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CNN Live Today

FBI to Use New Techniques in AMI Building

Aired August 27, 2002 - 11:08   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In South Florida, FBI investigators will go back inside the anthrax-infested American Media building today, the first step in a new two-week evidence-gathering process.
CNN's Mark Potter is watching the activity from Boca Raton, and joins us with the latest from there -- morning, Mark.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We are told that a small survey team will go inside the building this afternoon to just look things over, to map it out, and maybe to take some pictures. And then we are told by a FBI spokesman that after a couple of more days of testing and rehearsals, a group of some 90 investigators will go in, probably on Friday to begin collecting the anthrax samples.

The FBI says it will be here for two weeks, and that this is part of its national criminal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POTTER (voice-over): FBI agents say, since the original search of AMI last year, they have developed new technologies for gathering and analyzing large amounts of anthrax. Their hope is, these methods can shed new light on whether anthrax here is linked to other cases in the Northeast and how anthrax entered the AMI building.

DWIGHT ADAMS, FBI LAB SUPERVISOR: We're looking for a dissemination device, such as a letter or letters, again to generate new leads for the investigation. And, finally, we're looking for large quantities of spores in order to chemically characterize those spores and compare them against the spores found in the Senator Leahy and Daschle letters.

POTTER: During the original search, law enforcement officials always suspected that anthrax came to AMI by way of a letter or more than one. But, a lot of company mail had already been thrown out and a suspect letter was never found. The new search will look for concentrations of anthrax, which may suggest where the letter came in and how it moved through the building. Investigators will focus most of their work on the mail room. Florida's health secretary says, reopening the building can be done safely and will not harm anyone nearby.

DR. JOHN AGWUNDBI, FLORIDA HEALTH SECRETARY: I believe that we can rest assured that this process, this investigation, as it proceeds, places no Floridian at risk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POTTER: Now in a search warrant affidavit, the FBI says it has probable cause to believe that an anthrax letter may, and I stress the word "may," still be inside. Agents say they will also be looking through desk drawers, briefcases, and business records, all in a attempt to try to determine why AMI may have been targeted -- Carol.

LIN: Mark, they have had 11 months to do this, so why are they doing this now?

POTTER: Well, they are doing this again. Remember, they were here in October. That is a question that is being asked by critics here. Why did they not do such a thorough search before, why has it taken them so long? The FBI has answered that partially, saying that the technology that was developed just a few weeks ago enables them to do what they plan to do now, to gather the spores, and to try to trace the flow of the letter through the building using them. They say if they tried to do this in the past, they would have been swamped. I'm not sure that that silences the critics, but that is the answer that they are giving right now.

LIN: Thank you very much, Mark Potter reporting live in Boca Raton.

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