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American Morning

Anthrax Found at Pentagon Post Office; Man Arrested for Trying to Board Plane With Weapons

Aired November 05, 2001 - 09:05   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: But, we begin with another case of anthrax this morning, this time found in a Pentagon post office space, a rental space. CNN's Eileen O'Connor is following these developments from Washington now. Good morning again, Eileen.

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well it was trace amount of anthrax that was found on two samples taken at a post office within the Pentagon complex. Officials say the facility is fed mail from the Brentwood facility. That's the one that handled the anthrax-laced letter sent to Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. Now, they are looking for any letters that might have come through this post office, that could be similar to the Daschle letter. But they do believe it's most likely the trace amounts came from mail that was cross-contaminated from the letter sent to Senator Daschle.

And, as you said, there is going to be an arraignment of three people who helped some of the hijackers, allegedly, obtain Virginia driver's licenses. The three, Mohammed Abdi (ph), Kenneth Scalisha (ph), and Luis Martinez-Flores have already appeared in court before in Virginia. They're scheduled to appear in court again today. They're accused of taking money in exchange for falsely verifying the residency of some of the hijackers so that the hijackers could get licenses that they needed to get on to the airplanes.

Now, in addition, there was a man arrested, Saturday night, for having nine knives, a can of mace, and a stun gun as he tried to board a flight to Omaha at Chicago O'Hare's airport. But what's disturbing is the seven of the knives, the mace and the stun gun found only during a random bag search. He had actually been allowed to the gate after guards had taken two knives from him, and they had not discovered the other weapons.

Now the man, named Subash Gurung, gave the same address as man already in custody as a material witness relating to the investigation into the September 11th attacks. Gurung says he is unemployed and he says he was using the weapons for personal protection.

Seven employees of the security company have been fired. It is the same company that was cited for the Justice Department -- by the Justice Department -- for not complying with court ordered background checks on its employees. They settled that dispute with the Justice Department only last month in October. -- Paula. ZAHN: So where is this man now, who is being questioned?

O'CONNOR: He has actually been released on bond. And he is scheduled to appear in court. He has been charged with two misdemeanors for unlawfully possession these weapons. He is scheduled to appear in court December 19th in Chicago. -- Paula.

ZAHN: Is -- And I mean just seems incomprehensible to me he got as far as he did. We know people have gotten fired. Any more reaction to what came down at O'Hare airport? I mean -- Isn't this outrageous?

O'CONNOR: It is. And the airlines immediately demanded that a couple of the screeners were fired. But this was a company that was already cited by the Justice Department, and so they will be coming under increased scrutiny. They said -- said that they had fixed the problem, that one of the reasons that they had been cited again, it was a misunderstanding, but obviously, they are going to be under a lot more scrutiny now because of this most recent incident. -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Eileen O'Connor, thanks.

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