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We’ve got envelopes probably throughout the system that may have very few [spores] on them. But they are probably all over the place … We need to go back and have a reality check on the level of risk.
—Cedric Dumont, head of the U.S. State Department medical unit, speaking to the department employees on their risk of exposure to anthrax.
A New York City hospital worker died from inhalation anthrax today, while in Washington, anthrax spores were discovered in a new set of locations, according to reports...Full Story
While the Bush administration dodged criticism yesterday for putting the country on a terrorism high-alert, nuclear installations increased security and the FBI hunted six men who had possessed suspicious materials concerning a nuclear power plant and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline...Full Story
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While the Bush administration dodged criticism yesterday for putting the country on a terrorism high-alert, nuclear installations increased security and the FBI hunted six men who had possessed suspicious materials concerning a nuclear power plant and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
In response to the alert issued Monday afternoon (see GSN, Oct. 30), the FBI was searching yesterday for six men whom police had detained in the Midwest last weekend and then released, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The detainees had photographs and descriptions of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and a nuclear power plant in Florida, according to a senior law enforcement official. In addition, they carried “box cutters and other equipment.”
The men appeared to be from the Middle East and held Israeli passports, the Inquirer reported. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service let them go after determining that their passports were valid and that the men had entered the United States legally, according to the official.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller reportedly were “furious” that the INS released the men without consulting the FBI. INS spokesman Russ Bergeron, however, said that his agency had “absolutely no information [yesterday] to substantiate that story” (Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 31).
Also in response to Monday’s warning, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration yesterday banned private planes from flying within 18,000 feet above or 10 nautical miles around 86 nuclear sites in the country. The restrictions should not affect commercial airliners, since they fly higher. If an aircraft flies into a restricted zone, officials will try to contact it and, if necessary, send military jets to escort it out of the area or shoot it down, an FAA spokesman said.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission called on nuclear facilities to coordinate efforts with law enforcement officials at all levels to increase the security of their perimeters. Governors in Arizona, Arkansas and Louisiana called out the National Guard to protect nuclear plants in those states, while the Guard already was protecting sites in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts (Jonathan Salant, Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, Oct. 31).
Some lawmakers yesterday questioned the Bush administration’s decision to issue a nationwide alert. “I think it’s crazy. We’re all on a high state of alert. How much higher can we get? Imaginations run wild,” said Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) (Seper/Boyer, Washington Times, Oct. 31).
The decision to issue the high-alert was based on a convergence of messages from known or suspected operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jakarta, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere, a senior administration official said.
“If we had specific information about the type of weapon or a specific location, this would have certainly been shared with local or state officials. Unfortunately, we view the information as credible but not specific,” said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge (Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 31).
Additionally, investigators have arrested or detained 1,028 people as part of the investigation after the Sept. 11 attacks. Some of those people reportedly have connections with al-Qaeda and are cooperating with authorities.
“You can fairly assume that the experts view this information [as] somehow related to al-Qaeda or bin Laden, else we wouldn’t have ramped it up,” Ridge said. (Gail Gibson, Baltimore Sun, Oct. 31).
Information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service also contributed heavily to Monday’s announcement, the National Post reported. On Sunday night an Osama bin Laden supporter in Canada transmitted a message to Afghanistan referring to a major event that would happen “down south” this week, officials told the Post.
U.S. intelligence analysts are considering the possibility that the terrorists are planting false communications. They are reassessing information gathered in the spring and summer that led to a CIA warning in June that bin Laden might strike overseas. No attacks occurred then, but the information might have been planted to disguise plans for the attacks on Sept. 11 (Adrian Humphreys, National Post, Oct. 31).
Citing the need to move in U.N. relief supplies as winter approaches, Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday said he hopes the United States will halt its strikes on Afghanistan soon. Since Oct. 7, Washington has been bombing the country, whose ruling Taliban harbors Osama bin Laden, the leading suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"We would want this whole military operation ended as soon as possible, particularly the air action, so that we can begin to move in our supplies," Annan said (Irwin Arieff, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Oct. 30).
Some leaders have called for a temporary halt to strikes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in about two weeks. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, though, yesterday dropped his request for such a halt, despite repeated riots, fueled by anti-American sentiment over the attacks, which have rocked Pakistan this month.
"One has to achieve the objective of the military operation," Musharraf said. "I only hope this is achieved before Ramadan. There is a possibility. ... But if that does not happen, I would discuss the matter with (U.S. President George W. Bush), but I wouldn't be pressing him as such."
Musharraf also said important defections from the Taliban by core ethnic Pashtun supporters are possible. "It's not wishful thinking," he said. "Who is the head of the Pashtun? Not the Taliban. It is a very calculated remark that I am making" (Harding/Carroll, London Guardian, Oct. 31).
U.K. Defense Minister Geoff Hoon, whose country has participated in the air strikes, said yesterday that Ramadan "is something that we will consider very carefully," but that "it wouldn't make military sense to announce up front what our intentions were during that period" (Jonathan Wright, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Oct. 30).
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday confirmed reports that U.S. troops are already on the ground in Afghanistan. The soldiers are guiding U.S. bombing and advising, but not controlling, the opposition Northern Alliance, Rumsfeld said. Less than 100 U.S. soldiers are in northern Afghanistan, while others have been "in and out" of the southern part of the country, he said (Matt Kelley, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Oct. 31). U.S. military sources told the London Telegraph yesterday that a ground invasion is under consideration in case current special operations activity fails to achieve U.S. goals (Smith/Harnden, London Telegraph, Oct. 31).
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, warning that the war could violate human rights if it causes too much hardship to Afghan civilians, said yesterday in Ghent, Belgium, that "it is very necessary, if possible, that there would be a pause" to get food in. Speaking at a European Council globalization conference, Robinson also expressed concern over the European Union's proposed new anti-terrorism legislation, which she said could allow civil rights infringements.
Robinson also stressed the role of women in shaping the Afghan future. A planned 120-person traditional grand council should include women, she said. "Are we really going back to an all-male council?" she asked. "More than half the population of Afghanistan are women. They need this kind of support now. It won't be popular with the men, but I think if there's enough international support, it could happen" (Denis Staunton, Irish Times, Oct. 31).
Lakhdar Brahimi, Annan's senior Afghanistan envoy, met yesterday with Musharraf to discuss possibilities for a broad-based, Afghan-generated post-Taliban government. U.N. spokesman Eric Falt said Musharraf reaffirmed his support for a strong U.N. role in the country's future and that the president agreed with Brahimi that Afghanistan's borders must remain intact (AP/MSNBC.com, Oct. 30). Musharraf said political planning should be carried out along with the current military operation and stressed the need for a "major rehabilitation and reconstruction process" after the war (B. Muralidhar Reddy, The Hindu, Oct. 30).
Falt summed up the meeting's results. "A broad-based, multiethnic and fully representative government must come into power, and the political dispensation must be homegrown and fully owned by the people of Afghanistan," he said. "We must also ensure that the future government will maintain friendly relations with all its neighbors and not allow its territory to be used for hostile acts against its neighbors or anybody else."
Speaking in New York, Annan echoed Falt's words, saying a new government is "for Afghans to make" (U.N. Newservice, Oct. 30).
Citing time constraints, Falt confirmed reports that Brahimi rejected an invitation to meet with Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef (Jack Redden, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Oct. 31). Taliban Supreme Leader Mohamed Omar ordered Zaeef not to meet with Brahimi anyway. Official press quoted Omar as calling the United Nations "a tool in the hands of America" (Agence France-Presse/ReliefWeb, Oct. 31).
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said yesterday that the Taliban should have no role in any future government. There is no such thing as a moderate Taliban wing, Vajpayee said, calling for broad-based government without representatives of the current regime (The Hindu, Oct. 30).
The Financial Times reports that the United Nations is drawing on its long experience in Cambodia as it plans for Afghanistan's future. As in Cambodia, success in Afghanistan "will be measured along the lines of a marginal improvement in a very bad condition," the Brookings Institution's Timothy Crawford said. As in Cambodia, the world body is likely to have a broad mandate but not to force an outcome on the parties, the Financial Times reports (Carola Hoyos, Financial Times, Oct. 31).
A suspect in the assassination last month of Northern Alliance chief Ahmad Shah Masood is being held in London. Yasser al-Siri, a London publisher of Egyptian nationality, was arrested last week and charged yesterday with conspiring to murder Masood and with soliciting support for a banned Islamic extremist group. Al-Siri, who was working as head of the Islamic Observation Center and presented himself as a conduit for Taliban information, has been refused bail and will appear at another hearing Nov. 7. He allegedly secured accreditation for two Masood assassins who posed as journalists before the killing (Jimmy Burns, Financial Times, Oct. 31).
Bin Laden met with a CIA agent this year during a July 4 to 14 stay at the American Hospital Dubai, Le Figaro reports. Citing a source close to the hospital's administration, the Paris daily says bin Laden went to Dubai to be treated for a kidney problem. Terry Callaway, a urologist who reportedly treated bin Laden at the hospital, declined to comment, but sources said a local CIA representative was seen taking the elevator to bin Laden's room and heard several days later boasting that he had met the Saudi exile. "Authorized sources" told Le Figaro the agent was called home by the CIA the day after bin Laden's departure (Alexandra Richard, Le Figaro, Oct. 31, UN Wire translation).
The Christian Science Monitor, citing bin Laden biographer Hamid Mir, reports that bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, may be more dangerous than the al-Qaeda leader himself. While bin Laden is a "caveman" likely to "pack an AK-47, a kilogram of grenades, a kilogram of explosives and a donkey to carry them all to a cave," al-Zawahiri "has a different kind of experience," Mir said. "He is not interested in fighting in the mountains. He is thinking more internationally, involved in militancy inside Egypt. He was behind the terrorist attacks on tourists," he said, referring to a 1997 attack in Luxor that left 58 dead. "He is the person who can do the things that happened on Sept. 11" (Scott Baldauf, Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 31).
Jordanian King Abdallah II yesterday warned Washington not to expand its campaign beyond Afghanistan to Iraq. "There is no proof of Iraqi responsibility vis-a-vis the Sept. 11 attacks," the king said (Islamic Republic News Agency, Oct. 31).
The Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman -- yesterday agreed to proceed together on fighting terrorism and cracking down on related money laundering (Reuters/Karachi Business Recorder, Oct. 31).
Canadian Justice Minister Anne McLellan said Monday that her proposed antiterrorism bill (see GSN, Oct. 17) would not require a sunset clause because it was not emergency legislation, but she said she was open to “possible refinements.” Several Canadian lawmakers have asked McLellan to apply a sunset clause to legislation so that certain provisions would expire after a number of years.
McLellan has said she is open to suggestions, although she and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien have both said they preferred a review of the bill after three years rather than a sunset clause. The bill would allow preventive arrests, special judicial hearings and increased surveillance powers for law enforcement agencies. It has drawn criticism from lawmakers and civil society groups who say that its provisions would go too far in curtailing freedom and privacy protections (Jeff Gray, Globe and Mail, Oct. 29).
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told the House of Commons Justice Committee last week that the antiterrorism bill would provide police with the necessary tools to combat terrorism. “The fight against terrorist activity calls for extraordinary action,” he said.
Canadian Information Commissioner John Reid, however, told the committee that some provisions of the legislation were excessive. Keeping certain information secret could be temporarily necessary to combat terrorism, Reid said, but he expressed concern that the bill would allow the justice minister to exempt any essential national security information from regular information access laws and to keep it secret forever.
McLellan said the secrecy clauses were necessary because foreign governments might refuse to share information with the Canadian government if the information could become public (John Ward, Canadian Press/Miami Herald, Oct. 23).
McLellan said Monday, however, that she would consider allowing the Canadian Federal Court to review complaints from people who felt the government unjustly denied their access to information (Janice Tibbetts, Ottawa Citizen, Oct. 30).
Keith Coulter, head of the Canadian Communications Security Establishment, an electronic intelligence agency, asked Monday for an increase in the agency’s annual budget. The proposed antiterrorism legislation would expand the CSE’s mandate and allow agents to survey Canadian conversations in some cases. Currently, the agency can only “collect information when two foreign entities abroad communicate,” said Coulter. The proposed bill would allow the CSE to listen to communications originating or terminating in Canada with the permission of the minister of defense if a serious security concern was involved, he said. The agency received a one-time grant of $37 million on Oct. 19 to upgrade its technology (John Ward, Canadian Press/Miami Herald, Oct. 29).
Canadian Alliance Parliament Member Diane Ablonczy said the government should provide more money to prepare for terrorist attacks involving biological weapons, adding that a $5.5 million Health Department bioterrorism program was inadequate. “That’s barely 18 cents per Canadian. Why does a postage stamp cost more than medicine on hand for Canadians to prepare for bioterror?” she said, adding it would cost $100 million to inoculate all Canadians against smallpox (Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press/Miami Herald, Oct. 29).
A bioterrorist attack on a Canadian city could kill tens of thousands of people because the country lacks sufficient measures to respond, according to a study published in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases. More planning is needed to “increase the civilian capability to respond rapidly in the event of a bioterrorist incident,” the report said.
The study found that nearly 33,000 people would die if 100,000 people were exposed to anthrax during a two-hour period, and 30,000 people would die from botulism released in the same circumstances. Recovery efforts for such an anthrax attack would cost $6.5 billion, and a botulism attack would cost about $8.6 billion (Tom Arnold, National Post, Oct. 30).
Ontario Premier Mike Harris announced yesterday a $9 million plan to combat terrorism. The plan would provide $4.5 million to establish a rapid-response unit to respond to terrorist threats on nuclear plants and water treatment facilities, $3.5 million for an antiterrorism unit to investigate suspected terrorists and $1 million for police to buy equipment to allow them to respond to chemical and biological attacks. The government would also hold a counterterrorism summit to facilitate dialogue between law enforcement and emergency services agencies (Richard Mackie, Globe and Mail, Oct. 30).
Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty hinted his Nov. 6 economic statement could provide more money for antiterrorism measures, according to the Ottawa Sun (Antonella Artuso, Ottawa Sun, Oct. 31).
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Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said yesterday that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was safe and in the care of responsible people, according to the Pakistani newspaper DAWN. “Those who are concerned with Pakistan’s nuclear program are responsible people. One may have differences with Pakistan on politics, but I would certainly like to give them credit for being responsible people, who will know how to keep their nuclear assets in safe custody, where they don’t fall in wrong hands,” he said at a seminar in India (Jawed Naqvi, DAWN, Oct. 31).
The Times of India reported the story slightly differently, saying the minister hoped Pakistani nuclear weapons were in responsible hands. “I hope those in charge of the nuclear arsenal in Pakistan are responsible people so as not to allow these to fall in the wrong hands,” Fernandes said, according to the Times. The minister expressed concern that the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan could create military and civil disturbances in Pakistan and destabilize security in the region, the Times said (Times of India, Oct. 31).
The Indian Statesman also reported that the minister said he hoped Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were safe. “We may differ in politics. But I must give Pakistan credit that they’re responsible people and won’t allow people to walk away with nuclear weapons,” said Fernandes, according to the Statesman.
The Statesman reported that India has discussed the security of Pakistani nuclear weapons with U.S. officials (Statesman, Oct. 31). India’s Economic Times also reported that U.S. and Indian officials had discussed concerns about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the event that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s regime were to fall. Talks between the two countries focused on the security of Pakistani nuclear installations in case of a military coup rather than the possibility Islamic militants could obtain a nuclear weapon or weapon-grade material (Economic Times, Oct. 31).
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is safe, said a Pakistani spokesman yesterday, dismissing a report in this week’s issue of the New Yorker which claimed a U.S. military unit is training to neutralize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons if forces hostile to the West appear poised to capture the weapons (see GSN, Oct. 30). “The presumption is too ridiculous to be even commented upon,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman said the New Yorker’s claim that some officers of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, could hand over nuclear information to the Taliban was “hogwash.”
“The report about Pakistan’s nuke program, strategic assets and any rift among the ISI is totally baseless and ridiculous,” he said (Business Recorder, Oct. 30).
Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. R.K. Nanavatty, the commander of Indian troops in Kashmir, said today that India could pursue military action against Pakistan and Islamic rebels in Kashmir if India felt pushed, despite the fact that both countries have nuclear capability. “The nuclearization of the subcontinent might have altered the situation, but despite that, the space exists for a limited conventional operation,” he said (Binoo Joshi, Associated Press/Washington Post, Oct. 31).
A move to provide additional U.S. funds for securing Russian nuclear facilities was rejected yesterday by U.S. lawmakers. Working in conference to draft a compromise energy and water spending bill, Senate and House of Representatives negotiators dropped a House provision to add $131 million to a $173 million program that helps Russia guard its nuclear facilities. The additional spending effort was led by Representative Chet Edwards (D-Texas).
The $173 million is the same amount provided in last year’s funding bill. “That’s business as usual,” Edwards said. “We’re faced with a war against terrorism, and the terrorists have declared war on us.”
Critics agreed that nonproliferation goals needed strengthening, but objected to Edwards’ plan to pay for the spending increase with funds taken from a separate program for nuclear-armed cruise missiles.
“There’s no question we should be helping the Russians,” said Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “It’s really in our interest to help them.”
The entire $24.6 billion bill contains $803 million for supporting nuclear nonproliferation—$69 million less than current funding, but $29 million more than Bush administration’s request. The measure now moves to the full House and Senate for consideration (Alan Fram, Associated Press, Oct. 30).
Pakistan has handed over three retired Pakistani nuclear scientists to U.S. authorities for investigation into possible links between the scientists and Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, according to the Globe and Mail, citing the Pakistan Observer. One of the three scientists was Bashiru-Din Mehmood, a former top Pakistani scientist (Times of India/Globe and Mail, Oct. 31).
Pakistani spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi denied such reports yesterday. “It is absolutely baseless and incorrect that they had been handed over to the FBI or CIA,” he said, adding that neither Mehmood or Chaudry Majeed, another scientist reportedly under investigation, had even been involved with Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program (DAWN, Oct. 31). The Associated Press, on the other hand, reported that Mehmood played a crucial role in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons development program.
Mehmood was reportedly detained last week, released (see GSN, Oct. 30) and again taken into custody shortly after his release, according to the Associated Press. He has now been admitted to a hospital in Pakistan after complaining of chest pain during interrogations, sources said yesterday.
Six other members of Mehmood’s nongovernmental organization remained in custody today (Munir Ahmad, Associated Press/Washington Post, Oct. 31).
Mehmood founded the nongovernmental organization Ummah Tameer-e-Nau after he retired from Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission in 1998. Ummah Tameer-e-Nau’s stated goal was to provide assistance to relief and reconstruction efforts and worked extensively inside Afghanistan. The organization was one of few organizations allowed to function freely in Afghanistan. It had permission from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to conduct business deals on the Taliban’s behalf.
Mehmood is an Islamist zealot who supports the Taliban and has intimate knowledge of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, according to the Independent, which reported that Western intelligence agencies have expressed concern Mehmood could have been working to provide the Taliban with the means to build nuclear weapons (Peter Popham, London Independent, Oct. 31).
In the wake of the lifting of U.S. and other sanctions (see GSN, Oct. 30), Pakistan is likely to receive over $1 billion from the United States and several billion dollars from international organizations, although some final decisions have not been made, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday at a press conference.
Boucher said the Bush administration was planning on giving $100 million in economic aid to Pakistan in “the very near future” and hoped to increase the amount significantly.
On Sept. 26, the United States voted for a release of $135 million of International Monetary Fund lending to Pakistan and would support a new three-year, $2 billion IMF program, Boucher said, adding that Pakistan becomes eligible for Paris Club debt scheduling of part of its $12.2 billion debt with the signing of the IMF program. The United States would also support World Bank and Asian Development Bank programs for Pakistan that could total $2 billion in the next year, he said.
The Bush administration would restore a Generalized System of Preferences benefits that was suspended in 1997 and which would provide duty-free treatment for about $13.5 million in trade, Boucher said. The administration would also work with Congress to extend the system’s benefits to Pakistani imports of other products with trade currently valued at $115 million. The United States had committed to remove the quota on combed cotton yarn imports which currently does $10 million in trade, according to Boucher.
The United States is providing $95 million in ongoing democracy, education, health, child labor elimination and counternarcotics programs and would provide $30 million in food assistance over the next year, Boucher said, adding the United States would provide another $73 million for border security and law enforcement programs in Pakistan.
“In addition to that, there is [U.S. Export-Import Bank] money, as much as $400 million, and [Overseas Private Investment Corporation] money as well of $200 million,” Boucher said (State Department release, Oct. 30).
Meanwhile, Japan has said it would reschedule $550 million of Pakistani debt, although Japan has refused Pakistani requests to waive about $5 billion dollars in loans (see GSN, Oct. 23).
Japanese Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Taku Yamasaki said today that Japan could reimpose sanctions on Pakistan if it refuses to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Japan lifted nuclear-related sanctions against Pakistan last week (see GSN, Oct. 26). Japan would “strongly ask” Pakistan to sign the treaty, he said. Yamasaki and other senior Japanese politicians will meet with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan this weekend (Agence France-Presse, Oct. 31).
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A New York City hospital worker died from inhalation anthrax today, while in Washington, anthrax spores were discovered in a new set of locations, according to reports.
The latest New York victim was a 61-year-old woman who worked at Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, in a basement section that had previously housed a mailroom, according to the New York Times. She is the fourth person to die from inhalation anthrax (Terence Neilan, New York Times, Oct. 31).
The woman fell ill last Thursday, said co-workers. She checked in to a New York City emergency room on Sunday, where doctors placed her on antibiotics and then a respirator.
Health officials have temporarily closed the hospital and said they anticipate testing some employees for anthrax as well as prescribing antibiotics for about 5,500 employees and recent patients. “There’s no question there’s a possibility she got [anthrax] somewhere else,” Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said yesterday
The New York woman is the second recent anthrax case among people who have minimal contact handling mail, according to the Post. These new cases do not fit into the same patterns health officials have seen with prior cases, said Stephen Ostroff, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control official in New York. "There is no clear linkage with the mail. We don't suppose that we know what the source was," Ostroff said.
This new cases may mean terrorists have switched to a new delivery system for possible anthrax attacks, according to public health and bioterrorism experts. “We shouldn’t assume they’re going to continue to do this in the same way, said David Walker, an infectious disease specialist that the University of Texas medical branch in Galveston. “If they have a good supply of these spores they can distribute them in a lot of different ways. To focus on the mail … may not follow the way they’re thinking,” Walker said.
“Letters may not be the only vehicle by which anthrax can be transmitted to a population,” said University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Director Michael Osterholm. “They have a high quality bullet, but they’re delivering it with a very ineffective gun” (Powell/Connolly, Washington Post, Oct. 31).
The fact that no one else has recently come down sick is a comforting one, say experts. If anthrax had been intentionally released at the Manhattan hospital or somewhere else the woman had visited, “you would probably see an epicenter of several people being infected,” said Irwin Gelman, an infectious disease expert at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
It may take possible future cases of anthrax to determine whether the woman was infected via the mail or a different way, according to experts. “If you’re investigating a serial killer, it’s very hard to know the pattern of that serial killer after one or two murders,” said Osterholm. “By the seventh or eighth murder, things start to appear in a particular way. As more cases come in, we will learn a lot about the epidemiologic pattern, and the risk factors for developing this infection” (New York Times, Oct. 31).
The closing of Manhattan Ear, Eye and Throat Hospital because of the recent anthrax infection could suggest that New York’s medical facilities might be of limited use in fighting even a limited form of bioterrorism, according to experts.
“I think that it has always been underestimated how vulnerable our health facilities are,” said former New York Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. “If you are thinking of an attack you think of [hospitals] as a nerve center,” Hamburg said. “It is a given for infectious diseases, hospitals are vulnerable.”
Even though “starting to close hospitals is not a good sign,” the U.S. health system can handle a bioterrorism threat, said Yale Medical School Dean David Kessler. “There are literally a million hospital beds in this country, and there should be no concern about our ability to handle anthrax,” Kessler said (Fatsis/Lueck, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 31).
There are probable trace amounts of anthrax spores “all over the place” at the U.S. State Department building, Cedric Dumont, head of the State Department’s medical unit, said yesterday. “Your office areas probably have some contamination,” Dumont told State Department employees. “We’ve got envelopes probably throughout the system that may have very few … on them. But they are probably all over the place,” Dumont said. “We need to go back and have a reality check on the level of risk.”
“What we’re telling you is that an envelope with a couple of spores is not going to give you inhalational anthrax,” Dumont said. “It may—very low probability—cause cutaneous anthrax.”
There was no indication that anthrax spores had spread out from the two State Department mailrooms, said spokesman Richard Boucher Monday. “If it is ever clear that where we are working now is not safe, then we will go somewhere else to work,” said Secretary of State Colin Powell (George Gedda, Associated Press/RealCities.com, Oct. 31).
Trace amounts of spores were found Monday in the mailroom of the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Agriculture Department, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said. Two Washington area postal facilities had also tested positive for the presence of anthrax spores, said U.S. Postal Service officials. Cleanup efforts and new security measures at postal facilities are expected to cost several billion dollars, said Postmaster General John Potter (Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times, Oct. 31).
Chlorine dioxide gas will be used to clean the Hart Senate office building of anthrax, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said yesterday. “We’re going to go ahead with the process [the Environmental Protection Agency] recommended,” Daschle said. The Hart building should be ready to be reopened in mid-November, Daschle said. The Dirksen Senate office building will be closed for two days while the gas is being pumped into the adjacent Hart building, officials said. The two buildings are connected by passages in their staircases and basement.
The Ford and Longworth House of Representatives office buildings remain closed. Anthrax testing is still being conducted at the Longworth building, where trace amounts of spores were found in three representatives’ offices. The Longworth building will most likely not open until at least next week, officials said. “Until every single test is documented and confirmed, we simply won’t open that building up,” House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) said (Alan Fram, Associated Press/Miami Herald, Oct. 31).
Government health officials are urging that those in high risk categories, such as nursing home residents, people with compromised immune systems and those with chronic cardiac or respiratory problems, be among the first to get this year’s flu vaccine, according to the Miami Herald.
Most others can wait until December when flu shots will be more widely available. Currently, supplies are limited because of few companies producing the vaccine and manufacturing delays, according to the Herald. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said he convinced flu vaccine manufacturers to increase the number of doses from 72 million to 85 million for this year. Those in the greatest need, however, should be first in line, said experts. “Don’t let the high risk influenza people get lost in the shuffle,” said National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci. “Let them get it first.”
Some experts, however, disagree with the “highest risk first” policy, according to the Herald. People should not miss out on “an opportunity to get flu vaccine,” said Paul Glezen, an epidemiologist at the Influenza Research Center. “Flu vaccine is most effective if you immunize people before flu starts spreading,” Glezen said, citing early strains of flu that appeared in Texas in November.
People should get flu shots to help ward off the flu and not because of anthrax fears, Thompson said. “We’re not saying people ought to get it to prevent confusion with the symptoms of anthrax,” said Walt Orenstein, head of the CDC National Immunization Program. “What we are saying it get it to prevent getting influenza” (Miami Herald, Oct. 31).
Following today’s announcement of the death of a New York hospital worker diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, 16 people have been diagnosed with anthrax infections since the first case was announced in Florida (see GSN, Oct. 5), according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
| | Deaths (From inhalation anthrax) | Inhalation Anthrax Infections | Skin Anthrax Infections | | Florida (Discovered in workers at American Media Inc. building) | 1 | 1 | 0 | | New Jersey (Discovered in workers at mail-processing center in Trenton and an accountant unconnected to the postal service) | 0 | 2 | 3 | | New York (Discovered in workers at NBC and CBS News, child of ABC News producer and Manhattan hospital worker) | 1 | 0 | 3 | | Washington (Discovered in workers at Brentwood Road mail processing center and State Department offsite mail facility) | 2 | 3 | 0 | | Total | 4 | 6 | 6 |
(CDC release, Oct. 30, Terrence Neilan, New York Times, Oct. 31)
Members of Congress questioned U.S. Postal Service officials during hearings yesterday over the quality of their response to anthrax spores being discovered at postal facilities. At the same time, postal officials asked Congress for more money to offset losses and to help fund new security measures.
Postmaster General John Potter faced questioning by senators and representatives in two hearings (see GSN, Oct. 30) on why the Postal Service did not warn Washington postal workers of possible contamination at the Brentwood mail-processing facility. The Brentwood facility had handled an anthrax-tainted letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D). Legislators also asked Potter why postal workers were not tested for anthrax exposure when congressional staffers were, and why the Brentwood center was not tested even though congressional office buildings were closed, according to the Post.
“There seems to be a higher level of prudence for people in power than for people who don’t have power,” said Representative Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio). “This inconsistency is bothering the American people.”
The Postal Service had relied on the Centers for Disease Control for advice on whether there was any threat that would call for the closing of a facility, Potter said. When the Daschle letter arrived, the “science” was “obvious,” Potter said. The letter was “well sealed,” he said, and there was no evidence that any anthrax could leak out in quantities to infect anyone. The CDC had said there was only a “remote chance” of contamination at Brentwood, Potter said.
The Postal Service had hired a contractor to do a comprehensive environmental test and also brought in hazmat crews to do “a quick test” of Brentwood, according to Potter. The quick test, however, had come back with a false negative, Potter said. “Once it became clear that we had an employee with anthrax, we took immediate action,” Potter said. “We shut the [Brentwood] facility,” said Potter. Postal and CDC officials said that decisions to close facilities were made on a “case-by-case” basis.
“It’s not enough to tell us that it’s done on a case-by-case basis when all the cases that get closed down are [lawmakers’ offices] and all the places that are left open are closer to the people,” said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). “These differences need to be explained or we are all going to have a credibility problem” (Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, Oct. 31).
The Postal Service will likely ask Congress for an emergency bailout of at least $2 billion to help offset recent laws since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to help pay for new mail safeguard systems, Potter said during congressional hearings yesterday. If the money is not provided, the Postal Service will likely ask for a rate increase that would push the price of a first-class stamp well past the 37 cents now being considered, according to the Miami Herald.
The Postal Service has lost about $300 million because of decreased volumes of advertiser mail, Potter said. The financial damage done because of the recent anthrax incidents could be another “several billion dollars,” Potter said. “I can tell you, it’s sizable,” Potter said, referring to the expected costs. The declining mail volume plus the expenses of sanitizing mail and providing gloves and masks for workers has “put the Postal Service’s long-term viability in jeopardy,” Potter said.
The Postal Service is a nonprofit federal corporation that must pay all costs out of fees charged to deliver mail. The Postal Service can borrow up to a maximum of $15 billion from the U.S. Treasury by law, and has already borrowed $11 billion, according to the Herald. The Postal Service reported losses near $199 million last year and was expected to have a $1.35 billion deficit for the current fiscal year, according to the Herald.
About $2 billion in funding would prevent the need for another rate hike, Potter said. “I don’t feel the taxpayer should have to bear the burden of increasing the security of the mail,” Potter said.
Some members of Congress said they were open to Potter’s suggestions. “The Postal Service is at the heart of this nation’s critical infrastructure and is one of the foundations of our quality of life,” said Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). “It is too important to too many people to allow these problems or anxieties with the mail system to fester” (Tony Pugh, Miami Herald, Oct. 31).
More than 13,000 postal workers are on antibiotic treatments to prevent against anthrax infection, according to the Associated Press. The effects of the recent anthrax incidents may have some federal workers reevaluating the risks in their jobs, according to experts. “The reality is they are at a high risk by virtue of the fact that they represent the federal government,” said American Federation of Government Employees spokesman John Irvine. “That extra risk will weigh heavily in the minds of those who are currently employed at lower-than-market salaries, as well as prospective employees” (Nancy Benac, Associated Press/RealCities.com, Oct. 31).
U.S. federal health officials yesterday said they have asked the military to make some anthrax vaccine available to civilians.
Tommy Thompson and Jeffrey Koplan, secretary of Health and Human Services and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said they were negotiating with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to buy a “small” portion of the military’s vaccine. (Jane Hansen, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 31).
Thompson told the New York Times that he wants access to enough vaccine to protect nearly a million people. He said that currently the sole manufacturer of anthrax vaccine, BioPort Corp., has a stockpile of 5 million doses. At six doses per person, that stockpile could treat up to 833,000 people.
Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been keeping BioPort’s plant closed due to sterility and quality concerns (see GSN, Oct. 26), inspectors will visit the plant soon to inspect equipment and test the quality of previously uninspected batches of vaccine (Nicholas Wade, New York Times, Oct. 31).
The FDA confirmed today that it has approved the antibiotics doxycycline and penicillin G procaine for use against all kinds of anthrax infections, further reducing the status of Cipro as the most favored anti-anthrax drug (see GSN, Oct. 29). The FDA today published specific dosage information for the alternative antibiotics in a notice in the Federal Register (M2 Presswire, Oct. 31).
Health Canada announced yesterday that it has included 47,000 doses of doxycycline in its stockpile of anti-anthrax antibiotics (Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail, Oct. 31).
Some people experienced painful side effects as a result of taking Cipro, the Baltimore Sun reported today. Patients had headaches, stomach pain and nausea, all of it lasting sometimes for days. Rarer reports of weakening tendon tissues also surfaced. The most common side effect for doxycycline is a skin rash, which occurs in about 10 percent of patients (Jonathan Bor, Baltimore Sun, Oct. 31).
No individuals in the United States would be allowed to possess dangerous pathogens, under legislation proposed yesterday by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Her bill would also establish stricter certification requirements for the laboratories that would be the only entities permitted to keep particularly risky biological agents.
“Amazingly, under current law, individuals can possess anthrax bacteria, smallpox virus or other dangerous pathogens with very few restrictions. Labs are not even required to report this information to federal authorities unless they plan to transfer or move the pathogens. We are a nation at risk and strict new safeguards are needed,” Feinstein said.
Under the antiterrorism legislation signed Friday by President George W. Bush (see GSN, Oct. 26), U.S. law allows individuals to possess pathogens if they can demonstrate they are using the material for research or other peaceful purposes, according to the Feinstein release. Feinstein’s legislation would ban any individual possession outside a certified lab, punishable by five years in prison.
The Health and Human Services would conduct the lab certification process. It would require a certified lab to demonstrate proper training and skills, to have proper disposal facilities, to secure its facilities against criminal or terrorist access and to conduct background checks on any personnel handling dangerous materials (Feinstein release, Oct. 30).
Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock said yesterday Canada would not stockpile enough smallpox vaccine doses for every Canadian, contrary to earlier statements (see GSN, Oct. 26). Rock said he planned to stockpile only 300,000 doses, which would be enough to contain an outbreak but would not be enough to inoculate all Canadians in the case of a nationwide smallpox epidemic.
“I think the best strategy … is to have enough vaccine on hand to at least contain an outbreak if it occurs,” Rock said, adding that Canada would have to rely on foreign assistance in the case of a nationwide epidemic. “It would be a world responsibility,” he said.
Rock said vaccinating all Canadians would be inappropriate due to the risk of adverse reactions to the vaccine, and “it would also encourage and sustain a panic and overreaction” (Stephanie Rubec, Edmonton Sun, Oct. 31).
The United States and international community should provide more funds to support former Soviet biological weapons experts and prevent them from seeking financial support from terrorists or rogue states, said Amy Smithson of the Henry L. Stimson Center today in a USA Today opinion column.
The Soviet Union employed 70,000 biologists and chemists at the height of its weapons programs, all of whom could rapidly accelerate other states’ or groups’ efforts to develop such weapons, Smithson said. The Soviet Union had weaponized 50 biological agents and genetically engineered some of them to be resistant to antibiotics. It had also developed a new generation of nerve agents.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, however, thousands of scientists lost their jobs or received poverty-level salaries. The United States initiated the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program to provide funds to dismantle parts of the former Soviet weapons of mass destruction programs and prevent brain drain of specialists to hostile states and organizations. In 1994, the International Science and Technology Center began providing research grants to employ many former Soviet weaponeers.
Some of the brain drain prevention programs began too late, however, Smithson said. “Some of the former bioweaponeers I have interviewed knew colleagues who had accepted offers to teach in such countries as Iran and North Korea. Others might have gone to China or Iraq,” Smithson said.
Another problem was the comparatively small amount of money provided for chemical and biological experts compared to nuclear experts, Smithson said (see GSN, Oct. 25). Only 4 percent of ISTC grants were given to bioweaponeers and 3 percent to chemical weapons experts, compared to 63 percent for nuclear scientists. From 1994 to mid-1999, the United States provided $4.9 million in research grants for biological and chemical specialists—barely enough “to keep the estimated 10,500 key chemical and biological weapons experts above the poverty line,” Smithson said, adding the sum was “a drop in the bucket of the Pentagon’s 2000 budget of more than $265 billion.”
Smithson said preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction knowledge is more cost-effective than creating defenses. “The price tag just to research, develop and deploy gas masks for U.S. ground troops and aircrews, for instance, is about $383 million,” she said (Amy Smithson, USA Today, Oct. 31).
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insisted Monday that he postponed three radar tests tests because they might violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, but he acknowledged that at least some of the tests had already been postponed for technical reasons. Last Thursday Rumsfeld announced that three tests of U.S. radars would be postponed indefinitely because the tests could be interpreted by “a small minority of people” as violations of the treaty (see GSN, Oct. 26).
Joseph Cirincione, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted the following day that the tests had already been delayed for technical reasons and argued that the Pentagon was using the test delays as a ploy to suggest that U.S. missile defense research is overly restricted by the ABM Treaty (see GSN, Oct. 29).
“Now if one of those tests is cancelled or has been cancelled for technical reasons, so be it,” said Rumsfeld in a Monday press briefing. “All I know is, at the time I was asked what they should do, I said, ‘Do not violate the treaty.’ And if later there was a technical reason and we could not have used the radar anyway, that’s life.”
“But there were three or four of these instances, and in each case we made the decision not to put the United States in a position where a small cluster of lawyers could argue that we were violating the treaty,” Rumsfeld said (Pentagon briefing/State Department release, Oct. 29).
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