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PRE-9/11 TERRORIST' MAIL CAME FROM INDY
By MURRAY WEISS
November 1, 2001 -- EXCLUSIVE
Threatening letters mailed to the media before the World Trade Center attacks - bearing striking similarities to the current
anthrax-tainted letters - were mailed from Indianapolis, where the deadly bacteria was discovered yesterday, The Post has
learned.
The pre-Sept. 11 letters were addressed in block letters that virtually match the lettering on the anthrax-laced missives
sent to Sen. Thomas Daschle, the New York Post and NBC, law-enforcement sources said.
One source allowed The Post to see copies of envelopes from several of the earlier letters.
Each line of the printed address clearly sloped downward to the right and the handwriting eerily resembled that on the
anthrax letters.
Federal investigators checked the return addresses on the letters, the sources said, but none of them was real.
The return address on one letter - addressed to Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly - listed the name of Sean Hannity, another
FNC personality.
Despite the obvious twisted humor, that letter and about 15 more now are a major focus of the far-flung federal probe,
the sources say.
The similarities between the pre-Sept. 11 and post-Twin Tower disaster letters has further fueled a theory at the FBI
and Justice Department that the anthrax scare is the work of a twisted home-grown menace rather than a terrorist linked to
state-sponsored action or Osama bin Laden.
Source say investigators are eyeing a number of groups, including radical members of a pagan cult.
The Wiccan group fashions itself as modern-day witches seeking religious freedom, but they are not known to be violent.
Investigators are probing whether a disturbed member of the group may have taken a bizarre turn and is targeting the media
and the government in particular.
Indiana officials yesterday said that it was a coincidence they tested for - and found - traces of anthrax in a facility
that repairs parts from sorting machines used by the U.S. Postal Service.
Inspectors initially started testing for the deadly bacteria in another repair facility, in Topeka, Kan., after several
workers experienced flu-like symptoms, said Darla Stafford, spokeswoman for the Greater Indianapolis post office.
She said inspectors then tested in Indianapolis as a precaution because parts from an anthrax-affected post office in
Washington, D.C. were recently repaired there.
Pre- September 11 Letters
On November 1, 2001, Murray Weiss of the New York Post reported that threatening letters to media personalities were mailed
before 9/11 from Indianapolis and other locations. These letters did not contain anthrax, but the writing was allegedly very
similar to that on the anthrax letters.
Sean Hannity, Fox News
Coincidentally, anthrax was found the day before the article was printed on post office equipment in Indianapolis. Officials
claim that it isn't related to the Indianapolis letters. The letters may have gone out to some 15 media people, among them
was Sean Hannity of Fox News. Hannity told Newsmax.com that he had begun getting the threatening letters in the winter of
2000 and again in August of 2001.
"In my gut, I know it's the same person," Hannity told his audience. "It was the exact same handwriting
that I had recognized. ... When I saw it I said, 'Oh my God, that's the same guy.'" Because the letters were part of
an ongoing investigation, he could not go into any more detail about them. The letters that were sent to Hannity were mailed
from Indianapolis and from Trenton, N.J. an anthrax hot spot.
Bill O'Reilly, Fox News
Hannity wasn't the only popular Fox News talk show host to receive threatening letters. Controversial, but very popular
Bill O'Reilly was also a recipient of letters very similar to those received by Senators Leahy and Daschle.
The FBI was been very silent on the pre-September 11 letters and the details of the investigation have been hidden from
the media. In the absence of any additional information, it is impossible to evaluate the significance, if any, of the pre-September
11 threatening letters.
Pre- September 11 Letters On November 1, 2001, Murray Weiss of the New York Post reported that threatening letters to media
personalities were mailed before 9/11 from Indianapolis and other locations. These letters did not contain anthrax, but the
writing was allegedly very similar to that on the anthrax letters.
Anthrax Hoaxes Are Sent In Mail
Threatening Letter Delivered to Post
By Maria Elena Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 5, 1999; Page B08
Two letters containing an unidentified substance and one terrifying word -- "anthrax" -- were opened in Washington
yesterday, one at The Washington Post and the other at the Old Executive Office Building. The letters proved to be a hoax.
Similar letters arrived yesterday at an NBC News office in Atlanta and a U.S. post office in Columbus, Ga. They also appeared
to be part of a deception that is becoming familiar across the nation.
Letters and packages claiming to contain the lethal bacteria have been delivered to courthouses, abortion clinics and
office buildings, creating chaotic evacuations, mass quarantines and a wave of panic across the United States.
"It's almost a matter of routine now, particularly in L.A.," FBI spokeswoman Susan Lloyd said. "It happens
so frequently. I know that a lot of manpower is used to respond to each of these incidents. I don't think anyone in public
service wants to drop their guard."
A threatening letter arrived at The Washington Post on Wednesday afternoon, but was not opened until yesterday morning,
Lloyd said. The rambling letter claimed that a substance enclosed in a double plastic bag was anthrax, prompting security
personnel to contact law enforcement officials at 10 a.m., said Linda Erdos, a spokeswoman for The Post.
A D.C. Fire Department hazardous material crew responded to the 1100 block of 15th Street NW, removed the letter and determined
it was unnecessary to evacuate The Post, Battalion Chief Tom Johnson said. The letter was turned over to the FBI's Domestic
Terrorism Task Force, which determined yesterday afternoon that the substance was harmless, Lloyd said.
"It couldn't get loose, because it was in the double plastic bag, like a freezer bag," Johnson said. "We've
gotten pretty experienced at determining these things."
Another letter, received at the Old Executive Office Building soon after the scare at The Post, "was similar if not
identical to the one at The Post," said Lloyd, who added that the FBI was treating the cases as a single investigation.
Secret Service agent Jim Mackin declined to elaborate on that letter. The Old Executive Office Building was not evacuated
either.
In Atlanta, police evacuated a three-block area of the city's Midtown neighborhood as law enforcement officers dealt with
a letter delivered to a local office of NBC News at 11:40 a.m. NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin said that a letter "containing
an anthrax" threat was received and the building was evacuated. About a dozen people underwent a decontamination procedure
and were taken to a hospital.
The fourth letter was sent to a post office in Columbus, 85 miles south of Atlanta, said Atlanta-based FBI spokesman Jay
Spatafore. He declined to comment further.
Law enforcement officials say the Georgia incidents do not appear to be the work of the same groups or individual. Police
would not say whether they thought yesterday's letters were related.
Since late last year, nearly two dozen anthrax threats have been reported in greater Los Angeles. Last fall, several abortion
clinics in the Midwest received letters claiming that a brown powder found in each of the envelopes was the deadly germ. All
of the reports were false.
Anthrax spores, found in diseased sheep and cattle, can exist in water and soil and be transmitted by skin contact. The
germs can also be spread in biological warfare.
An anthrax scare paralyzed part of the District in April 1997 when a package was delivered to the international headquarters
of B'nai B'rith, sparking an hours-long chemical hazard alert that closed several downtown streets. The powder in that package
turned out to be common bacteria.
___________________________________________________________
HOAXES?
Monterey Institute of International Studies
Research Story of the Week
Tracking Anthrax Hoaxes and Attacks
Clayton Lee Waagner, anthrax hoax suspect.
By Laura Snyder and Jason Pate
Much attention has been paid to the anthrax letters sent last fall to major media outlets and two U.S. senators that resulted
in five deaths and 17 non-fatal infections. However, in the midst of the turmoil in late 2001, it largely escaped attention
that more than 750 hoax letters claiming to contain anthrax were sent worldwide in October and November. More than 550 of
these hoax letters were sent to abortion clinics in the United States by a single group called the Army of God.
This was not the first time that abortion clinics were the victim of anthrax hoaxes. In 1998, at least 12 clinics received
letters that claimed to contain anthrax, followed by more than 35 such letters in 1999 and over 30 in 2000. Indeed, from 1998
to September 2001, more than 400 anthrax hoaxes occurred in the United States.
THE LETTERS
First Wave: On October 15, 2001, the same day the anthrax-tainted letter was found in Senator Daschles office, nearly
300 family-planning centers received letters purporting to be from U.S. government agencies.[1] The letters, which listed
either the U.S. Marshals Service or the U.S. Secret Service as the return address, were also labeled Time SensitiveUrgent
Security Notice Enclosed. When opened at abortion clinics around the nation, the envelopes turned out to contain threatening
letters from the Army of God, a radical anti-abortion group that has been associated with multiple attacks against abortion
doctors and clinics. Accompanied by threatening white powder, later identified as a relatively harmless insecticide, the letters
warned recipients that they had been exposed to the bacterium that causes anthrax and described in detail the symptoms of
the disease.[2] The letters also cautioned the reader to call the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for treatment.[3]
This wave of hoax letters was concentrated in the South and the Northeast. According to an analysis of 272 letters by
the National Abortion Federation, Florida received the most letters (68), followed by Pennsylvania (50), and Ohio (29). Almost
all of the October letters were postmarked in Knoxville or Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cleveland or Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia;
or Washington, D.C.[4]
Second Wave: On November 7, 2001, more than 250 Army of God anthrax hoax letters were received by clinics and advocacy
groups.[5] These letters were sent in FedEx envelopes and purported to be from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
or the National Abortion Federation; the sender had somehow obtained the NAF and Planned Parenthood FedEx account numbers
and forged the envelopes. This was the first time that FedEx packages had been used to deliver the anthrax threats.
Thirty-one of the letters in this second wave were concentrated in New England, and 20 others were received in the Mid-Atlantic
states. One explanation for the fact that very few hoax letters were received on the West Coast is that many of the letters
were stopped in transit after postal authorities learned of the other hoaxes.
THE INVESTIGATION
In late November 2001, fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner claimed responsibility for both waves of anti-abortion anthrax hoaxes.
Waagner, 44, of Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, had escaped from an Illinois county jail in February 2000 while awaiting sentencing
for weapons possession and auto theft. He has known ties to the Army of God and claimed that God had called on him to murder
abortion providers and to attack clinics.
Waagners obsession with abortion doctors and clinics began in September 1999, following a funeral service that was held
after his daughter suffered a miscarriage. He claims that God called on him to be [his] warrior and kill abortion doctors.[6]
In a statement posted online in June 2001, Waagner declared: I am anointed and called to be God's Warrior. And in that call
I am protected by THE MOST HIGH GOD.[7] According to Neil Horsley, an Army of God member whom Waagner supposedly visited over
Thanksgiving weekend in November 2001, Waagner claimed to have identified 42 abortion clinic workers he was planning to kill.[8]
On December 5, 2001, Waagner was captured outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, and on January 25, 2002, he was sentenced to more
than 30 years in prison for illegal possession of firearms, theft, and breaking out of prison.[9] On April 18, 2002, Waagner
was convicted on six firearms and car theft charges. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.[10]
Waagner has been transferred to Philadelphia for questioning in the anthrax hoax letters and will probably stand trial for
the hoaxes in summer 2002.
CONCLUSION
Although the media have begun to focus on the anthrax hoax phenomenon in light of the fall 2001 anthrax letter attacks,
the hundreds of anthrax hoaxes that occurred in the United States in 1998-2001 received very little attention. It is probably
not a coincidence that three years of anthrax hoaxes predated the actual attacks. Although there is as yet no clear linkage
between the perpetrators of the anthrax letter attacks and the anthrax hoaxes, systematic tracking of hoax events could provide
some basis for bioterrorism response planning.
Sources:
[1] Planned Parenthood Offices Nationwide Receive Envelopes Containing Unknown White Powder, Planned Parenthood, October
19, 2001, <http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/101501anthrax.html>, accessed on October 22, 2001.
[2] Ibid. See also: Police: Top Fugitive Carried Insecticide, Cincinnati Enquirer, December 11, 2001.
[3] Planned Parenthood Offices Nationwide Receive Envelopes Containing Unknown White Powder.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Tamar Lewin, Anthrax Scare Hits Groups Backing Right to Abortion, New York Times, November 9, 2001.
[6] On the Lam, But Online, Salon.com, June 27, 2001, <http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/06/27/waagner/index.html>,
accessed on 16 May 2002.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Army of God Terrorist Caught! One Peoples Project, December 2001, <http//www.onepeoplesproject.com/waagner.htm>,
accessed on 16 May 2002.
[9] Waagner Receives 30 Year Sentence, Cincinnati Post, January 26, 2002.
[10] Conviction, St. Petersburg Times Wires, April 19, 2002.
Laura Snyder is a 2002 Master of Arts graduate of the International Policy Studies program at the Monterey Institute,
and she received a Certificate in Nonproliferation Studies. She has worked as a Research Assistant with the Chemical and Biological
Weapons Nonproliferation Program (CBWNP) at CNS since 2000.
Jason Pate is Senior Research Associate and Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism Database Manager for the Chemical and
Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute.
Author(s): Laura Snyder and Jason Pate
Related Resources: Chem/Bio, Americas, Weekly Story
Date Created: May 20, 2002
Date Updated: -NA-
Center for Nonproliferation Studies
460 Pierce Street, Monterey, CA 93940, USA
Telephone: +1 (831) 647-4154; Fax: +1 (831) 647-3519
E-mail: cns@miis.edu; Web: http://cns.miis.edu
Copyright © 2002 Monterey Institute of International Studies. All rights reserved.
Brokaws aide tests positive
Suspicious letters to NBC, N.Y. Times sent from St. Petersburg, authorities say.
[AP photo]
Barry Mawn, left, head of the FBI office in New York, addresses the media as New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani looks on
today at NBC headquarters in New York. Mawn said two suspicious letters were sent from St. Petersburg. Police Commissioner
Bernard Kerik is at center background.
By DAVID BALLINGRUD, MIKE BRASSFIELD and WES ALLISON
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 13, 2001
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More information
CDC Public Health Message Regarding Anthrax, Dated Oct. 12, 2001 [pdf file]
CDC Anthrax FAQ Web page
[To get the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view .pdf files, click here]
A broadening national bioterrorism investigation turned toward St. Petersburg late Friday after NBC officials disclosed
that a New York employee has contracted anthrax.
A woman who opens the mail for news anchor Tom Brokaw was diagnosed with a skin form of anthrax several days after she
opened a letter that contained white powder and was postmarked from St. Petersburg.
The New York Times on Friday received a letter with a white powder and the St. Petersburg Times received one earlier in
the week. All three letters were postmarked in St. Petersburg.
Federal law enforcement officials said late Friday that all three letters postmarked St. Petersburg tested negatively
for anthrax.
Still, the case of the NBC worker hit a nerve and touched off a new investigation in Florida.
Late Friday, postal officials converged at the main post office in St. Petersburg, saying they were working with the FBI
and others in the early stages of an investigation. They would not address specifics of the investigation or what inspectors
could do to pinpoint the origin of the letters.
"The Postal Service does not have the means to track an individual letter to its source," said Linda Walker,
spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Tampa.
Despite repeated government assurances Friday that investigators have found no definite link between the anthrax incidents
and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the letters fueled growing concerns about a possible biological attack.
Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday there may be links between U.S. anthrax cases and Osama bin Laden, the suspected
mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I think the only responsible thing for us to do is proceed on the basis that it could be linked," Cheney told
Jim Lehrer of PBS. He said the United States has evidence that bin Laden's terrorists were trained in spreading chemical and
biological toxins.
In developments Friday:
An assistant to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw contracted the skin-based form of anthrax after opening a "threatening"
letter to her boss.
Officials quickly said there was no known link to either the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the more serious inhaled form
of anthrax that killed a supermarket tabloid editor in Florida last week. The 38-year-old NBC employee was being treated with
antibiotics and is expected to recover. The letter was postmarked in St. Petersburg on Sept. 20 and opened Sept. 25, authorities
said.
[AP photos]
Police officers gather outside the New York Times offices today, in top photo, as they investigate a letter sent to investigative
reporter Judith Miller, at left, that contained a powdery substance. Two floors of newspaper offices were evacuated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Within hours, another scare broke out at the New York Times' 43rd Street headquarters. Staff writer Judith Miller, the
author of a recently released book on bioterrorism, received an envelope containing a powdery substance that smelled like
talcum powder, said Kathy Park, a spokeswoman for the paper. Two floors of employees were evacuated but later returned to
their desks.
FBI officials confirmed late Friday that the letters the NBC employee and Miller received were "business-type"
letters, postmarked in St. Petersburg, and contained a similar powdery substance. Neither had a return address.
In Columbus, Ohio, three employees of the Columbus Dispatch remained in quarantine late Friday after one of them opened
a Halloween card and found a powdery substance. Steve Berry, an assistant features editor, said the card arrived in the mail
with a Dayton postmark but no return address. The substance was taken to the Ohio Department of Health, where officials said
a preliminary report was expected late Friday.
Fox News Channel reported receiving a questionable envelope with a powdery substance and all mailroom employees were being
tested for anthrax. The woman who received the envelope at Fox has tested negative for anthrax.
In Nevada, a letter containing pornographic material that was sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office in Reno was first
reported as testing positive for anthrax, but state officials said later that was in error.
New organizations including CNN, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News also stopped accepting outside mail,
and the Miami Herald continued to provide latex gloves to concerned employees, as it has since the anthrax fatality at American
Media Inc. in Boca Raton.
The New York offices of Newsweek magazine, the Associated Press, ABC and CBS stopped mail deliveries to staff as a precaution.
In a briefing at the Pentagon, a senior defense official confirmed that al-Qaida, bin Laden's global network, is thought
to have crude facilities in Afghanistan where it could produce chemical or biological weapons. If al-Qaida has biological
warfare agents, they could include anthrax, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Local postal workers report symptoms
Shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, paramedics were called to the mail processing center in St. Petersburg to check a few workers
who were complaining of headaches or other symptoms.
The workers feared that they might have been exposed to something a couple of days earlier, according to paramedics at
the scene.
A hazardous materials team also was called to the mail center to test for any contamination.
"We anticipate getting a clean bill of health," said Walker, of the postal inspection service.
Earlier in the day, federal authorities told the St. Petersburg Police Department that they were investigating multiple
mailed envelopes that had St. Petersburg postmarks.
St. Petersburg police Chief Mack Vines confirmed reports that one of the suspicious envelopes was mailed to NBC and one
to the New York Times, but would not comment on whether other such envelopes had been found.
Detectives with the St. Petersburg Police Department's intelligence unit came to Vines' office shortly after 5 p.m. to
inform him of the development.
Vines said St. Petersburg detectives were working on the case with FBI, the U.S. Postal Service, and the Manhattan homicide
squad of the New York Police Department.
"We're on top of the issue. We're working with the bureau to determine if we can identity any type of situation relating
to the postmark," Vines said Friday night. "We're just trying to develop any kind of information that would tie
in to something like that."
Vines said he could not say anything else about the ongoing investigation.
"We're working diligently on it," Vines said. "We'll see if we can trace some of these things back. That's
the issue."
"The only thing we know for sure is that they (the letters) were postmarked in St. Petersburg," said Gary Sawtelle,
Tampa postal spokesman.
"Until we examine them, there's no way to break down where they were mailed from," he said.
The St. Petersburg postmark is given to letters collected from mid Pinellas County to south St. Petersburg, he said. He
could not immediately be more specific.
[Times photos: Jennifer Davis]
Firefighters and guards cover St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler's desk with plastic after he received an envelope,
below, Tuesday with a substance like salt or sugar.
St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler opened his letter at his desk Tuesday. As he did so, a white powdery substance,
resembling sugar or salt, spilled out.
Troxler stopped opening the letter. Authorities were called to the newspaper's offices in downtown St. Petersburg. Police
put the envelope in an airtight container and drove it to a state health lab in Tampa for analysis. Firefighters covered Troxler's
desk with a plastic sheet and yellow emergency-scene tape reading "caution."
Health officials found no signs of anthrax or bacteria in the powder. The envelope and a letter inside also tested negative.
The letter had no return address and was postmarked St. Petersburg. It bears a code 337, then a space, then 1.
Anything that is mailed in Seminole, Largo, Bay Pines, Gulfport, Pinellas Park or any St. Petersburg neighborhood goes
through the main post office on First Avenue N and is stamped with a 337.
The cryptic letter misspelled Troxler's name and had little punctuation. It said:
"Howard Toxler ... 1st case of disease now blow away this dust so you see how the real thing flys. Oklahoma-Ryder
Truck! Skyway bridge-18 wheels."
Postmaster General John Potter told CNN that the Postal Service investigates more than 80 threats involving anthrax every
year.
"Until these incidents, we have never had anthrax delivered through the mail," Potter said.
He noted that the Postal Service delivers more than 208-billion pieces of mail every year.
Asked if there were ways to determine a letter's origin more precisely than just the St. Petersburg postmark, Potter said,
"I'm going to leave that up to law enforcement."
This year, the postal service received about 60 threats or hoaxes, which included anthrax, hoof and mouth disease, the
Klingerman virus hoax and others. Nationwide, in the past two years, authorities have received about 178 anthrax threats at
courthouses, reproductive health service providers, churches, schools, and post offices.
Bioterrorism experts said anthrax can be grown in large batches, using routine commercial laboratory equipment. When the
bacteria are dried and form tiny protective spores, anthrax turns into a white or beige powder.
To infect an entire city, large amounts would have to be spread by airplane or industrial sprayer after the spores are
mixed with an inert chemical to keep them suspended in air. Small amounts capable of infecting a few people can be sprinkled
in an envelope.
Microbiologists caution it is not easy or cheap to make effective biological weapons. Pranksters who want to spread fear
rather than disease might use baby powder, cornstarch or another benign look-alike.
Anthrax spores measure between 1 and 5 microns in size - too small to see with the naked eye. Even trained biologists
need the right equipment to distinguish an infectious agent from ordinary materials, so most suspicious envelopes should be
investigated.
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 9:15 p.m. EST
Hannity, O'Reilly Hit by Anthrax Scare Letters
"In addition to the letters with an Indianapolis postmark, "one or two were from Trenton (N.J.)"
Fox News Channel personalities Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were hit by threatening letters similar to those laden with
anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, the New York Post reported Thursday.
"In my gut, I know it's the same person," Hannity told his nationally syndicated radio audience Thursday afternoon,
explaining that he'd kept quiet about the suspicious letters because they were the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation.
The letters arrived before Sept. 11 but were addressed in the same kind of block letter handwriting used in Daschle and
Brokaw missives. They apparently contained no anthrax.
Each line in the printed address clearly sloped downward to the right, the paper said. The envelopes bore a postmark from
Indianapolis, where the Post Office discovered yesterday that some of its equipment is contaminated with anthrax.
Hannity said that he'd begun receiving the suspicious mail last winter and again in August.
"When I saw the Tom Daschle envelope and the Tom Brokaw envelope, I immediately was stunned," Hannity told listeners.
"It was the exact same handwriting that I had recognized. ... When I saw it I said, 'Oh my God, that's the same guy.'"
The "Hannity & Colmes" co-host revealed that in addition to the letters with an Indianapolis postmark,
"one or two were from Trenton (N.J.)," where traces of anthrax have also been reported.
Hannity said he hasn't gotten any more of the letters since the Sept. 11 attacks and hasn't been tested for anthrax exposure.
"Franklin"
White powder mailed to Houston judge
11:43 AM CST on Wednesday, February 18, 2004
From 11 News Staff Reports
HOUSTON -- A hazardous materials team was called to the criminal courthouse in downtown Houston Wednesday to check out
a mysterious substance.
The substance inside the envelope will be tested by the Houston Health Department. The white powdery substance was in
an envelope mailed to Judge Belinda Hill. It was sent to the Health Department for testing.
The courthouse in the 1200 block of Franklin wasn't evacuated.
10/18/2001 - Updated 10:28 PM ET
Town stunned by anthrax letter
By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY
FRANKLIN PARK, N.J. —
When people here saw pictures of the most notorious envelope in America, they were shocked by the name of the community
on the return address: theirs. "Franklin Park?" said the Rev. David Risseeuw, who first saw a photo of the anthrax-laced
envelope mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle when he lifted the newspaper off his driveway. "There it was: Bam!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"TRENTON STREET"
WHITE POWDER BLACK HEART
A COMPILATION OF HOAX LETTERS
WHITE POWDER BLACK HEART
A COMPILATION OF HOAX LETTERS
Thursday October 2, 2003 6:54PM
Over a year and a half since the mailings of the anthrax letters and the Amerithrax investigation into the first fatal
biological attack on Americans appears to have slipped from the back burner off of the stove.
I say, "appears", as we are not privy to the investigative machinations and, perhaps, that's how it should be.
Nevertheless, white powder "hoaxes' continue to plague communities, terrifying recipients, tying up police and hazmat
teams from Seattle to the Senate to The U.S. Consulate's visa processing office in Rome.
Reporting on these events has, for the most part, been scant of substitutive details, such as how envelopes are addressed
or, more importantly, where they were postmarked.
Rather then rest on his laurels, perhaps the Anthrax Mailer is keeping himself in minor league headlines:
BACKGROUND
Monterey Institute of International Studies
Research Story of the Week
Tracking Anthrax Hoaxes and Attacks
Clayton Lee Waagner, anthrax hoax suspect.
By Laura Snyder and Jason Pate
Much attention has been paid to the anthrax letters sent last fall to major media outlets and two U.S. senators that resulted
in five deaths and 17 non-fatal infections. However, in the midst of the turmoil in late 2001, it largely escaped attention
that more than 750 hoax letters claiming to contain anthrax were sent worldwide in October and November. More than 550 of
these hoax letters were sent to abortion clinics in the United States by a single group called the Army of God.
This was not the first time that abortion clinics were the victim of anthrax hoaxes. In 1998, at least 12 clinics received
letters that claimed to contain anthrax, followed by more than 35 such letters in 1999 and over 30 in 2000. Indeed, from 1998
to September 2001, more than 400 anthrax hoaxes occurred in the United States.
THE LETTERS
First Wave: On October 15, 2001, the same day the anthrax-tainted letter was found in Senator Daschles office, nearly
300 family-planning centers received letters purporting to be from U.S. government agencies.[1] The letters, which listed
either the U.S. Marshals Service or the U.S. Secret Service as the return address, were also labeled Time SensitiveUrgent
Security Notice Enclosed. When opened at abortion clinics around the nation, the envelopes turned out to contain threatening
letters from the Army of God, a radical anti-abortion group that has been associated with multiple attacks against abortion
doctors and clinics. Accompanied by threatening white powder, later identified as a relatively harmless insecticide, the letters
warned recipients that they had been exposed to the bacterium that causes anthrax and described in detail the symptoms of
the disease.[2] The letters also cautioned the reader to call the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for treatment.[3]
This wave of hoax letters was concentrated in the South and the Northeast. According to an analysis of 272 letters by
the National Abortion Federation, Florida received the most letters (68), followed by Pennsylvania (50), and Ohio (29). Almost
all of the October letters were postmarked in Knoxville or Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cleveland or Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia;
or Washington, D.C.[4]
Second Wave: On November 7, 2001, more than 250 Army of God anthrax hoax letters were received by clinics and advocacy
groups.[5] These letters were sent in FedEx envelopes and purported to be from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
or the National Abortion Federation; the sender had somehow obtained the NAF and Planned Parenthood FedEx account numbers
and forged the envelopes. This was the first time that FedEx packages had been used to deliver the anthrax threats.
Thirty-one of the letters in this second wave were concentrated in New England, and 20 others were received in the Mid-Atlantic
states. One explanation for the fact that very few hoax letters were received on the West Coast is that many of the letters
were stopped in transit after postal authorities learned of the other hoaxes.
THE INVESTIGATION
In late November 2001, fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner claimed responsibility for both waves of anti-abortion anthrax hoaxes.
Waagner, 44, of Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, had escaped from an Illinois county jail in February 2000 while awaiting sentencing
for weapons possession and auto theft. He has known ties to the Army of God and claimed that God had called on him to murder
abortion providers and to attack clinics.
Waagners obsession with abortion doctors and clinics began in September 1999, following a funeral service that was held
after his daughter suffered a miscarriage. He claims that God called on him to be [his] warrior and kill abortion doctors.[6]
In a statement posted online in June 2001, Waagner declared: I am anointed and called to be God's Warrior. And in that call
I am protected by THE MOST HIGH GOD.[7] According to Neil Horsley, an Army of God member whom Waagner supposedly visited over
Thanksgiving weekend in November 2001, Waagner claimed to have identified 42 abortion clinic workers he was planning to kill.[8]
On December 5, 2001, Waagner was captured outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, and on January 25, 2002, he was sentenced to more
than 30 years in prison for illegal possession of firearms, theft, and breaking out of prison.[9] On April 18, 2002, Waagner
was convicted on six firearms and car theft charges. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.[10]
Waagner has been transferred to Philadelphia for questioning in the anthrax hoax letters and will probably stand trial for
the hoaxes in summer 2002.
CONCLUSION
Although the media have begun to focus on the anthrax hoax phenomenon in light of the fall 2001 anthrax letter attacks,
the hundreds of anthrax hoaxes that occurred in the United States in 1998-2001 received very little attention. It is probably
not a coincidence that three years of anthrax hoaxes predated the actual attacks. Although there is as yet no clear linkage
between the perpetrators of the anthrax letter attacks and the anthrax hoaxes, systematic tracking of hoax events could provide
some basis for bioterrorism response planning.
Sources:
[1] Planned Parenthood Offices Nationwide Receive Envelopes Containing Unknown White Powder, Planned Parenthood, October
19, 2001, <http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/101501anthrax.html>, accessed on October 22, 2001.
[2] Ibid. See also: Police: Top Fugitive Carried Insecticide, Cincinnati Enquirer, December 11, 2001.
[3] Planned Parenthood Offices Nationwide Receive Envelopes Containing Unknown White Powder.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Tamar Lewin, Anthrax Scare Hits Groups Backing Right to Abortion, New York Times, November 9, 2001.
[6] On the Lam, But Online, Salon.com, June 27, 2001, <http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/06/27/waagner/index.html>,
accessed on 16 May 2002.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Army of God Terrorist Caught! One Peoples Project, December 2001, <http//www.onepeoplesproject.com/waagner.htm>,
accessed on 16 May 2002.
[9] Waagner Receives 30 Year Sentence, Cincinnati Post, January 26, 2002.
[10] Conviction, St. Petersburg Times Wires, April 19, 2002.
Laura Snyder is a 2002 Master of Arts graduate of the International Policy Studies program at the Monterey Institute,
and she received a Certificate in Nonproliferation Studies. She has worked as a Research Assistant with the Chemical and Biological
Weapons Nonproliferation Program (CBWNP) at CNS since 2000.
Jason Pate is Senior Research Associate and Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism Database Manager for the Chemical and
Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute.
Author(s): Laura Snyder and Jason Pate
Related Resources: Chem/Bio, Americas, Weekly Story
Date Created: May 20, 2002
Date Updated: -NA-
Center for Nonproliferation Studies
460 Pierce Street, Monterey, CA 93940, USA
Telephone: +1 (831) 647-4154; Fax: +1 (831) 647-3519
E-mail: cns@miis.edu; Web: http://cns.miis.edu
Copyright © 2002 Monterey Institute of International Studies. All rights reserved.
"A copiously researched working paper on bioterrorism produced by the Department of Defense last year reveals that
in the past 10 years alone there have been a startling number of cases in the United States involving the threatened use of
anthrax.
For example, in July 1997 a number of large U.S. cities, including Tampa, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix and Miami, received
a fax that stated that their water supplies had been targeted for contamination with anthrax and botulinum toxin.
In March 1998, a canister marked "anthrax" was found inside a rented car in San Antonio, Texas. In October 1998,
three abortion clinics in Louisville, Ky., received letters claiming to contain lethal amounts of anthrax.
In November 1998, a Wal-Mart store in Indiana received an anthrax letter threat. The store was evacuated. On Nov. 18,
1998, an office worker at Ocean Drive, a Miami-based magazine, opened a letter that contained an anthrax threat and a white
powder. Workers in the office were treated with ciprofloxacin on the recommendations of the FBI and Army officials.
Also in November 1998, a high school in Virginia Beach, Va., received a telephone threat that the school contained an
anthrax bomb. The caller said, "People will die. That is all."
A mail sorter in Pembroke Pines, Fla., on Nov. 21, 1998, found an envelope that had the words, "Congratulations,
you have been exposed to anthrax," written on an outside flap. The following month, postal workers in Coppell, Texas,
found similar messages on envelopes.
In February 1999, the Los Angeles Times received a letter that claimed to contain anthrax. The same month the U.S. State
Department received a letter that claimed to hold anthrax. In February 1999, according to Capitol Hill police, "several
congressional offices" received threats in letters that claimed to contain anthrax and other lethal biological agents."
By H.P. Albarelli Jr.
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Anthrax Hoaxes Abound
It is no joke
Shanghai Star. 2001-10-18
Key US anthrax clues found but hoaxes abound
"Hoaxes, pranks and threats involving chemical or biological agents are serious crimes and warrant a serious response."Robert
Mueller,FBI director
WASHINGTON - Amid mounting fear over anthrax, US officials found key similarities in two letters that contained the potentially
deadly bacteria but struggled to stem a surge of hoaxes relating to the biological warfare agent.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Tuesday that since October 1, his agency had received 2,300 reports involving anthrax
or other dangerous agents, although the overwhelming majority turned out to be "false alarms or practical jokes."
The Justice Department announced that federal prosecutors in Connecticut had brought charges against two men relating to hoaxes.
"Hoaxes, pranks and threats involving chemical or biological agents are serious crimes and warrant a serious response,"
Mueller said during a Washington news conference with Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Also on Tuesday, a US Army facility in Maryland confirmed that a letter sent to the highest-ranking US senator, South
Dakota Democrat Tom Daschle, contained anthrax bacteria spores. Searches of media offices in New York, however, failed to
detect fresh traces of anthrax.
Two people linked to New York news offices, the 7-month-old son of an ABC News employee and an NBC News employee who handled
a tainted letter, have contracted skin anthrax.
No new cases of anthrax were confirmed on Tuesday.
State health officials in Florida backtracked on whether a second employee at American Media Inc, which publishes supermarket
tabloid newspapers, had contracted anthrax, as they had said on Monday. And Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York,
called on the government to increase the supply of the antibiotic Cipro, the only approved oral treatment for anthrax, by
purchasing cheaper generic versions of the drug.
Health and Human Service Secretary Tommy Thompson said the Bush administration this week would ask Congress to approve
extra funds to boost Cipro stockpiles. The US government currently has enough Cipro to treat 2 million people for 60 days.
Thompson said the administration would like to increase that by 10 million. Meantime, German drugmaker Bayer AG, agreed to
boost production of the antibiotic.
Clues sought
With fears about anthrax gripping Americans and people around the world, US law enforcement officials pieced together
clues relating to the few confirmed cases of anthrax being sent through the mail as powdery bacterial spores.
Mueller said there were similarities in the handwriting in anthrax-containing letters sent to anchorman Tom Brokaw of
NBC News in New York and to Daschle in Washington. The Justice Department released a copy of the front of each envelope. Both
were postmarked from Trenton, New Jersey, and both handwritten in similarly printed letters and numerals.
Ashcroft said authorities believe there may be other similar envelopes out there somewhere.
Ashcroft said investigators had not yet linked letters tainted with anthrax to those responsible for the September 11
plane attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 5,000 people.
"Any time someone sends anthrax through the mail, it's an act of terror. It's terrorism, and we treat it as an act
of terror and terrorism," Ashcroft said. "While we have not ruled out linkage to the terrorist attack of September
11 or the perpetrators of that attack, we do not have conclusive evidence that would provide a basis for our conclusion that
it is a part of that terrorist endeavor."
President George W. Bush on Monday said "there may be a possible link" between US anthrax cases and Saudi-born
Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the September 11 attacks.
Although there is no confirmed link between the cases, fighting bioterrorism has become a top priority for the US government,
Tom Ridge, director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, said on Tuesday. "It's the number one priority this
week and for the weeks ahead," Ridge said in an interview on NBC.
One person has died and at least two others have contracted anthrax - a sometimes-fatal bacterial disease that can be
contracted by breathing in the spores of the bacteria or having them come in contact with the skin. The inhaled form is the
deadlier of the two. Tainted letters appear to have been the mode of delivery of the potentially deadly germs. (Agencies via
Xinhua)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright by Shanghai Star.
A rarity: hoax letter published on the Internet
"The St. Petersburg Times letter contained what looked like sugar or salt and said:
"Howard Toxler .....1st case of disease now blow away this dust so you can see how the real thing flys. Oklahoma-Ryder
Truck! Skyway bridge-18 wheels."
(Troxler's name misspelled)
For Details See Anthrax Profiler:
Anthrax Hoaxes
SKYWAY BRIDGE
The walk of daily life now seems full of peril
St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Oct 10, 2001;
HOWARD TROXLER;
Abstract:
So far most Americans I talk to think the U.S. is getting it right. The attacks seem targeted enough. The president's
words were excellent when he explained to the world our war was not against Islam, or the Arab world. Limited strikes on terrorists
and the regime, food drops for everybody else - how often has that happened?
Meanwhile, we go to work, go to the ball game, go to the mall (although not as much as the retailers want us to), and
return to "normalcy," or at least, what passes for normalcy a month after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Then there's anthrax. Naturally, it had to be in Florida, didn't it? Surely it is just some weird incident involving the
tabloids, and not part of a greater scheme. They said that somebody sent them the stuff in an envelope. Honestly, would that
be the terrorist order of priorities? The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, maybe the White House - and then America's scandal
sheets?
This week it seems as though we have been living a double life, or, more appropriately for the age of 24-hour cable news,
a split- screen life.
One side of the screen is "normal" existence. This is the life in which we go to the ball game, take the kids
to school and get outside to enjoy the first hints of fall weather.
Normal. Isn't that what our leaders say they want? A feeling of normalcy is what made it possible, say, to be at Tropicana
Field on Sunday to watch the Devil Rays play the New York Yankees for the last game of the regular season, or at Raymond James
Stadium to watch the Bucs hold off the Packers (whew).
But wait! Before the baseball game, President Bush comes on the big screen and announces that we are bombing the Taliban.
A cheer goes up. Then they go on with the ball game - almost as if, in this American League park, we had just heard an update
from the National League, and now were getting on with our local business.
There is no established etiquette for how to behave while your nation is launching air strikes. The general consensus
seems to be a somber approval by the majority (thankfully, not many people are yelling, "Yahoo!" and holding parties),
and unchanged opposition by the minority.
So far most Americans I talk to think the U.S. is getting it right. The attacks seem targeted enough. The president's
words were excellent when he explained to the world our war was not against Islam, or the Arab world. Limited strikes on terrorists
and the regime, food drops for everybody else - how often has that happened?
Did you watch the videotape of Osama bin Laden? Did you get the idea that he was expecting us to overreact, to flatten
Kabul or something like that, and was basing his prerecorded appeal on that assumption? If so we are beating him (and terrorism)
already.
Meanwhile, we go to work, go to the ball game, go to the mall (although not as much as the retailers want us to), and
return to "normalcy," or at least, what passes for normalcy a month after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Normalcy is playing on one screen.
Yet the other half of the story is that we are darned tense. It is just beneath the surface of almost every conversation.
That helicopter hovering in the sky, the prop plane circling overhead, each unusual thing draws extra notice. Say, isn't that
an unusual trail for a jet? There is nothing now that seems too incredible to believe.
Then there's anthrax. Naturally, it had to be in Florida, didn't it? Surely it is just some weird incident involving the
tabloids, and not part of a greater scheme. They said that somebody sent them the stuff in an envelope. Honestly, would that
be the terrorist order of priorities? The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, maybe the White House - and then America's scandal
sheets?
This is what I was saying Tuesday morning, just before grabbing a bite for lunch, coming back and getting my mail out
of the office mailbox. One letter, a standard business envelope, had my name scrawled in front with no return address. On
the back across the flaps was a sticker depicting the American flag, turned upside down.
I started to open it, and a few grains of something white, kind of like salt or sugar, poured out. There was more of it
inside. What would you do at this point? A month ago I would have read it and thrown it in the crackpot file. Now I announced
to the room in general, "Excuse me, I have an envelope full of white powder here."
Somebody called security. The police came, and then the Fire Department's hazardous materials team, who carefully sealed
it up and took it away. Everybody was efficient, professional and impressive. I apologized for taking their time, but they
said this was the right way to do things. I was glad they were there. Everybody including me said, about 100 times: better
safe than sorry. A new national motto."
NEWS MEDIA
(Also See Anthrax Profiler - "Hoaxes" Click Here)
ANTHRAX BY PROXY:
White powder in envelopes sent to Sacramento federal judges
By Sam Stanton and Denny Walsh -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 5:14 p.m. PST Monday, March 3, 2003
Two federal judges in Sacramento received envelopes containing a mysterious white powder Monday.
The FBI said no one was injured, although the receipt of the envelopes at the federal courthouse in downtown Sacramento
forced a partial evacuation.
Preliminary tests later determined the powder was non-toxic, officials said, but county health officials expected to continue
studying the origin of the substance.
The incident at the federal building began about 12:30 p.m. as employees of the courthouse were sorting mail and a small
amount of white powder was found inside one of the mail bins the envelopes were delivered in.
The envelopes were addressed to judges who have recently presided over prosecutions of medical marijuana advocates.
The four employees in the room where the mail was being handled were isolated for several hours, while four other employees
- a judge and his three-person staff - were evacuated from the 16th floor.
A county hazardous material team and Sacramento Fire Department personnel arrived to secure the area and search the mail
bins.
Both envelopes had return addresses from Washington, D.C., and appeared to have been designed to appear as though they
came from a government agency.
Both came in legal size, white envelopes and were typewritten, with one addressed to U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell
Jr. and the other addressed to U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
White powder on letters causes scare
Suspicious material identified as wheat farina, drywall dust
By MATTHEW CRAFT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Seattle police and fire departments responded to a flurry of reports yesterday morning from callers who found envelopes
covered in a white powder.
In six of the cases, all in West Seattle, an envelope with writing on it was found covered in what turned out to be wheat
farina, according to the Seattle Fire Department. The flour or meal is used in cooked cereal.
At the Internal Revenue Service's office in the Federal Building downtown, workers found white powder on the doorknob.
It turned out to be drywall dust left from construction done in the building.
Poon Lee, the service manager at Dere Auto Repair in West Seattle, said a mechanic found the envelope when he opened the
shop. It was dropped through the mail slot and he could only make out the word "America" written on the envelope.
Wheat farina obscured the rest.
"It's just weird," Lee said. "If they wanted to scare somebody, I'd expect them to put it where there are
lots of people, a big building."
The first call came at 6:44 a.m. from the post office on California Avenue in West Seattle. Police removed 28 employees
and closed off the two blocks around the post office after workers found an envelope left in a drop-off box outside the building.In
the four other instances, the envelopes were found on top of large, blue mailboxes along sidewalks in West Seattle.
When responding to the report on 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Henderson Street, the Fire Department's hazardous-materials
team was already at Dere Auto Repair. So the officers just walked up the street.
Police kept the envelopes and are investigating. Seattle police spokesman Duane Fish said he wasn't sure with what the
culprit, if caught, could be charged.
P-I reporter Matthew Craft
*
Envelopes with white powder determined to be hoaxes, officials said
By Dave Birkland
Seattle Times staff reporter
Envelopes containing white powder, some containing anti-war messages, were found at six locations in West Seattle this
morning, and all were quickly determined to be hoaxes, officials said.
At mid-morning, no one had taken responsibility, nor were there any suspects, according to Seattle police, whose bomb
squad responded to the sites.
All six appeared to be linked. The white powder on each was determined to be wheat flour, according to Helen Fitzpatrick.
It started about 7 a.m., when an employee at the West Seattle Post Office, 4412 California Ave. S.W., found a large envelope
containing white powder and an "anti-war message" written on a piece of paper, said Ernie Swanson, a spokesman for
the U.S. Postal Service.
Twenty eight postal employees were evacuate, but were returned to the building when powder was determined to be flour,
Swanson said.
About 9 a.m., an employee at the Westwood Village post office on Southwest Trenton Street found an envelope, also with
white powder and an anti-war message. The building was evacuated but everyone was returned when the powder was determined
to be harmless.
"They seem to be very similar, and the post offices are only three or four miles apart," Swanson said.
The third site was an auto repair shop at 9201 35th Ave. S.W., where someone slipped an envelope with powder on it inside
the mail slot, Fitzpatrick said. About the same time, another such letter was found inside street-side mail box at 35th Avenue
Southwest and Southwest Henderson Street.
The fifth and sixth sites were in the 6000 block of California Avenue Southwest, and then the 2900 block of Southwest
Avalon Way. The powder on each letter was determined to be the same, wheat flour, Fitzpatrick said.
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company
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