From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: FBI: Anthrax Threat Likely a Hoax Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 09:35:33 -0600 To: believer@telepath.com Source: Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/nat004.htm FBI: Anthrax Threat to Abortion Clinics Likely a Hoax By John Kelly Associated Press Writer Friday, October 30, 1998; 9:20 p.m. EST INDIANAPOLIS - Four abortion clinics in three states received letters Friday claiming to contain deadly anthrax bacteria, prompting the evacuation of the Indianapolis clinic and sending at least 33 people to hospitals, authorities said. Clinics in New Albany, Louisville, Ky., and Knoxville, Tenn., also received letters, Planned Parenthood and federal officials said. All of the letters bore Cincinnati postmarks. The clinic in New Albany, across the river from Louisville, was not evacuated because the letter was not opened, authorities said. A letter sent to a clinic in Bloomington later was determined to contain business correspondence and was not a threat, local police said. An employee of the Louisville clinic and the mail carrier who delivered that letter were taken to the University of Louisville Hospital, treated and released. "The initial investigation has clearly indicated that the substance is unlikely to be anthrax," FBI agent Carl Christiansen said. The FBI is investigating a similar threat at the Knoxville Reproductive Health Center in Knoxville, Tenn., agent Scott Nowinski said. The letter appeared to be a hoax, he said. No one at the Indianapolis clinic complained of any symptoms after an employee opened the letter Friday afternoon. Officials said is was unclear whether the letter actually contained anthrax, a strain of bacteria that can be used as a biological weapon. "We do not know that. But we are handling it as if it were," police Maj. Tim Horty said. The 31 people, who included seven clinic workers, two firefighters, two police officers and the postal carrier who delivered the letter, were stripped, washed with soap and water and dressed in hospital scrubs inside a blue tent in a strip mall parking lot before being taken to a local hospital. They were given antibiotics as a preventive measure. All were expected to be released by Friday night. "No one is sick, no one is experiencing pain," Horty said. Horty said a clinic employee called police about 1 p.m. to report a threatening letter. Inside a small, white envelope was a brown powdery substance and a note saying "you have just been exposed to anthrax." Administrators isolated the envelope in the clinic, but didn't say where or how, Horty said. Police evacuated all other stores in the strip mall and immediately quarantined the clinic. The people exposed to the letter are being taken to Wishard, Methodist and Community hospitals for observation, and are not in any danger, fire Lt. Jack Cassaday said. The hospitals and 911 have been inundated by calls from people in the area who think they might have been exposed, Cassaday said. "No one who was not inside the clinic could have possibly been exposed," he said. Anthrax is a disease normally associated with animals such as sheep or goats. Its spores can infect people who breathe them in. It can kill if left untreated, but antibiotics can usually cure the disease. Authorities in Indianapolis were in the process of having the powder analyzed and hope to know by Monday whether it is anthrax, said Virginia A. Caine, Marion County Health Department director. If the powder is confirmed to be anthrax, those exposed will have to take antibiotics for four weeks, and possibly the anthrax vaccine as well, she said. The letters were received a week after abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian, 52, was shot and killed by a sniper in his home in suburban Buffalo, N.Y. "We receive threats from time to time, but nothing very substantial. The employees here did the appropriate thing. This did not look suspicious until they opened it," said Delbert Culp, president of Planned Parenthood of Central and Southern Indiana. "These are just political extremists who call themselves pro-life. This is not pro-life." Ann Minnis of Haubstadt, Ind., president of Gibson County Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, said she has been with the organization for 25 years and has "never met anyone who would do such a thing. "We're about saving lives, not about anything like that (the anthrax threats)," she said. "Heavens, it's horrible." © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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