F.B.I. Did Not Test Letter to NBC or Immediately Notify City Hall

[AARG! Anonymous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/13/nyregion/13HAND.html

F.B.I. Did Not Test Letter to NBC or Immediately Notify City HallBy JENNIFER
STEINHAUER and JIM DWYERAlthough the F.B.I. was notified on Sept. 25 about
suspicious letters sent to NBC, neither the letters, nor the powder residue
inside them were tested until nearly two weeks later, and then only because
a private doctor notified city public health officials about a troubling skin
condition in the news assistant who had handled the mail, officials acknowledged
yesterday.In fact, the F.B.I. laboratory neither performed nor sought any tests
on the powder or the skin samples taken from the employee, identified as Erin
M. O'Connor, a 38-year-old assistant to Tom Brokaw."That, unfortunately, did
not take place," said Barry W. Mawn, assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.'s
New York office.He also said the agents had intended to interview Ms. O'Connor
soon after they learned of the case, but did not, for reasons he did not explain.F.B.I.
officials said investigators picked up the envelopes on Sept. 26, the day after
NBC security officials called the agency. New York City officials were not
informed of the preliminary inquiry until days later.Indeed if the Health Department
had not been alerted to the case by a private doctor, it might well have hibernated
in the F.B.I. files.Mr. Mawn said yesterday that the agency had to investigate
dozens of threats, scares and false alarms, and that is how this case was initially
treated. Since Sept. 11, when the two planes slammed into the World Trade Center,
city and federal law enforcement officials have received hundreds of reports
of menace and foul play ranging from bomb threats to chemical attack scares.The
discovery of a case of apparently deliberate anthrax poisoning in the heart
of New York City is just the latest in a string of terrifying events that have
challenged the law enforcement and health care infrastructure in the last month.
It pushed health care officials to nail down a pathogen that most of them had
no experience with.And it once again tested the fragile relationship that has
always existed between the New York City Police Department and the F.B.I.,
agencies that are forced to work in tandem on unprecedented and constantly
evolving crimes."Information sharing between the F.B.I. and the N.Y.P.D. has
always been poor," said one person who has worked closely with both agencies.
"There is often a lack of willingness on the F.B.I.'s part to share information,
although it is getting better. As they move forward, clearly the F.B.I. is
going to have to be more forthcoming."In this case, Mr. Mawn said, the gravity
of the situation was not fully appreciated by the federal authorities until
recently.On Sept. 25., Ms. O'Connor handled a letter postmarked from St. Petersburg,
Fla., filled with white powder, according to law enforcement officials. She
also handled a second letter containing a sandy substance. Network officials,
immediately suspicious, called the F.B.I., which picked up the letters the
next day.Then, the agency began to prepare a cover letter for its own laboratory
indicating that the substances needed to be tested, but the letter was never
completed and the evidence was never sent from the F.B.I.'s office in New York
to its laboratory, said Joseph Valiquette, an F.B.I. spokesman.He added that
some delays happened because investigators were unable to interview Ms. O'Connor
to supplement the cover letter. "We wanted to send a complete package to the
laboratory," said Mr. Valiquette. So none of it was sent. Mr. Valiquette said
he did not know why the F.B.I. could not speak with Ms. O'Connor, who works
in Rockefeller Plaza and lives in the metropolitan area.On Sept. 28, Ms. O'Connor
developed a strange sore on her chest. Nervous, she went to see Dr. Richard
Fried, a Manhattan infectious disease specialist, said Dr. Annetta Kimball,
the doctor covering for Dr. Fried, who could not be reached last night.Armed
with the description of the rash  which she described as central scarring
surrounded by a lot of swelling  the doctor likely consulted his textbooks
to nail down what was going on. Dr. Kimball said that Dr. Fried suspected that
his patient had been exposed to anthrax, and immediately prescribed Cipro."There
is a good chance he had never seen anthrax before," said Dr. Kimball. "This
is New York City, not an agricultural area." He also took cultures from a wound
Ms. O'Connor developed, but those swabs were negative for anthrax, she said.At
some point, officials and Dr. Kimball said, the patient visited a dermatologist.One
of those doctors notified the city's Health Department on Oct. 6 of a possible
case of anthrax. The city has among the most sophisticated epidemiologists
and public health labs in the country.Mr. Valiquette said that the F.B.I. learned
from the city's Health Department that "this was an issue." The substance eventually
made its way to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta,
which went to unusual lengths to identify it. There was little powder to work
with, and a power failure in the lab halted the work for nearly a day, said
Dr. James M. Hughes of the C.D.C."None of this ever did go to the F.B.I. lab,"
he said.One of the Ms. O'Connor's doctors ordered a skin biopsy, which was
sent to the C.D.C. But by the time the tissue was taken, the patient had begun
taking an antibiotic to counter possible anthrax. As intended, that drug degraded
the cellular structure of the bacteria. On Wednesday, the city was informed
of the case under investigation. The C.D.C. was able to identify the spores
of anthrax, and officials were informed of the results early yesterday morning.Mayor
Rudolph W. Giuliani announced the first confirmed case of anthrax yesterday
morning at NBC.He was described by a person who was with him early yesterday
as being "three feet off the ground" when he learned that the F.B.I. had not
brought word of the developments to city officials earlier.Mr. Mawn acknowledged
that investigators revisited the case after learning of the concerns of the
health officials. "A second notification came through to the Department of
Health, at which time the evidence response people and the F.B.I. also became
involved with it. It was initially assigned to two agents that just covered
the lead. And upon that, it was immediately submitted for tests. As you know
and as the mayor has talked about, those tests were initially negative."Yesterday,
The New York Times received a letter filled with white powder that was addressed
to a reporter, Judith Miller. The Times notified the mayor's office, and city
and F.B.I. officials responded immediately. Tests for radioactive and chemical
substances were negative, and results from a more definitive test for anthrax
DNA by state and federal labs were expected over the weekend.Coordinating the
efforts of the various law enforcement and public health officials is proving
tricky  there have been dozens of bomb and other threats around the city since
Sept. 11, and the city, which investigates each case, cannot inform the public
or other agencies about each one. Just yesterday, the city heard of about a
half dozen cases of suspicious powder or envelopes that it is investigating,
the mayor said."If there was a problem, it was in the way they first investigated
it," one Police Department official said of the F.B.I.'s performance.But there
was some concern last night among health care experts about the delay in the
testing. The inability of the agency to identify the substance was "not very
comforting," said one C.D.C. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"That is a little disappointing, to say the least."Anthrax spores, if kept
under appropriate conditions  sealed and unexposed to lots of light  can
be preserved for years, said Jerome M. Hauer, the former director of the Office
of Emergency Management and currently managing director of Kroll Inc., an investigation
firm. He added: "You don't want them sitting around. In this environment, you
hope there is good information sharing, especially when it involves biological
agents."