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American Morning

FBI Scientists Will Open Potentially Deadly Leahy Letter Today or Tomorrow, Looking for Clues About Sender

Aired November 30, 2001 - 09:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Patrick Leahy has said the anthrax-laced letter he received may have had enough spores to kill hundreds of thousands of people. CNN has learned FBI scientists will open that potentially deadly letter today or tomorrow, looking for clues about the sender.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What's inside this envelope could be a treasure trove for investigators trying to nail the anthrax killer. Ever since its discovery two weeks ago by agents protected from head to toe going through government mail, the latest known anthrax letter has been treated like gold.

DR. RONALD ATLAS, AMERICAN SOC. OF MICROBIOLOGY: Clearly, what one hopes is that the Leahy letter will tell you where it came from.

CANDIOTTI: That letter to Senator Patrick Leahy has been kept under seal, and under guard at the U.S. Army lab at Fort Detrich, Maryland, a team of specialists devising the best way to handle the deadly spores and preserve the evidence for investigators.

What makes the letter to Senator Patrick Leahy so special? Of the four anthrax letters to reach the FBI, this is the first to be intercepted in its original state. It's the only one unopened, and believed to contain the most anthrax recovered so far.

Among the questions, will the letter inside match the earlier one to Senator Daschle, as investigators suspect? Is there a fingerprint? Is there any hair or other DNA samples that can retrieved? Are there fibers from the location where the anthrax was made, or stuffed in the envelope?

ATLAS: Are there chemical signatures in there that suggest just how it was treated that would make it so aerosolizable that would either point to a domestic source, or has continuously been raised, a potential foreign source.

CANDIOTTI: The Daschle spores were treated with silica, widely available, to make spores lighter, linger in the air longer, making them easier to inhale. In the lab, the Daschle anthrax was hard to handle.

ATLAS: It acted more like a gas than it did as a powder. So it went up in the air, it wafted away, and even trying to contain spores on a glass slide to view them became impossible.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): More specialized lab equipment has been brought in to handle the Leahy letter. And because the spores are so dangerous, scientists will wear protective gear, except for one, who might settle for a surgical mask. He's been vaccinated for anthrax.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And our next guest is going to show us some of the ways scientists may go about opening the letter, and what kinds of precautions they'll need to take.

Joining us now from Atlanta is Major Patti Pettis, with the 4th Weapons of Mass Destruction, or WMD, civil support team.

Thank you for joining us. Good to have you with us.

So I imagine you're in the gear to help us better understand what the scientist might be up against later today. Walk us through what you believe might be the process when they open up this anthrax-laced letter of Patrick Leahy.

MAJOR PATTI PETTIS, 4TH WMD CIVIL SUPPORT TEAM: Well, they are going to take a very deliberate and slow approach, and that's perhaps the reason why they've delayed this process. What's in that -- contained in that letter is thought to be, again, a high concentration of anthrax spores, very lethal to anyone who would be exposed to it. They need to have -- to keep in mind, three important focus, or foci, and that would be containment of that sample, so that there is no further reaerosolization or as little aerosolization as possible of the anthrax spores.

Aerosolization obviously leads to inhalation, and you want to protect your workers, so need to have the highest level of protection possible. I understand they're at Fort Detrich and at CDC, they have very high levels of protective equipment and facilities.

We have a containment system here that is probably at the highest level of protection. It's called a "glove box." It's a class-three biosafety glovebox, which we can contain a similar sample and analyze it, perhaps for biological agents.

ZAHN: So, Major, I'm just getting clearer picture of where you are standing right now, and I'd love for you to show us around, because we can't fully make out from this tight shot, where you are and describe to us what you would be doing in this chamber?

PETTIS: I'm in a mobile environmental laboratory. There are 10 of these laboratories that belong to the Department of Defense. Georgia National Guard is where the unit I belong to, and I am going to turnaround and go ahead and show you what this containment system looks like and how we might process a sample, similar to the way that they may be doing this in Washington.

ZAHN: OK, just carry on, Patty.

PETTIS: I'm putting my gloves on. This is a negative pressure containment system, gas tight, the highest level of protection. It has many shut-off valves, so that if there is exposure or contamination inside this containment box, it can be shut off and contained.

ZAHN: What have you used this facility for in the past?

PETTIS: We have -- we are a state asset, part of the National Guard. We are -- our mission is to support the first responders here in our community and in the state, incidences involving weapons of mass destruction and bioterrorism. So we have actually been involved in some responses where there has been suspected packages, letters, that -- containing, perhaps anthrax. Of course, none of them have been positive. They've all been negative so far. But we have used this particular containment system to analyze those suspicious samples packages, letters, that were brought to us.

ZAHN: And, Patty, we're seeing some plastic bottles back there. What is in those? What do you use those for?

PETTIS: I'm sorry, Paula, I couldn't hear you.

ZAHN: The plastic bottles inside that chamber. What is in them?

PETTIS: This is equipment that I would use to -- if I there was a suspected anthrax letter given to me, I would bring and it would be like -- hopefully, be triple-bagged and contained when brought to me. I would receive it inside this port to the right of me, that I'm pointing to, and I will open it.

And I have actually a -- an example of what a suspicious letter might look when I comes to me. It's contained in an airtight bag, and then I have pieces of equipment that I would use to inspect the letter, and then to eventually open the letter, and then I can perform a rapid biological test. They're called as-aids (ph). The only agencies that have these handheld as-aids are the department of Defense and federal agencies, such as FBI, CIA, State Department. They're a 15-minute biological test. They're based on antigen antibodies, and If I have a bacteria which serves as an antigen and I apply it to these tickets, I can, in about 15 minutes, get a preliminary response as to whether I'm dealing with one of the most lethal biological weapons that we're concerned about.

ZAHN: And you say so far, all of this suspicious chemicals or products have turned out to be nothing more than a hoax, I guess. Can you give us an idea of how many letters you personally analyzed?

PETTIS: I can't really disclose that. But they're have been several, several incidences where there's concerns. But I can tell you that there has not been any positive results in the state of Georgia.

ZAHN: All right, Major, we are going to let you turn back around. I know that's not a comfortable position to be in, and before we let you go this morning just -- there you are, now we can see you -- just some final thoughts about what the scientist are up against. And a personal question, with all the gear you have on, do you feel 100 percent safe analyzing materials, even if they end up being a biological or chemical weapon.

PETTIS: Are you talking about my clothing?

ZAHN: Yes, your HAZMAT suit and all your gear.

PETTIS: Yes, this is additional protective clothing, again, because this blow box has a very high level of containment and protection. I would need minimal protection, because there's always a concern about release or exposure, further exposure, I would want to protect myself. The important way to protect a person or a lab worker would be gloves, complete coverage of the body, including the skin, and then some type of respiratory equipment or protection.

This is what we call a "positive air-purifying respirator." It pushes -- blows air over my face, so that anything that might be in the air, something like anthrax in an aerosolized form, would not be able to come at me. It's pushing air at me. So it's pushing the -- whatever contaminant that might be in the air away from my face, preventing me from inhaling it or absorbing it into my skin.

ZAHN: Well, Major Patty Pettis, I know we put you through your through paces this morning. Thank you very much for giving us a much better understanding about what those FBI investigators might be -- or the scientist might be up against as they open the Patrick Leahy letter. That's fascinating.

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