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American Morning

FBI Agents Suiting Up to Enter AMI Building

Aired August 30, 2002 - 08:31   ET

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

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: FBI agents back in Florida. In fact, they are back in an anthrax contaminated building a bit later today. The American Media offices in Boca Raton have been quarantined since last October. That is when a photo editor died from the deadly spores, the first death from the anthrax cases.
Mark Potter back there this morning with us this morning, with us live -- Mark, good morning.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Well, after several days of preparations and some dress rehearsals, FBI agents and government scientists are preparing to go back inside the American Media building here in Boca Raton. At this hour, they are getting suited up in their protective clothing, and they are scheduled to go in in about a half hour. That will go in in several different teams, and will be working in different parts of the building.

Now, they are going to work for 12 hours, until 8:00 tonight Eastern time, and they will work in two different shifts, and then will be there probably through all of next week, and certainly over the labor day weekend.

Now, the FBI says that it plans to use new technology that it has developed in recent weeks to try to trace concentrations of anthrax through the building, and hoping to find the source and how exactly and where it entered AMI. What you are seeing on the screen now is the scene in the back of the building where agents are preparing to go in. They've got tents set up, so we probably won't see very much.

Now, agents say that they suspect that the anthrax came into the building by letter, but no letter has ever been found. In the search warrant affidavit, the agents say that they have probable cause to believe that an anthrax-tainted letter may still be inside the building. So they are certainly going to be looking for that.

Now, in another recent development, the Justice Department sent a letter to AMI clarifying the scope of the search, assuring the company that it would not be removing any documents or business records that may compromise journalistic sources. The department also said that it would not be going through computer files or databases, but the rest of this search, Bill, is going to be very thorough as the agents make this part of their national anthrax criminal investigation. They are still trying to determine who is responsible for the anthrax death here, and the deaths also in the Northeast -- Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Mark, quickly here, did you say that there's the possibility that another anthrax letter may be inside that building? And if that's the case, that's a needle in a haystack across the country, right?

POTTER: It very well could be. To be clear, no will letter was ever found here. They thought that -- they think that a letter is responsible. None has ever been found, but they claim that with this new technology, which they used to find the Leahy letter in Washington, they have a better chance of finding that letter now than they ever had before. So they are going to go for it, and they hope against all hope, perhaps, that they can find this. It would be a big find for the investigation, it would provide a lot of forensic evidence.

HEMMER: Indeed it would. Thank you, Mark. Mark Potter in Boca Raton for us.

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