Last weeks anthrax scare has been confirmed to indeed have been the deadly toxin. Additional testing on the samples taken from the three mail centers
that feed the Pentagon, have confirmed the presence of anthrax. Testing on the samples also confirmed that the anthrax found is the same strain as
that used in the attacks in the fall of 2001.
www.washtimes.com
WASHINGTON, DC, Mar. 21 (UPI) -- Anthrax was confirmed twice in samples collected from a Pentagon mail facility initially closed last week and then
opened after being declared free of the pathogen, United Press International has learned.
The head of the company that was accused of contaminating the samples sent from that facility -- a detached building on the Pentagon grounds in
Arlington, Va. -- said his company had never produced a false positive test before and the presence of anthrax was detected independently in the
original samples by two government laboratories.
An anthrax alert occurred at the Pentagon facility March 14 and was accompanied by a second alert at a mailroom in a Defense Department-leased
building in Falls Church, Va. That building, along with the entire three-building complex, was closed for two days before being declared clean.
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There is some controversy surrounding the detection and later confirmation of the presence of anthrax at these facilities. It seems that the alarms
were originally triggered on March 10th when samples were taken from surfaces in the mail processing facility. Those results were reported to
authorities on March 11th. However the findings were not acted on. CBI, the testing firm, was directed to conduct additional testing.
The results of the additional testing again returned a positive test result, and those findings were reported on March 14th. The mail facility was
still operating during the additional testing. It is believed that the mail processing centers that later had alarms for the presence of anthrax were
downstream in the flow from the original center.
The delay in closing the mail center that first detected anthrax was a costly mistake. It allowed for the spread of the toxin to two other mail
centers, and the exposure of hundreds of additional workers to the deadly substance.
Authorities are still in the process of gathering more then 8,000 pieces of mail that move through the effected mail facilities.
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TERRORISM: Anthrax Scare at Pentagon Mail Facilities 
