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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

The Anthrax Scare

Aired October 23, 2001 - 19:00   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.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: Tonight on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS: TARGET TERRORISM: a home front fight against anthrax. Spores are found at an off-site mail facility which serves the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: First of all, I don't have anthrax. I'm confident when I come to work tomorrow that I will be safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And confirmation that anthrax killed two Washington postal workers. As thousands of others get treatment, did authorities wait too long?

As Congress remains locked out of its own offices by an anthrax attack, I'll speak live with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's point man on infectious diseases.

And we'll go to northern Afghanistan, where U.S. warplanes are hitting Taliban troops. But has the U.S. also hit civilians?

Good evening. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting tonight from Washington. The spread of anthrax continues. First it was Florida, later New York, New Jersey and Capitol Hill, as well as a nearby Washington postal facility. But it has by no means stopped there.

The anthrax scare has now reached the White House, or at least an off-site facility which handles White House mail. Let's go live to CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King for details. John?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that offsite facility located at the Anacostia Naval Yard, a military facility a few miles from the White House. All White House mail is brought there for an extra set of screening after it is processed by a postal facility.

White House officials saying a very small trace amount anthrax detected on a slitting machine that opens the mail there at that facility. Not even enough, they say, to make someone sick.

Still, precautions being taken. Employees at that site being tested, being offered antibiotics. Those in the White House mail room, which is outside the White House gates but in a building nearby, also being offered testing and antibiotics if necessary.

This all being investigated now, and sources telling us their operating assumption is that this letter or letters was contaminated offsite at the Brentwood facility. That is the facility in the District of Columbia where two workers have died. Two more diagnosed with inhalation anthrax. The facility that handled that anthrax letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Because of all this, the president faced some questions -- remarkable questions today when he during a Cabinet Room meeting in which he had key members of the Congress around the table. Usually a president is asked in such situations, are you making process a legislative agenda? In this session the president was asked, "sir, have you been tested for anthrax?"

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I don't have anthrax. And the -- it's hard for Americans to imagine how evil the people are who are doing this. We are having to adjust our thinking. We are a kind nation, we are a compassionate nation. We are a nation of strong values and we value life. And we are learning people in this world want to terrorize our country by trying to take life. They won't succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Mr. Bush saying he feels safe inside the White House complex. Officials saying they do not believe any anthrax can get into this complex through the mail because of the security precautions. And as this particular case is investigated, the president tonight saying he wants to give the postal service quickly a $175 million cash infusion to help buy new scanners to detect such things, to help deal with the public health issues that post offices around the country were also told to look for in the next day or so.

An announcement that a random sampling of some of the 27,000 postal facilities around the country will take place so that officials can try to get a sense of the national scope, if there is one, of these anthrax and anthrax scares. Wolf.

BLITZER: John, why are they so confident over at the White House behind you that there is no anthrax that could have gotten into the White House or the Old Executive Office building next door?

KING: Because all White House mail is taken to that military installation for a reason: security precautions that include all mail being opened. No powder was found. All mail being run through screeners that include irradiation that kills anthrax bacteria.

BLITZER: John King at the White House, thank you very much. In the Washington area, the postal workers have been hit hard by the anthrax cases. Two deaths are now confirmed to have been caused by inhalation anthrax. More cases are suspected. CNN Medical Correspondent Rea Blakey joins us now live from D.C. General Hospital. Rea. REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we heard this evening that there were in fact two other cases in Montgomery County, Maryland, at the Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, which is just across the district line. Those cases are included, we have now confirmed, within the scope of the 16 suspicious or low-level suspicious cases that the D.C. Public Health Department is investigating. They are keeping eye on those cases. Those are included.

The interesting aspect there, is that those two cases are also among employees who worked at Brentwood facility. So that in itself causes some concern, not only among public health officials but obviously postal workers, those who have worked at Brentwood, who have been tested and treated over the last couple of days and those who are from the other 36 postal facilities around city who are being treated with Cipro are greatly concerned, quite frankly.

A number of people expressing concern that there wasn't testing prior to this time, and they feel as if they are not getting as much information as is available, or if this is all the information, it is still just not sufficient. That's the comment that we are getting from folks.

Now this evening at D.C. General Hospital, Mayor Anthony Williams came to receive treatment. He received a ten-day dose of Cipro. He and his mother, Virginia Williams, had visited the Brookland postal facility -- not Brentwood, but Brookland -- and as a precautionary measure and a show of support, they came down to make sure that they received their Cipro treatment as well.

It was an interesting day today, because the mayor indicated that public officials and he himself are facing a very steep learning curve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY WILLIAMS, MAYOR OF WASHINGTON, D.C.: I think all of us can stand a day and say that in light of the information we have today, in retrospect we should have done a number of things earlier. I happen to think that if we knew then what we know now, we would have acted earlier. But we didn't know then what we know now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLAKEY: What they now know is there are four confirmed cases. Two of those cases resulted in death. The two other postal workers from Brentwood facility are in serious condition at Inova Fairfax Hospital, but in stable condition as well. Wolf.

BLITZER: Rea Blakey at D.C. General Hospital Thank you very much.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the search for the source of anthrax- laced letters is expanding. Investigators say that's because a mail processing facility in Hamilton Township was handling overflow mail from another area the day a suspect letter was processed. A suspected case of inhalation anthrax has been identified in a woman who worked in the facility, and at least 10,000 postal workers in Manhattan will be given the antibiotic Cipro in case any of them handled anthrax-tainted mail. That comes after a meeting between New York postal authorities and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as postal union leaders.

He's long been regard as a highly respect medical researcher, and for years he's been the government's top authority an infectious disease. While the bioterrorism era has clearly arrived, he says the anthrax crisis should be treated with concern but not panic.

I'm joined now by Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci, thanks for joining us. Give us your sense. How worried should the public out there be right now?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, I think they certainly should be concerned. But it's -- we must be careful that we make concern be channeled in productive way.

If you are concerned and you have a heightened state of alertness, you have suspicion in situations where there might an exposure. If that's the kind of concern that we're talking about, that's a good concern, because it really prepares not only for what might happen with what we're seeing now, but even much worse.

If you cross the line and then the concern goes into just total disruption of your life or panicking, then you have actually accomplished what the bioterrorists really want to accomplish, is to disrupt us. Because thus far, notwithstanding the very tragic situation of the individuals who have gotten sick and have died, in the broad picture of public health, it's relatively minor on biological impact and very major on terror impact.

So the concern is justifiable. It's realistic. There's something to be concerned about. But hang tight and don't let it go to panic.

BLITZER: What do public the health officials need to do in the short term, right away, to deal with this crisis?

FAUCI: Well, as you just heard on the segment, this is an evolving situation. We now know we need to be absolutely suspicious of anything that had a potential contact with these spores, these anthrax spores, because it was originally felt, well, since the letters were closed and sealed, that the powder or whatever form it was in,would not come out.

That's clearly not case. Because we have absolute evidence that that was coming out of those envelopes in some manner or form, either squashed out or whatever, and people were getting sick. So now the level of alertness and the level of suspicions about going in, testing, and treating people has been ratcheted up a considerable amount based on what is going on with the postal service. BLITZER: So even experts, including yourself, are learning a great deal over these days, day by day, perhaps hour by hour. Clearly, with hindsight, those postal workers at that D.C. postal facility should have been treated immediately last week, as the staffers on Capitol Hill were.

FAUCI: Absolutely. In fact, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jeff Copeland, had mentioned that they had -- they were not aware that this anthrax were able to get out of envelopes.

They thought, you know, you open it up and you get the puff of smoke. Well, they have learned very quickly that that's not the case, particularly this form, which interestingly is in the form able to aerosolize easily. That's a different situation than one that just plops out of an envelope. The fact that it can aerosolize easily makes it a particularly dangerous form of this microbe.

BLITZER: So it's a sophisticated technique that had to be used even to insert that anthrax in an envelope?

FAUCI: Well, you know, there's been a lot of talk about is this weaponized, is this not weaponized. Let's just look at what it is doing, you know? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. This is dangerous material. And whatever terminology you want to put on it, it's still something that is aerosolized and causing disease. So we have to treat it that way.

BLITZER: A lot of people suggest rank-and-file physicians out there across the country, they don't know how to deal with this because they have had no experience except maybe a lecture in medical school.

FAUCI: Right, exactly. And that's the reason why people are paying a lot of attention to what is going on here in Washington, what is going on in New York, what's going on down in Florida. This is a very steep learning curve, not only for the people who are knee deep in it right now, but for people in other cities who are trying to prepare themselves for the possibility that this might happen to them.

BLITZER: And as dangerous as anthrax is, smallpox would be even a lot worse.

FAUCI: Absolutely. Smallpox has the extra added dangerous feature of being transmissible from one person to another. Anthrax can affect an individual who gets exposed, in some ways in a very fatal way, but smallpox has the capability of spreading from person to person. That's why we are extremely aggressively addressing the question of getting our smallpox vaccine stores right up to where we are able to make vaccine available if we need it this population.

BLITZER: You were there on the front lines in 1981 when the first case of HIV, the AIDS epidemic really began. Compare then with what has happened over these last few weeks.

FAUCI: Well, the intensity of it isn't even in the same galaxy. I mean, what we are seeing now of the concern that is gripping the entire nation, that HIV in the summer of 1981 there was concern among certain segments of the population, people who were so-called at risk. Now the population is looking like anyone and everyone is at risk. It's a big unknown. We don't know what's out there. And that's why, getting back to you original question, Wolf, we really do have to have a concern that heightens our alertness.

BLITZER: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the fear of the unknown may be worse than the fear of the known. Sometimes it is.

FAUCI: Indeed it is.

BLITZER: Thanks for joining us.

FAUCI: All right.

BLITZER: Congress has been making some adjustments in the wake of the anthrax exposure on Capitol Hill, but it's also gotten some good news. Let's go live to CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, all 5,000 of those people that took those nasal swab tests after the letter was opened in Daschle's office have gotten their results back. And officials say, no new positive results. Nobody has tested positive for anthrax exposure except for those original 28 that were in the immediate vicinity of Daschle's office.

Also, the Russell Office Building on the Senate side, clean bill of health. It will reopen at 9:00 tomorrow morning. But the other two Senate office buildings will remain closed because they still need to be decontaminated. And all three House office buildings will also remain closed because they do not have the results yet. That means the space crunch here on Capitol Hill will continue.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing? Welcome to your temporary offices.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

KARL (voice-over): Their offices sealed off, members of Congress scrambled to set up temporary work spaces. For some, that meant lugging around paperwork and leaving most staff at home. The space crunch will be relieved as soon as Congressional office buildings are reopened. But members of Congress don't know when at they will be able to receive mail again.

SENATOR TOM DASCHLE, (D), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: All of those who may have written to the Senate from around the country may have to wait a little longer for their mail to be answered. In fact, in some cases it is likely that the mail will have to be destroyed.

KARL: Entrance to the office buildings is strictly forbidden, except for the hazmat teams conducting environmental testing. But Montana's Conrad Burns was so anxious to get his checkbook, he broke the rules. The guard reluctant to stop a senator.

SENATOR CONRAD BURNS, (R) MONTANA: He said, you know, I guess it's all right. You're a senator, you know?" And so I went over and I got my paperwork and I got my checkbook.

KARL: Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, stung by criticism he is delaying the president's judicial nominees, put some of the blame on the anthrax scare.

SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY, (D) VERMONT: We've been operating under some difficulty. A lot of our paperwork is in the Judiciary Committee room in Dirksen, or in my office in the Russell Building.

KARL: Louisiana's John Breaux had a more trivial concern.

SENATOR JOHN BREAUX, (D) LOUISIANA: My goldfish are sitting in my office. They can't be fed, and I fear they are starving to death. But we really can't get in the office, whether it's to get back the goldfish or get back computers.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

KARL: Breaux's office is just down the hall from Senator Daschle's office in that Hart Office Building, which was basically ground zero in the anthrax attack on Capitol Hill. That office building, the Hart Office Building, likely to remain closed for at least another week, because they have extensive decontamination that must done there. That takes time. And then even after they do that, they need to go through the testing all over again. So Wolf, it will be a while before that office building will be reopened.

BLITZER: All right. Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill. Thank you very much. And for more on how America's government and health officials are wrestling with the anthrax threat, see my daily column at CNN.com/Wolf. The U.S. efforts to target terrorism include a third day of airstrikes over Afghanistan on the front lines. We will have the latest from the Pentagon on today's airstrikes. And later, a report from the front line. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. U.S. forces hit Taliban positions on the front lines from the air for a third day today, while United Nations staffers say bombs hit a military hospital in the city of Herat yesterday.

People in a village northwest of Kandahar say U.S. attacks today killed dozens and left more than 20 others wounded. CNN Afghan staffers say they saw several bodies as well as wounded being treated in a Kandahar hospital.

The movements of CNN's Afghan staff are restricted to areas designated by the Taliban, which to this point has been limited to areas of reported civilian casualties. The staff has not been permitted to observe the aftermath of strikes on purely military targets. CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins us now live from the Pentagon. First of all, Jamie, what are they saying at the Pentagon about these reports from these CNN Afghan staffers?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, the Pentagon is cautioning not believe Taliban claims which it says have often turned out to exaggerated or untrue. But as for the specifics of this incident, they are not commenting, the policy being not to say anything until -- if and when they have some idea of what might actually have happened.

That said, the Pentagon is saying that the Taliban is now increasingly trying to disperse and hide from U.S. attacks. And the U.S. is also hinting that it may be soon again time to send some commandos in to hunt them down.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

(voice-over): The Pentagon continues to pound Taliban forces from the air. This truck convoy carrying fuel an example of the ability of U.S. pilots to hit moving targets when they spot them.

Pentagon videos show direct hits on a Taliban command post and a tank near Mazar-i-Sharif, where the U.S. is trying to help the Northern Alliance take the town from the Taliban's 5th Corps.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN STUFFLEBEEM, JOINT STAFF DEPUTY OPERATIONS DIRECTOR: We know that that's having an effect and an impact on the corps. Whether or not that is having a direct impact into the north alliance movement is not yet clear, certainly not to me.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon is also owning up to a couple of mistakes. Sunday, a U.S. Navy F-14 dropped two 500-pound bombs on a residential area northwest of Kabul, near a village where the Taliban claimed more than 20 civilian deaths.

The same day, an F-18 missed a vehicle storage building on a military compound near Herat. The Pentagon didn't release any pictures, says the 1,000-pound bomb hit within 300 feet of a senior citizen's home in the compound, which may have been used as a hospital.

VICTORIA CLARKE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: As we always say, we regret any loss of civilian life. U.S. forces are intentionally striking only military and terrorist targets. We take great care in our targeting process to avoid civilian casualties.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon also said a landing gear displayed by the Taliban did come from last week's commando raid, sheared off when a low-flying MH-47 helicopter hit something as it carried troops out of Afghanistan at top speed. It landed safely.

In response to the nonstop attacks, Pentagon officials says the Taliban are beginning to disperse, and show signs they may soon hide weapons and troops near mosques or civilian buildings, especially in urban areas, where the U.S. says it won't bomb.

STUFFLEBEEM: There is not an intention to open or widen attacks into cities. We will find other ways, as the chairman has said, using the full spectrum capability of our military to get at those who might cowardly decide to hide in residential neighborhoods.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE; The clear implication is that the Pentagon is planning more commando-style raids to deny the Taliban safe harbor even in their traditional urban strongholds, and that the United States is ready to pay the almost certain price of urban combat: higher casualties. Wolf?

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. Thank you very much.

Things remain tense for those on the ground in Afghanistan. We'll get a report from the front lines right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. U.S. jets are working to weaken the Taliban's front line positions. CNN's Chris Burns has the latest from northern Afghanistan.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, a third day of U.S. airstrikes along the front line between here and Kabul, striking at Taliban positions along the front line, including tank positions, troop concentrations, and, it is believed, an Al Qaeda stronghold in a village that is not far from the front line.

Those airstrikes came along with airstrikes in the north outside of Mazar-i-Sharif, about 60 kilometers south east of Mazar-i-Sharif, where the Northern Alliance is trying to move ahead toward that Taliban stronghold, the biggest city in northern Afghanistan.

Down here as we watched the airstrikes along the front line, as we saw also clashes between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. We saw the Northern Alliance firing rockets not far from where we were standing against Taliban positions in mountain side. From that mountain side, the Taliban fired mortars or rockets on a town. It's a Northern Alliance town called Shalikar (ph). We have reported that in recent days. A town that is on the very edge of that front line.

The casualties including two people. Two people killed, and perhaps as many as 34 injured, including four seriously. U.S. airstrikes along the front line signify a new phase in the U.S.-led air campaign, a new phase targeting Taliban troop positions aimed at allowing the Northern Alliance to break through, perhaps, these Taliban defenses and move on toward Kabul as well as Mazar-i-Sharif. Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Burns in northern Afghanistan. Thank you very much. and for our viewers in North America, "CROSSFIRE" comes your way at the bottom of the hour. Bill Press joins us now live with a preview. Bill.

BILL PRESS, "CROSSFIRE" HOST: OK, Wolf, thanks. After what foreign terrorists did here on September 11th, no wonder some people are clamoring to close America's borders: no new student visas, no new immigrants. Is that the right approach? Or is it xenophobic overkill? We'll be debating how to control our borders. Right after you, Wolf, on "CROSSFIRE."

BLITZER: I will be watching. Thank you very much. Bill. And when we return, the latest on the investigations into anthrax in America, now reaching potentially the White House. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: In today's latest developments as America targets terrorism: anthrax was found in the facility that processes White House mail. That mail comes from the Brentwood sorting station. Two workers from the Brentwood station have died from inhalation anthrax; two others are ill from the bacteria.

The Justice Department released copies today of anthrax-tainted letters delivered to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw and Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. Both letters contain anti-American and anti- Israeli messages in similar block lettering.

And the U.S. is concerned that fighting in the Middle East could weaken Islamic support for the campaign against terrorism. Trying to end that fighting, President Bush met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres at the White House today and sent a letter to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

That's all the time we have tonight. Please join me again tomorrow twice, at both 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. Eastern, as America targets terrorism. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "CROSSFIRE" begins right now.

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