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CNN Live At Daybreak

Anthrax Found in Congressional Freight Elevator

Aired October 25, 2001 - 07:02   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: Now we learn that anthrax has been found in a new location in the Hart Senate Office Building. The building is still closed and the discovery comes as officials plan to reopen three other congressional office buildings closed in the anthrax scare.

This anthrax was found in a freight elevator bank.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Kate Snow is standing by on Capitol Hill this morning and picks up the story from there -- good morning, Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

This a bit of startling news because what's so significant about that freight elevator is it is in a different part of the Hart Senate Office Building. The area of Senator Tom Daschle's office is in the southeast corner of the building. This freight elevator, the newest case of contamination, is in a different section of the building.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): The latest hot spot to test positive for anthrax near a freight elevator in the Hart Senate Office Building. One possibility, the letter to Senator Daschle may have traveled up that elevator. Wherever that one envelope went, a chain of anthrax problems has followed, exposure, infections, even death.

Two postal workers caught skin infections in Trenton, New Jersey, where it was mailed. At the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, D.C., where the letter arrived, two workers died this week of inhalation anthrax. Two more are hospitalized as inhalation cases.

In an around Senator Daschle's office, 28 people were exposed when the envelope was opened that morning. The latest person hospitalized with symptoms, a journalist outside the senator's door.

The man who used to design germ warfare weapons for the U.S. at this secret facility in Maryland is quoted today as saying the anthrax in the Daschle letter had been chemically altered to make it even more dangerous. William Patrick III told the "New York Times," "It's high grade. It's free flowing. It's electrostatic-free and it's in high concentration." Reducing static electricity would enable the anthrax particles to float in the air more easily. Patrick told the "Times," "It's fluffy. It appears to have an additive that keeps the spores from clumping."

The list of nations with that kind of technology is short. At the top, according to the "Times," the former Soviet Union and the United States. Investigators may never learn where the anthrax came from until they can catch whoever sent it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: Now, the Hart Building remains closed today on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol grounds. Those two areas are sealed off where they've found any contamination and we're told, Paula, that senators can go into the Hart Building and the nearby Dirksen Building if they want to pick up things, if they need to get some of their personal items. But otherwise those buildings remain closed. Only one of the Senate buildings is open this morning. Two of the House office buildings, however, will open up later this morning -- Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: All right, Kate Snow, thanks so much.

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