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CNN Live At Daybreak

Six Months After Anthrax Attacks, Investigators Still Don't Know Who's Behind Them

Aired March 27, 2002 - 05:35   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Six months after the Anthrax attacks investigators still don't know who is behind them. They do know the Anthrax could only have been made in a fairly sophisticated lab and that it wasn't made in someone's garage or in their bathtub. One of the target stones was Capitol Hill. CNN's Kate Snow has more from there on the Anthrax mystery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When mail finally arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building these days, it's had a long trip, all the way to Ohio or New Jersey and back to be irradiated, cleaned of Anthrax or any other potential biological contaminant. It's supposed to make the mail safe. But Anton Rouse (ph) isn't taking any chances. He wears latex gloves to open letters sent to Senator Tom Carper. Carper's office is just across the atrium from Senator Daschle's office, where that now infamous Anthrax-laden letter was opened back in October.

Rouse isn't the only one who is nervous. Earlier this month, the U.S. Postal Service delivered a 75-page report to Congress. It admits up front, "The Postal Service is not immune to the possibility of being a terrorism target again."

DEBORAH WILLHITE, U.S. POST SERVICE: We're very realistic. We're doing all that we can to provide a safe mail stream for the American public. But we're very realistic about the potential threat.

SNOW: Deborah Willhite says Americans shouldn't be afraid to open the mail. The Postal Service is moving quickly with plans to make it safer. The immediate focus on the nearly 300 major mail distribution centers all over the U.S., where hand-mailed letters arrive by the thousands.

It used to be that compressed air was blown over the machines to keep them clean. Not a good idea if a letter on the belt contains powdered Anthrax. So now the Postal Service is installing thousands of special filtering vacuum cleaners to suck up the air around the mail. And what if there's something harmful in one of those letters? The Postal Service is testing high-tech sensors in an effort to detect Anthrax and other biohazards.

WILLHITE: We'll be putting in systems so that we can test anything that is abnormal immediately to find out and capture that piece of mail that is in it so that it never goes into the mail stream and out to a customer.

SNOW: Ideally, Willhite says sensors would one day be inside every mailbox on every street corner. But that's a long way off. There are 350,000 mailboxes in the U.S., and the initial cost estimate for redesigning them to detect contamination is about $1,000 each. In fact, none of these new measures comes cheap. The Postal Service has already received more than half a billion dollars from Congress, and that's just the beginning.

REP. STENY HOYER (D) MARYLAND: I think they're going to need from $1 to $3 billion additional resources to get the kind of technology that will keep the employees -- the some 900,000 people who work for the postal department safe -- and then keep safe anybody who receives mail. So this is going to be an expensive proposition.

SNOW (on camera): But even with all that spending, the most effective defense against Anthrax may be the cheapest. The Postal Service continues to encourage Americans to be vigilant, watch the mail, and if they see anything suspicious, report it.

Kate Snow, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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