2001 anthrax attack
The 2001 anthrax attack was a series of events that took place over several
weeks in September and October 2001. Cases of anthrax due to bioterrorism
broke out at various locations. Because these immediately followed the
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack there has been speculation of linkage
between the two events. This was strengthened by allegations that the "skin
lesion" for which Ahmed al-Haznawit, one of the alleged September 11
hijackers, sought treatment at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, was in fact caused by cutaneous anthrax.
There were numerous exposures, several infections (nineteen), and five
fatalities (listed here for now). Thousands were tested. 10,000 people in
the United States took a two-month course of antibiotics after possible
exposure. Hundreds or thousands of unexposed persons acquired the antibiotic
Cipro through their doctors or over the Internet. Later statistical analysis
claims that approximately 5 deaths and 25 non-fatal cases of anthrax were
prevented by prompt antibiotic use.
All of the anthrax spores in the mail were found to be of an identical
strain. This strain is one that the U.S. military used for study at USAMRIID
and distributed to other government and university labs as well as to other
governments including Great Britain. The FBI claims that they are
concentrating on a domestic terrorist and that the anthrax attack was not
related to the September 11th, 2001 attack.
Here is a look at the anthrax-related events that occurred around the United States:
Boca Raton, Florida
Robert Stevens, 63, photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun,
published by American Media Inc., died on October 5, 2001 from contracting
pulmonary anthrax from an envelope. Stevens was a British-born outdoorsman
and gardener who resided in Lantana, Florida. Ernesto Blanco, 73, mail
supervisor at The Sun, contracted pulmonary anthrax as well, but responded
to treatment.
New York City and New Jersey
Four people, Erin O'Connor, an NBC Nightly News employee, the 7-month-old
child of an ABC World News Tonight employee, a female CBS News employee who
handles mail, and a Hamilton Township, New Jersey postal employee,
contracted cutaneous anthrax. All are being treated and are expected to
recover fully.
Reno, Nevada
* October 12, 2001, a letter sent to Microsoft's licensing office in
Reno, Nevada from Malaysia was tentatively tested positive for anthrax.
Bacteria of the same genus as anthrax was found growing on the letter.
Later tests were contradictory, but the final analysis as of October 13
is that anthrax was present on the letter. Nevada governor Kenny Gunn
announced in a press conference that the envelope contained a Microsoft
check and five pornographic pictures which appeared to have been
previously moistened. Microsoft had sent the check to a vendor in
Malaysia. Anthrax was found on one of the pictures but not on the
check. There have been no reported illnesses.
Washington, D.C.
* October 15, 2001, President Bush announces a letter sent to Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle had anthrax in it.
* October 16, 2001, Tests confirm the presence of anthrax in the letter
sent to Daschle. Furthermore, the anthrax powder is found to be
extraordinarily pure and fine. Many in the media start calling it
'weapons grade' material, but federal officials call that an
exaggeration. Authorities suggest this could only be produced with
sophisticated knowledge and equipment, possibly by a state-funded
organization. One possible source would be from one of the
approximately 20 institutions in the United States which study anthrax,
and have had relatively lax security procedures. Another would be Iraq
or the former Soviet Union.
* October 17, 2001, 31 Capitol workers (five Capitol police officers,
three Russ Feingold staffers, 23 Tom Daschle staffers), test positive
for the presence of anthrax (presumably via nasal swabs, etc.).
Feingold's office is behind Daschle's in the Hart Building. Anthrax
spores are found in a Senate mailroom located in an office building
near the Capitol. There are rumors that anthrax was found in the
ventilation system of the Capitol building itself. The House of
Representatives announces it will adjourn in response to the threat.
* October 22, 2001: Federal officials announce that two D.C. area United
States Postal Service workers have died from what appears to be
pulmonary anthrax contracted from handling mail.
* October 23, 2001: It is confirmed that the two postal handlers died of
pulmonary anthrax. The men were identified as Joseph P. Curseen, 47,
and Thomas L. Morris Jr., 55.
* December 14, 2002: The U.S. Postal Service begins to decontaminate the
Brentwood mail facility 14 months after it was closed. It is not
expected to reopen until April 2003. The State Department mail facility
expects to begin decontamination in the summer of 2003.
Texas
In March 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
announced that a Texas lab worker had contracted the skin form of the
disease. This is the first new case related to the anthrax letters since
November 2001. The worker worked in a lab contracted by the CDC to help
analyze the large number of samples from the anthrax investigation. Since
this was not a lab that normally worked for the CDC, there are questions of
whether workers were vaccinated for anthrax.
Frederick, Maryland
* May 11, 2003, Ponds on the north side of Catoctin Mountain, near
Gambrill Park Road and Tower Road in Frederick, Maryland, are under
investigation by the FBI, in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks.
FBI investigators found anthrax spores and other evidence in their
search of ponds in the area during December and January, 2002. Divers
retrieved a "clear box" with holes that could accommodate protective
biological safety gloves, as well as vials wrapped in plastic from a
pond in the Frederick Municipal Forest. A new theory has been developed
suggesting how a criminal could have packed anthrax spores into
envelopes without harming (him/her)self. Officials from Fort Detrick
have stated that the water is safe because once in water anthrax spores
cluster together and descend to the bottom. The water in the pond has
been tested several times over the course of the investigation, and all
indications are that the water is safe.
* June 9, 2003, The FBI begins to drain the Frederick, Maryland pond
which contained the box found by divers, hoping to uncover more
evidence.
* June 28, 2003, The FBI finishes it investigation of the pond in
Frederick, Maryland. Items found in the pond include a bicycle, some
logs, a street sign, coins, fishing lures, and a handgun. The FBI took
soil samples from the bottom of the pond for testing.
Anthrax scares, rumors, news
* October 10, 2001: An office building in Montreal is evacuated after
Globe International receives an envelope from American Media in Boca
Raton (see above). The envelope is not opened, is recovered by
firefighters, and is later found to be harmless.
* October 12: The New York Times briefly closes its offices after Judith
Miller, a reporter who coauthored "Germs: Biological Weapons and
America's Secret War", receives an envelope postmarked October 5 from
St. Petersburg, Florida containing a white, sweet-smelling powder. The
letter was addressed with crude handwritten block letters, with no
return address. She opens it at 9:15 a.m. EDT and the powder coats her
face and hands. It is later found not to contain anthrax. 32 employees
were tested, and none were found to have been exposed to anthrax.
* October 17: The FBI arrests a third person for sending a hoaxed anthrax
letter. The Rhode Island man mailed it to his friend, who called 9-1-1.
* October 18: In Nairobi, Kenya, the Kenyan health minister announces
that a letter sent from Atlanta to a Kenyan citizen tested positive for
anthrax spores. Two other suspicious envelopes, one of which was sent
to a Nairobi United Nations office, are being tested. These all test
negative.
* December: Clayton Lee Waagner, 45, was arrested for sending more than
550 letters which claimed to contain anthrax to women's health clinics.
* March 13, 2002: The FBI announces that 10 fake anthrax letters were
mailed to various Hispanic organizations in the past two days. These
letters all contained a white powder that was not anthrax. Although no
one is arrested yet for this crime, at least 35 others have been
arrested in the U.S. for similar hoaxes.
* May 11, 2003: FBI announces find of anthrax evidence in Frederick, MD.
Political impact
Although the physical impact of the event was small relative to other acts
of war or terrorism, the political impact of these events was tremendous.
Many states across the globe passed laws making hoaxes more serious crimes
than they were previous to the attack. Attention focused on biowar and
bioterrorism and other less active measures to promote biosecurity (e.g.
toughened U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations to protect the
United States supply of imported food from both accidental and
human-introduced toxic substances). Also, research to identify
genetically-modified bacteria (e.g. e. coli) with toxic genes (e.g. from the
anthrax bacterium) introduced by human effort, was well underway by late
2002. This research would help identify a deliberate (versus accidental)
attack more quickly. The slow and often confused response by U.S. government
officials, who often contradicted themselves during the 2001 attacks, was in
part due to a lack of clear answers about anthrax and its use as a weapon.
Accordingly a great effort has focused on getting answers in advance of
another attack, and anticipating vectors (such as genetically modified e.
coli) which would be far less traceable to source than any mailed letter.
Perhaps most importantly, no individual or group has been charged with the
attacks themselves, as of the end of 2002. This suggests future attacks of
this nature may be more likely than air hijackings or suicide bombings, as
the various pre-requisites to biological warfare (labs, knowledge, genomes
and sequencers, incubators) become more commonly available throughout the world.
