Anthrax found at State Department headquarters

From Andrea Koppel
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Trace amounts of anthrax were found in two mailrooms at State Department headquarters, on letters sent to the agency's Rewards for Justice Program and in a mail pouch bound for the U.S. Embassy in Peru, senior State Department officials told CNN on Monday.

One senior official said the amount of anthrax found at Foggy Bottom headquarters this past weekend were "very minor" and that the anthrax had not reached the filtering system.

Officials also said that the inside of a diplomatic pouch bound for the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, tested positive for anthrax Sunday.

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Officials said a number of letters sent to the Rewards for Justice Program tested positive for trace amounts of anthrax. The program, which pays money for leads in terrorist attacks against American interests, is run by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, across the street from the department's main building.

A senior official said the letters were picked up at a State Department post office box at Washington's Brentwood postal facility. Two postal employees who worked there have died from inhalation anthrax. This official said that the letters were taken to the FBI, where they tested positive for anthrax.

A senior official said there is no indication that the anthrax had spread to other offices and that employees who worked in the areas of the building where it was found were being notified to get tested and start antibiotic treatments.

All State Department offices and embassies around the world that received mail from the Brentwood facility were tested for anthrax after a State Department mail handler was diagnosed Thursday with inhalation anthrax.

The unidentified man, who was hospitalized with flulike symptoms last week, worked at the State Department's main mail-handling facility in Sterling, Virginia, which has about 80 employees. The Sterling facility received mail from the Brentwood processing center.

The State Department said about 90 percent of all mail it receives comes from Brentwood. About 80 percent of that mail then is sent to U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, while 20 percent goes to State Department headquarters and annexes in the Washington area.

The diplomatic pouch bound for Lima originated at the Sterling facility and was set aside and isolated after the mail handler tested positive for anthrax.

Six or seven State Department mail facilities get their mail directly from Brentwood.

Since the mail handler tested positive for inhalation anthrax, State Department mail facilities have been shut down, and mail is not being delivered, including the mailrooms at the Washington passport office and the U.S. Agency for International Development office.

Between 250 and 300 State Department employees in Washington are taking the antibiotic Cipro and are being tested for anthrax exposure, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

That list includes all personnel who handle bulk mail for each of the State Department bureaus and all mailroom personnel at U.S. embassies abroad who handled mail from the Brentwood facility between October 11 and 22.