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CNN Sunday Morning

Many Questions About Anthrax Origin Remain Unanswered

Aired October 28, 2001 - 09:19   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: There's a lot of questions, still, about this anthrax, where it came from, how much more may be in the system.

We'll get some answers now from Javed Ali, our bioterrorism analyst. Thanks a lot for coming in today.

JAVED ALI, CNN BIOTERRORISM ANALYST: Thank you.

MESERVE: A lot of questions about, is the Daschle letter and these letters in Florida and New York, are they the only sources of the anthrax? What are your thoughts on that?

ALI: There's still no way to tell whether the Daschle letter was the letter that was responsible for all the contamination in the Brentwood facilities, and the -- sort of the residual contamination in other facilities in and around Washington.

So I don't think there's a definitive way to tell. You'd have to know exactly how much material was in that Daschle letter, and the concentration of that, and then sort of look at that material and test it against the other samples that were found elsewhere in D.C.

MESERVE: The other big question is: Where did it come from? Is this a domestic manufacturer? Does it come from some international source? The administration seems very definitely to be keeping all options open there. What's your thought?

ALI: I think that's probably the best sort of attack at this point, in the sense that it's still too early to tell, for people on the outside looking in, where this possible source is.

It could be foreign, could be domestic. I mean, the clues point you in one direction, but sometimes they point you in another direction. So it's kind of difficult to make that assessment.

MESERVE: Which clues point you in which direction?

ALI: Well, the fact that the Daschle letter material was so -- apparently is so -- more sophisticated than any of the other material in the other two letters, even though the strains are the same, point to the fact that whoever, at least manufacturing the material, knew exactly what they were doing and had a very finite level of expertise. It was only previously found in, sort of, state weapons programs. But then the material in some of the other letters, even though the strain is the same, was less sophisticated and more crude. So the clues are kind of confusing.

MESERVE: And there's no guarantee that the person who sent the letter is the same person who put the anthrax into this highly refined condition.

ALI: It's possible. You're correct, Jeanne, that whoever manufactured the material, even in different forms, may not be the same entity that is actually sponsoring these incidents.

MESERVE: Where could they have gotten this highly milled form of anthrax?

ALI: There's the potential that they could have developed it themselves, although it would have been very -- I mean, a number of technical hurdles would have had to have been met for that group to do it themselves.

MESERVE: Ari Fleischer said last week that a sophisticated biochemist in a lab could have done this. Is that true?

ALI: Maybe not one person; but certainly the sophistication level has to be of that level. But then it could have been illegally acquired somehow, or stolen. So there are multiple possibilities.

MESERVE: Where are some of the illegal sources?

ALI: For at least the...

MESERVE: Potentially?

ALI: Potentially, well state weapons programs. And the two countries we know the most about are the former Soviet Union's weapons -- biological weapons program, and Iraq.

But apparently the strains that were used, we're seeing in the three cases here that we know about, that particular strain of anthrax was not used in the Soviet, Russian or Iraqi biological weapons programs. So again, the clues are kind of confusing.

MESERVE: But it was used in the U.S. weapons program, am I right?

ALI: I'm not sure if even that particular strain was used in the U.S. weapons program.

MESERVE: The advice being given right now to people in the Washington area who are most concerned, I think, about the ability of this to have gotten in their mail, is simply to wash their hands after they deal with a piece of mail. Does that sound like an adequate precaution, given what we've seen of this anthrax?

ALI: That's a good first step, in the sense of if you wash your hands with hot water and soap, you'll at least have a fairly good chance of getting the material off of your hands. And unless you have some kind of broken skin or open wound, there is a very strong possibility that you will not contract the cutaneous form of the disease.

MESERVE: Would you be surprised at this point if we saw more cases of inhalation anthrax here in Washington?

ALI: It's hard to say never to anything, but I mean, hopefully we won't, but there's always that potential, especially if there are other letters out there that could be circulating around.

MESERVE: Javed Ali, thanks so much for joining us here today.

ALI: Thank you.

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