with Surgeon General David
Satcher (left) and Homeland Security Director Tom
Ridge, brief reporters Thursday in Washington about the
anthrax problem.
By Karen Gullo
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON “”mdash; Federal investigators pressed for evidence at
research labs and universities that may have access to anthrax and
questioned pharmacies to see if anyone tried to buy large amounts
of antibiotics before the nationwide anthrax scare.
As a third television network in New York reported an anthrax
exposure and a New Jersey postal worker who may have handled two
anthrax letters tested positive for the disease, authorities
offered $1 million for information leading to the arrest of those
who sent the deadly spores.
“Once again we call upon the public to assist us in this
fight against terrorism,” FBI Director Robert Mueller said in
a joint announcement with Postmaster General Jack Potter.
One scenario being explored is whether someone living in the
United States might have worked with a foreign country or an
overseas domestic terrorist group with enhanced biochemical
capabilities, officials said.
“We think it may be ill-advised to think about the
situation in terms of an either/or matrix,” Attorney General
John Ashcroft said. He also raised the possibility that the anthrax
attacks could be the work of more than one homegrown terrorist.
“It might well be that we have opportunists in the United
States or terrorists in the United States who are acting in ways
that are unrelated,” Ashcroft said.
With two of the anthrax letters postmarked in Trenton, N.J.,
investigators fanned out across the state looking for evidence,
including whether anyone sought large doses of antibiotics that
protect against anthrax infection before the current cases
occurred. They also checked sites where the sophisticated equipment
or anthrax expertise might be found.
Authorities questioned at least one pharmacist in Trenton about
whether anyone bought 60 to 120 tablets of the antibiotic Cipro,
used for treating anthrax, before Sept. 18 ““ the postmark
date of an anthrax-laced letter sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw from
the same city.
“Anyone trying to buy that many would stick out like a
sore thumb,” said pharmacist John Berkenkopf, who told
investigators no customers had tried to buy such a quantity of
pills.
Cipro is usually prescribed for a week to 14 days, which is
about 10 or 20 pills, for common infections. The regimen for
anthrax is 60 days.
At Princeton University, a 20-minute drive from Trenton,
university spokeswoman Marily Marks said FBI agents visited the
campus Wednesday. In contacts with researchers, “the thrust
of their questions was were we doing research on campus that used
anthrax” and “the answer is no,” said Marks. She
said the FBI spoke to the head of the Environmental Health and
Safety Department and others.
Tests have concluded that the anthrax in the letter sent to
Brokaw was of the same strain as the anthrax sent to an American
Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla., where one man has died.
Health officials were still testing the anthrax sent to Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle in Washington. Tests to determine the
source of the anthrax in all three letters were continuing.
“It looked to be run-of-the-mill, sensitive to all
antibiotics,” said Dr. William Winkenwerder, an assistant
defense secretary.
Investigators said they were intrigued by the fact that the
anthrax sent to NBC in September was in a heavy granular substance
that would not likely go airborne. A federal bioterrorism official
said Wednesday the Daschle letter’s anthrax was
professionally made and possibly refined with additives to make it
more easily airborn. But another official said that was not
confirmed.
“There was no evidence, based on what we know thus far,
that it was any different from other samples at this time,”
Winkenwerder said.
Given that the similar handwriting and envelopes suggested a
single sender, the differing anthrax specimens suggest the sender
may have received sophisticated assistance in between the Brokaw
and Daschle letters, government officials said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
Some of the traditional evidence-gathering was slowed because
the envelopes were contaminated with anthrax, making tests such as
fingerprinting, DNA analysis and saliva more risky for lab
technicians.
“The contamination issue very clearly affect this,”
said Postal Inspector Dan Milhalko.
Law enforcement officials said one possible source of evidence
““ DNA from saliva on the envelope seal or stamp ““ may
be missing.
The sender probably understood that licking a stamp or the
envelope could prove deadly given the anthrax spores and could be
tested for DNA.
