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CNN Live At Daybreak

Anthrax Investigation: Two Postal Employees Who Died Worked at Brentwood Postal Facility; Discussion with Rep. Christopher Shays

Aired October 23, 2001 - 08:51   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: Two postal employees who died worked at the same location, the Brentwood postal facility. All mail for Washington is sorted there and distributed to other post offices.

Sheilah Kast is there now with the latest on that.

Good morning, Sheila.

SHEILAH KAST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Yes, on a normal day, at this facility there would be about 3,000 people, 2,100 postal workers sorting the mail. almost all of the mail is sorted by machine. In fact, very often a piece of mail isn't even touched by human hands until it is time for it to be delivered.

All that stopped on Sunday when postal officials realize that there is a seal -- that envelopes containing anthrax had passed through the Brentwood facility, such as the envelope that headed for Senator Daschle's office on Capitol Hill were sealed, and postal officials had believe that a sealed envelope, especially when sorted by machines like this, would not be able to affect the workers, because they would not really be touching it, they would not be close to the spores.

When the postal workers came down with respiratory problems on Sunday and over the course of the next several hours, two workers from this facility dies. That assumption changed in a big way. They shut down this facility Sunday. All the mail has been moved to other sorting facilities in suburban Maryland. No workers are working here, except they have two trucks up front where people can come up and buy stamps. But inside of the building, what is going on today is basically more testing to see if there are more samples of anthrax here.

Workers and other postal -- the 2,100 postal workers who work here have already been offered testing and antibiotics. That is spreading today to other -- the 36 other post offices in the District. Those workers are also to be tested and offered antibiotics today. And Jack Potter, the postmaster general, insists the Postal Service is doing all it can to make the mail safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN POTTER, POSTMASTER GENERAL: We recognize that there is a vulnerability in our system, and they're are vulnerabilities in systems throughout America, and we have worked and are working feverishly to try to get equipment that will shore up those vulnerabilities. We basically want to set up a process, and we have a process in place in terms of the schematic of how we can sanitize mail. It is a matter now of getting the right equipment in there to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAST: Potter has said the kind of sanitation he's talking about is sort of radiation that's done on fruit and meat -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thank you so much, Sheila.

Long before September 11th, Congressman Christopher Shays was trying to get public officials to pay more attention to the threat of chemical and biological warfare. He may have wondered whether anyone was listening. Well, he chairs a house subcommittee, which over several months has held nearly two dozen hearings on fighting terrorism, and the Connecticut Republican joins us from Washington this morning, where people are paying an awful lot of attention to what he is saying.

Welcome. Thank you for being with us this morning.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: Nice would be with you. Very interesting program.

ZAHN: Thank you. I appreciate that. That means a lot coming from you.

There has been so much discussion this morning about the two postal workers that have died. Everybody is suspecting that they died from anthrax exposure. My question to is, do you think if the government had acted faster those people might be alive today?

SHAYS: In hindsight, you could say that, but we have no comprehension of what we are saying. I mean, there is no immunity from a terrorist biological attack, there is no immunity, and we have to discover it as quickly as possible and try to heal those people that have been inflicted.

ZAHN: Help us to better understand this conflict that's going on. I'm sure you gazed at all of the front pages of the newspapers today, and it seems like there is class warfare going on. People are saying, the postal workers are saying, wait a minute, how come the senators and given Cipro and the representatives fled the House, and meanwhile, we're sitting around the postal office working with a machine that was potentially contaminating all of us. You understand that point of view and their sense of abandonment at this hour.

SHAYS: Yes, well, they shouldn't feel abandoned. I mean, the bottom line is the speaker made a decision to have all employees leave the Capitol buildings, and so it's not about members of Congress. We don't open the mail, our employees do. They felt those were the ones in danger, but as it turns out, it is a wider net, and we are just trying to respond to that. And the postal authorities have done the right thing, they closed down the facility and they are inspecting it, just like what happened in the House office buildings.

ZAHN: Last night on Wolf Blitzer -- I did stay up that late last night -- you said that anthrax letters are only a part of the picture. What do you mean by that?

SHAYS: It is a question of if. It's a question of when, where and what magnitude we are going to face biological and chemical attacks. I mean, anthrax is just one of the many, many weapons that they have, and there are countless targets. I mean, I'm just almost grateful we have not seen a greater activity. What they are doing right now is they are putting sand in the gears. There is nothing dramatic. It is the sand in the gears, but it's devastating to the families that have been inflicted with the anthrax.

ZAHN: So what do you think they are capable of pulling off here, and when we think back to the warning the FBI gave us many weeks ago, that once the U.S. attacked Afghanistan, we could expect retaliation. Is this what we were talking about, or is it going to be far worse than this?

SHAYS: Well, the FBI's comments were disingenuous. I mean, we were going to be facing attacks whether or not we responded to terrorism, because in the past, we haven't responded to terrorism, and we ended up with a September 11th.

So the bottom line is, there is a lot of on the table.

Now what was the other part of the question?

ZAHN: What we can expect down the road, and if this was what we were being warned about, or if it is going to be worse than some.

SHAYS: I think it will be worse. We are in the race with the terrorists to prevent them from having a better delivery system for biological or chemical agents, getting a nuclear waste material that would be very toxic, or heaven forbid a nuclear weapon. That's why this is a war. This is truly a hot war. I mean, the Cold War has ended, and the world is a more dangerous place.

ZAHN: Christopher Shays, we are going to have to leave it here this morning, because I have to take a commercial break, and if I don't, I'm in big trouble here.

Thank you, and good luck with your...

SHAYS: You have a bunch of hearing later on this morning.

ZAHN: We have a hearing today with Mr. Thompson, Secretary Thompson.

SHAYS: Good luck. We will probably be covering that live. All right. Thanks so much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com