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Anthrax: Hoax Suspect Charged Clayton Lee Waagner, the man believed to be responsible for more than 550 anthrax hoax letters sent to abortion providers, was charged with a federal firearms violation yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 6), according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, investigators continued work on the tainted letter mailed to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Waagner was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ordered held without bond yesterday. If convicted, he could face life in prison, according to the AP. Waagner recently claimed responsibility for mailing the anthrax hoaxes to abortion providers and clinics over the last two months, the FBI said. He said he was surprised that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft had added him to the FBI’s Most Wanted List, the AP reported. “Ashcroft’s just doing his job,” Waagner said. “I understand he’s anti-abortion also. He’s a good man” (John Nolan, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Dec. 6). Leahy Letter Similar to Others A menacing note found in the anthrax letter sent to Sen. Leahy is identical to one mailed, along with anthrax spores, to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the FBI said yesterday. The note in the Leahy letter resembled a handwritten note that was photocopied and had the same text as the one sent to Daschle, according to the FBI. The notes read: “You can not stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great.” The Leahy letter also contained a large amount of white powder, believed to have billions of anthrax spores, according to the Washington Post. This will give scientists and investigators their first chance to carefully examine what is suspected to be highly virulent anthrax, the Post reported. Testing on the powder to determine its origin could take weeks, the FBI said (Susan Schmidt, Washington Post, Dec. 7). Federal Reserve Mail Tainted Some mail delivered to the U.S. Federal Reserve has been contaminated with anthrax, the Washington Post reported today. The shipment consisted of about 100 to 150 letters. It tested positive for anthrax during an examination yesterday in a trailer being used as a temporary mail-sorting center outside the Fed’s headquarters, according to the Post. The Fed, as requested by the FBI, will continue testing the bin of mail today to determine the extent of the anthrax and find individual pieces of tainted mail, the Post reported. It is not yet known whether any letters in the shipment contained anthrax or if letters were tainted through cross-contamination. There are no plans to close the Fed’s headquarters or to postpone a scheduled meeting next week of the Federal Open Market Committee, said Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith. “However, while the investigation is underway, the board has decided to postpone public events for security reasons,” Smith said (John Berry, Washington Post, Dec. 7). CDC Praised for Anti-Anthrax Efforts U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologists prevented hundreds more cases of anthrax during the recent incidents, according to federal officials. “One thing that strikes me as the unwritten story of this man-made epidemic was the lives saved by the CDC,” said Scott Lillibridge, special assistant to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. “They prevented hundreds of illnesses, perhaps more, with good disease detective work,” Lillibridge said. “They stepped up the identification of people at risk and got them onto medication.” The CDC epidemiologists had to “constantly adjust” as they reacted to changing events in a “deliberate epidemic,” Lillibridge said. “What they did, rising to the occasion, is testimony to their preparedness efforts and their work with the public health infrastructure,” he said. “You’ll never know how many lives they saved, because, of course, you wouldn’t want to replay it” (Jeff Nesmith, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dec. 7).
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