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Anthrax citizen Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,313936-412,00.shtmlArticle originally at this address:
http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,313936-412,00.shtml
FBI Seeking Help In Anthrax Probe
With Few Clues, Authorities Turning To Public For Assistance
Prevailing Theory Is That Attacks Are Not Related To Osama Bin Laden
Postal Chief Asks Congress For $5 Billion To Safeguard Nation's Mail
Nov. 9, 2001
(CBS) Frustrated over its lack of
progress, the FBI is preparing to
share what its behavioral
scientists have learned about
who is behind the anthrax letters
in the hope of shaking loose
more tips from the public.
Agents, including an FBI forensic linguist, will brief journalists
Friday on the telltale signs the bureau has picked up from the
letters. Sources tell CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart they
have concluded that the misspelling of "penicilin" in two letters, plus
the word "can not" in another was deliberate.
They will also point to the awkward way in which the numeral "1" is
written, the numerous strikeovers and the distinctive dashes in the
date 9-11-01as a signature writing style that someone may
recognize.
Although less certain, other investigators believe the suspect is a
"mature male," "likely born in the United States" who is "somewhat
educated" and "not a Muslim."
Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler, said that while the bureau has
not discounted the notion that the anthrax mailer may be a terrorist
associated with Osama bin Laden, that is not the prevailing theory.
"They're also looking at the possibility of a homegrown individual,
maybe the loner-paranoid type of individual as well who may be
doing this," McCrary says.
Perhaps someone like Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. After
newspapers published the Unabomber's entire 35,000-word
manifesto, Kaczynski's brother recognized the style and turned him
in. Agents have much less to work with in this case, however.
Click here for the latest on the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan
"The insight one can get from a 39-word note is limited at best. But
there may be some indicators, and a few things to look at," McCrary
says.
It is unusual for the FBI to disclose what their specialists are
thinking so early in a case and when they have so little to go on, but
that appears to be precisely what's driving this: The FBI just doesn't
have many clues and they desperately need the help.
Meanwhile, agents now discount the likelihood that New York
anthrax victim Kathy Nguyen was sickened through
cross-contaminated mail and have nailed up posters seeking help
in her case.
There has not been a new case of anthrax since Oct. 31, when
Nguyen, a 61-year-old hospital worker, died from the inhaled form of
the disease.
President Bush went to Atlanta on
Thursday to tour the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention,
where scientists are working
around the clock to deal with the
anthrax that has killed four people
and sickened 13 others.
The CDC said about 32,000
Americans began taking
antibiotics in the past month in
case they were exposed to
anthrax. A more comprehensive 60-day course of antibiotics had
been recommended for about 5,000 people in Florida, New Jersey,
New York and Washington since early last month.
In addition, 300 post offices and other buildings have been tested
for anthrax, the CDC said. Most heavily contaminated are the Hart
Senate Office Building, where an anthrax-tainted letter to Majority
Leader Thomas Daschle was opened, and Washington's
Brentwood central post office, which processed that letter. Officials
say the majority of other buildings have had no or very little
contamination.
Postmaster General John Potter asked Congress Thursday for $5
billion to offset the toll of the attacks by mail. He said the
government should pay for safety equipment and other recovery.
"They should be considered costs of homeland security," Potter told
a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
A transcript of a 911 call made by Thomas Morris, one of two postal
workers to die of anthrax, was released Wednesday. He called the
emergency operator hours before his death and said he thought he
had been exposed to the bacteria at Washington's Brentwood
facility, after a colleague opened an envelope containing white
powder.
Read the transcript of Morris' 911 call.
However, John Nolan, the deputy postmaster general, said
Thursday the envelope was found not to contain anthrax. "It came
back negative," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Morris dialed 911 Oct. 21, six days after the discovery of the
anthrax-laced letter addressed to Sen. Daschle.
Two other postal workers from Brentwood who contracted anthrax
are recovering in a nearby Virginia hospital where a spokeswoman
said their condition had been upgraded to fair from serious.
A State Department employee with anthrax who handled mail was
also in fair condition at the Winchester Medical Center in
Winchester, Virginia. "He will probably be released fairly soon," said
Winchester Medical Center spokesman Wes Williams.
In Bellmawr, N.J., a federal judge closed a postal distribution facility
Wednesday after workers complained that they weren't sure it was
free of anthrax. A postal workers union said an outside contractor
had cleaned the wrong machine after anthrax spores were found on
a barcode-sorting device.
Judge Jerome P. Simandle said the facility should remain closed
until an arbitrator considers the union's complaints. A worker at the
station is being tested for skin anthrax.
In New York, postal supervisors testified Thursday that they would
have shut down the city's largest mail-processing plant if they
believed there was an anthrax threat.
"There isn't anything more important to me than the safety of the
people I work with," Robert Daruk of the Morgan Processing and
Distribution Center said at a federal court hearing.
Traces of anthrax were found on five machines at the facility. The
New York Metro Area Postal Union filed suit, demanding that the
giant postal station be closed.
Daruk and another supervisor, David Solomon, told a judge they
relied on the CDC to assess risk.
The CDC has assured the Postal Service that the building, where
12.5 million pieces of mail are processed each day, is safe. No
New York postal workers have shown anthrax symptoms.
The court hearing continues Friday.
İMMI CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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