Anthrax Letters

Beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001 several letters containing deadly spores of the disease "Anthrax" was mailed to several different individuals in the American media and congress. These letters were mailed over the course of several weeks causing fear in the general populace. As a result 5 people died and 17 others were infected with the deadly spores. The letters were mailed to several news media agencies and two United States Senators. The attacks followed a week after the September 11th terrorist attacks against the United States by the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda headed by Osama Bin Laden. The September 11th attacks caused the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City, damaged the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, and caused the crash of an airliner in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Vaccines do exist against the bacterium and some forms respond well to antibiotics. However, most forms of the disease are lethal causing the disease to be ideal for bio-chemical warfare. Anthrax does not spread from person to person, it is spread through spores. Herbivorous mammals ingest the disease while grazing. These diseased animals can spread the disease through carnivores and through humans consuming the diseased herbivore's or carnivore's meat. Until the 20th century Anthrax killed hundreds of thousands of animals and people each year in countries around the world. French Scientist Louis Pasteur developed the first effective vaccine for Anthrax 1881. Anthrax infection is now relatively rare in domestic animals thanks to over a century of preventive infection programs. The Anthrax bacterium is soil born and because of there long lifespan, can still be found in animal burial and butcher sites that were infected with the disease. Anthrax has been known to reinfect animals up to 70 years after these burial sites were disturbed.

The letters containing the deadly Anthrax spores were directed to The New York Post, Tom Brokaw at NBC News, Senator Tom Daschle, Senator Patrick Leahy, plus others. The investigation into these Bio-Chemical attacks is officially known as the Amerithrax investigation according to recently released documents from the FBI and the Justice Department. A seven year investigation ensued into the attacks from these departments.

The Anthrax letter attacks came in two waves. The first wave of attacks entailed five letters that were post marked Trenton, New Jersey, September 18, 2011. The first set contained a brown course granular material. The second wave of attacks came three weeks later with more letters postmarked Trenton, New Jersey. The second wave of attacks consisted of two letters that contained a highly refined dry white powder that contained one gram of nearly pure Anthrax spores. Overall at least 22 people developed Anthrax infections with 11 of those contracted through the more deadly inhalation variety contained within the dry white powder. 5 people died of the inhalation variety. These victims include Stevens, two employees of the Brentwood mail facility in Washington D.C., Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen; two who's source of the exposure is still not currently known: Kathy Nguyen and Ottilie Lundgren.

It took so long to identify a culprit that the attacks are being compared to the Unabomber attacks. Prime suspect, Bruce Edwards Ivins, became a focus of the investigation on April 4, 2005. Ivins was a scientist that worked at the governments biodefense labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. However, Bruce Ivins committed suicide with an overdose of acetaminophen on July 27, 2008. On August 6, 2008 federal prosecutors declared Ivins to be the sole culprit of the crime.

In the beginning of the attacks the United States government believed the attacks were masterminded by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda and/or the President of Iraq, Saddam Husssein. The U.S. President and White House staff began taking a powerful antibiotic, Cipro, as a precaution. It was known world wide that the Iraqi government had stock piles of weaponized Anthrax spores to be used in bio-chemical warfare.

The investigation and evidence drawn from the investigation is still in doubt. Evidence against prime suspect Bruce Edwards Ivins has been claimed to be completely circumstantial and not enough to issue an indictment. Before the September 11th terrorist attack one member of the hijackers of the commercial air line jets used in the attacks, Ahmed al-Haznnawi, was treated at a Fort Lauderdale, FL hospital for an ugly lesion on his leg he reported he got from bumping into a suitcase. It is thought this lesion "was consistent with cutaneous Anthrax". It is believed the hijacker was exposed to Anthrax prior to the September 11th attacks.

Dozens of buildings were exposed to Anthrax spores as a result of the mailings. The decontamination of the Brentwood postal facility took 26 months and cost $130 million dollars. The Hamilton, New Jersey postal facility decontamination cost $65 million. The U.S. EPA spent $41.7 million decontaminating other government buildings in Washington D.C. One FBI document claimed the total decontamination to cost over $1 billion. The Anthrax attacks, as well as the September 11 attacks, spurred the U.S. government to spend billions of dollars in funding for biological warfare research and preparedness.

The U.S. government offered a $2.5 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Anthrax terrorist attacks against various people in the media and congress. Those attacks also inadvertently infected workers for the U.S.P.S and civilians.