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CNN Sunday Morning

'New York Post' Targeted by Mail

Aired October 21, 2001 - 10:10   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: To the Anthrax scare: Another media outlet has been targeted by mail. This time it's the New York Post. The FBI says an unopened letter in the newspaper's mailroom has tested positive for anthrax.

The letter was discovered Friday as police investigated the anthrax infection of a postal employee. The FBI says the envelope had the same Trenton, New Jersey postmark as letters sent to the News Anchor Tom Brokaw and Senator Tom Daschle. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, the house is being checked for more evidence of anthrax. CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us live with more on that.

Kathleen, fill us in on the latest.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, it was startling news that came actually yesterday. Two different facilities that handle mail for the U.S. House of Representatives tested positive for the presence of anthrax spores. Now, this is the very first time that the bacterium has been found on the house side. So, late Saturday crews, environmental crews in biohazard suits began scouring the U.S. Chambers top to bottom to check and see, if there had been any spreading of any of these spores.

The results, the positive test results, came from two different locations; one was the Ford Office building where a mail bundling machine bundles mail for many different office buildings but the one that tested positive was the machine that bundled mail for the Longworth House office building; the other place that tested positive was an offsite mail facility where mail was screened by the U.S. Capitol Hill Police.

Now, house leaders that they do not know that if any anthrax- laden mail at all was delivered to the Longworth building because mail delivery was stopped last week after that letter with anthrax was delivered to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Now, obviously everyone is very concerned about this latest development, though Capitol Hill Police say that they are not surprised by this.

LT. DAN NICHOLS, CAPITOL POLICE: And, it's important to realize that this was not an unexpected situation. We've been trailing all the mail through the Capitol complex now for quite some time and after the discovery in the Hart and the Dirksen, and also at the U.S. Capitol Police offsite delivery center, testing was done at the Ford Center mailroom.

KOCH: Another development, a mail handler at a U.S. postal service processing facility in Washington D.C. that handles mail that is bound for the U.S. Capitol has had been admitted to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. The man is receiving antibiotics. He is in stable condition. The first test D.C. health officials say the nasal swab on him for exposure to anthrax came back negative.

But, Jeanne we are expecting further results later on today on his health and, also on the Brentwood postal facility where he worked to see if there is the presence of any anthrax there -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Kathleen Koch, on Capitol Hill, thanks.

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