[108158] in Cypherpunks
More Anthrax Theatre
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Sat Feb 6 21:05:34 1999
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 02:49:44 +0100
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
Suspicious packages received in Washington, Georgia
February 4, 1999
Web posted at: 6:12 PM EST (2312 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Police and FBI agents retrieved packages
purporting to contain anthrax that were delivered to The Washington Post and
the Old Executive Office Building on Thursday in an apparent hoax, law
enforcement officials said.
Similar scares prompted police to cordon off a four-block area in downtown
Atlanta, after a package was delivered to the NBC News bureau there with a
note claiming it was anthrax. Earlier in the day, a postal worker in
Columbus,
Ga., opened a parcel with a note reading, "You have been exposed to
anthrax."
"If the past is any indication, this is all a hoax," said FBI spokesman Frank
Scafidi of the scares in the District of Columbia and Georgia. "In Los
Angeles
a few weeks ago, these things were popping all over the place. These sound
similar to those widely reported incidents. It sounds like another spike,
just
more of the same."
In Washington, an analysis showed that the substance contained inside the
package received by the Post was harmless. FBI Agent Elisa Foster said the
parcel received by the Post "contained rambling threats and claimed that
whoever opened the letter was exposed to a poisonous substance."
Shortly after noon, FBI agents in blue windbreakers and District of Columbia
police entered the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House to
retrieve the second package. No details on that parcel were immediately
available, but the building was not evacuated. The building houses offices of
members of the president's staff.
In Atlanta, several floors of the building where the NBC bureau is located
were evacuated and about a dozen people went through decontamination
showers set up by emergency officials. Some were then taken to hospitals as
a precaution.
Emergency officials in Georgia said they were not sure if either of the
packages actually contained dangerous material. It was not clear when lab
tests would be completed.
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