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CNN Live At Daybreak

Chief Postal Inspector Calls Anthrax Investigation "Intense"

Aired October 22, 2001 - 08:23   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: Postal service investigators are among those trying to track whoever is behind this spate of anthrax-laced letters.

Ken Weaver is the Chief U.S. Postal Inspector. He joins us from Washington this morning -- good to have you with us -- welcome.

KEN WEAVER, CHIEF U.S. POSTAL INSPECTOR: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: So, Mr. Weaver, where are you on trying to figure out who has sent these letters to people in New York, Washington and Florida?

WEAVER: Well, the only way I can characterize the investigation, Paula, is intense. We have postal inspectors and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement turning over every lead that we have. And as you are aware, last week, we did offer, between the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service, a $1 million reward to anyone that has knowledge of those responsible for this act.

ZAHN: Has that...

WEAVER: And that is...

ZAHN: ... sorry, sir. Has that yielded any information so far that is of use to you?

WEAVER: It has. We've gotten anywhere from 50 to 75 leads based on that, and they range in importance from trivial to something that we are following up on.

ZAHN: And you describe the investigation as intense now. How much of a break did your case get, when you discovered that one of the Trenton, New Jersey mail carriers had contracted a form of anthrax? How much did that narrow your investigation?

WEAVER: Well, I mean, it gives us leads to follow up on, and again, we're retracing the route of that carrier, looking at every location. With each piece of mail that contains anthrax, it gives us more information. The last one to the "New York Post," of course, was unopened, and that will be processed in due time, as will the other three. But you've got to remember that these are contaminated documents, and we have to be very careful.

ZAHN: And what is the likelihood that you're going to find more letters laced with anthrax in post offices across the country?

WEAVER: Well, again, we don't know, and we're looking at that very cautiously. We're trying to educate our employees, educate the postal customer out there on suspicious things to look for, and we have aired those things many times -- the no-return address, pieces of mail that you don't expect, you know, the excessive postage, if it weights too much, things like this. So we're trying to educate everybody.

Bear in mind, I'd like to keep this in perspective. Certainly one of these going through the mail is too many. We've had three confirmed incidents, and since September 11, we have processed and delivered 20 billion pieces of mail, so the chances of somebody coming in contact with one of these is very remote.

ZAHN: I guess what is so confusing to some investigators is this case of this man in Washington, D.C., who is now being treated at a Virginia facility, I guess, he is in serious but stable condition for the inhaled kind of anthrax. According to postal workers who worked with him, he worked in a very small room that didn't even have the kind of machinery that tested oversized letters and packages.

What does that suggest to you?

WEAVER: Well, and that's under investigation right now. It's a little bit of a mystery to us also. We're trying to follow up to identify the exact piece of mail that he may have been in touch with. He did not work in the government mail section. He worked in another location handling primarily express mail and was a courier between the Brentwood facility in Washington, D.C. and the Baltimore air mail facility.

So again, we don't know if it's there or something may have broke open on a belt. That's all under investigation right now.

ZAHN: And before we leave you this morning, are you pretty comfortable saying that most of your postal workers across the country now are safe, if they wear gloves? Because we had a man on last week, who said that his postal office wasn't even supplying, you know, the kind of equipment that he felt he needed to work in a safe environment.

WEAVER: Paula, we've made available equipment -- protective equipment to our employees. There may be spot locations where that hasn't happened. Where it hasn't, we'll make sure it does. But I'd just like to say we have 800,000 employees out there, who are dedicated, hard working and take their job very seriously to serve the American public, and they're going to that.

ZAHN: Yes, we certainly respect what they're doing, and I know from talking to a few of them the level of concern, as you said, is very high as your intense investigation continues.

WEAVER: Yes.

ZAHN: Ken Weaver, thank you for dropping by. WEAVER: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Appreciate your time this morning.

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