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FBI Searching Site of First Deadly Anthrax Attack

Aired August 26, 2002 - 14:27   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI is going back to square one in the anthrax investigation, searching the site of the first deadly anthrax attack. But this time, they hope new technology will provide new clues.
CNN's Mark Potter joins us now from Boca Raton, Florida, with the latest.

Hi again -- Mark

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Kyra.

We're outside the AMI Building in Boca Raton, Florida. The FBI has taken over the building. It is going back in for another search, a search for anthrax. The reason they are going back in this time is in furtherance of their criminal investigation solely. This is not about health concerns, which defined the last time they were searching here. This is purely about the criminal case. They are going back in again because since the first anthrax attack, they have developed new technologies for gathering and analyzing large amounts of anthrax. They want to apply that technology to a new search, to see if they can develop more clues as to how the anthrax got into the building, presumably by letter, but they don't really know for sure yet in the case. And also, they're trying to see whether they can establish any more links between the anthrax found here and that found in letters sent to offices in the Northeast.

The primary focus of all of this, however, as it has always been, is to find the killer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HECTOR PESQUERA, FBI: No one in south Florida has forgotten that Robert Stevens was the first victim of the anthrax attacks. We hope that the evidence collected during the course of the operation will help bring to justice the person or persons who committed this horrific act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POTTER: Now, Robert Stevens was the photo editor here at AMI. Another gentlemen, who worked in the mail room, Ernesto Blanco, fell ill to anthrax, inhalation anthrax, but he recovered and is back working at AMI at another building that they have set up across the street.

The FBI says that although it has taken over the building now, they will not be going in for a day or so, until the scientists tell them that it is OK to go inside of the building. They are being assisted in this by officials from the Centers for Disease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The Florida secretary of health said today that this is something that can be done safely. He wanted to assure the public that by reopening this building there is to danger to anyone in the area being affected by anthrax. And that is a point that has been underscored also by the mayor of Boca Raton and by the city police chief.

The company itself, AMI, we are told, is cooperating fully with the FBI and because he was asked at a news conference today, the head of the Miami FBI office said that this latest move by the FBI has nothing to do with the controversy over Dr. Steven Hatfill, that this is something that has been in the works for quite some time -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mark potter, thank you so much.

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