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CNN Saturday Morning News

Leahy Receives Suspicious Letter

Aired November 17, 2001 - 07:16   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A suspicious letter sent to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy continues to draw attention this morning, and for good reason. A congressional aide says when the letter went through anthrax-detecting sensors, the meters went off the chart.

CNN's congressional correspondent Kate Snow reports the letter mailed to Senator Leahy is remarkably similar to two others.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The suspicious letter, addressed to another Democrat on Capitol Hill. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a statement, the FBI said the letter appears to contain anthrax. The as-yet-unopened letter has an October 9, 2001, Trenton, New Jersey, postmark and appears in every respect to be similar to the other anthrax-laced letters.

Senate sources say the handwriting on the letter addressed to Senator Leahy is strikingly similar to the writing on the letter sent to Majority Leader Tom Daschle. The two letters are postmarked from the same Trenton post office on the same day.

The new letter was found at a warehouse in northern Virginia, where investigators this week began sifting through 250 barrels of unopened congressional mail. It's unclear whether the letter was ever actually delivered to Senator Leahy's office in the Russell Senate Office Building. Congressional mail was gathered and handed over to the FBI after the letter containing anthrax was opened last month in Senator Daschle's office.

In a statement Friday, Senator Leahy said of authorities, "I am confident they are taking the appropriate steps and that eventually they will find this person. Our Senate leaders and officers did the right thing in isolating the Senate's mail."

A spokesman for Leahy says no one in the office has been ill nearly five weeks after the letter was removed from Capitol Hill. Public health officials are confident there's little risk.

DR. GREG MARTIN, CAPITOL PHYSICIAN'S OFFICE: The first two weeks are our most dangerous period, and we're well beyond that now. We've seen no evidence of cutaneous or inhalation disease in any of our patients at the Capitol, and we are quite confident that we will not see any because of this letter.

SNOW (on camera): But there have been two deaths and three other cases of inhalation anthrax in Washington. All along, investigators suspected there might be at least one other contaminated letter to blame, a letter that may provide clues about its author.

Kate Snow, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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