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American Morning

Trace Amount of Anthrax Found in CIA Mail

Aired October 26, 2001 - 10:42   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More talk of anthrax again today. traces have been found in the CIA's mail, as well as a U.S. Army facility.

CNN bioterrorism analyst Javed Ali joins us from Washington with more on this.

Javed, good morning to you.

JAVED ALI, CNN BIOTERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: We are told the traces through the mail system of the CIA, not the actual facility, but nearby said to be medically insignificant. How do we define or interpret that?

ALI: I think what that term refers to is the fact that whatever that trace amount was was not enough to sort of be an infectious dose. So there weren't enough spores in that trace amount to render an infectious dose. And -- go ahead.

HEMMER: So when we hear between 5,000 and 8,000 spores needed to expose or infect somebody -- it did not meet that measure, is that what you're saying?

ALI: That's what I would assume that "medically insignificant" term refers to.

HEMMER: Where do we stand today as we go forward on this and listen to the White House, and what do we look for down the road here if, indeed, this is a sustained prick here and a prick there when it comes to anthrax? As a country, how prepared are we for that?

ALI: I think we're prepared to deal with actual cases, from a public health and a medical standpoint. But the -- you know, the key issue is identifying exactly who is behind these incidents and how much material is still left to sponsor further incidents. And I don't think we have a clear -- we have clear answers to both of those -- those key issues.

HEMMER: So then when we hear that this is highly potent stuff and very sophisticated and they point to places like Iraq, the former Soviet Union and the U.S. as having this, does that lead us anywhere closer to an answer in the investigation? ALI: I think when you're referring to highly sophisticated -- the quality of the material in the letter that was sent to Senator Daschle was so sophisticated and technically capable, for lack of a better term, that we haven't seen that level of sophistication outside of a state biological weapons program. But that doesn't necessarily mean that this material was, indeed, produced in one of those particular facilities, or from one of those sources. There's just no way to tell at his point.

HEMMER: It may give us a clue, but certainly not a hard-core answer. Javed Ali, thanks.

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