Anthrax Fear On Increase In U.S.

NEW YORK, Sunday - US Vice President Dick Cheney has warned that suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden was known to have experimented with biological agents and did not rule out the possibility that the anthrax scare in USA may be terror-related. Five new cases of exposure to deadly anthrax were diagnosed in the United States as three states became embroiled in a nationwide scare, heightening fears of a possible bioterrorism attack. Five more employees of a Florida publishing company, where a man who died of anthrax last week and two other people who were exposed to it all worked, tested positive for anthrax exposure, officials said Saturday. President George W. Bush moved to quieten fears in his weekly radio address early Saturday, assuring the nation that “We are taking strong precautions.” FBI confirmed that an employee of the broadcaster NBC had contracted anthrax from a threatening letter sent to the network’s New York office. The FBI said there was no evidence to link the anthrax scare with the September 11 attacks and urged Americans not to succumb to fear. It was the first time the source of anthrax has been pinpointed since a scare over the illness emerged last week, and it came as anthrax spores were also found on a letter sent to a Microsoft office in the state of Nevada. New York FBI chief Barry Mawn said the threatening letter sent to NBC contained a “brown granular substance.” The envelope was postmarked Trenton, New Jersey and had no return address. It was sent to anchor Tom Brokaw on September 18, a week after the terror attacks here, and was opened by his assistant, the 38-year-old O’Connor. But network executives and local officials said on Saturday that a second NBC news employee was showing symptoms of anthrax, a day after it was revealed that one of her colleagues, identified as Erin O’Connor, was ill. The second employee is on antibiotics after developing a rash, fever and swollen lymph nodes and is responding well to treatment, officials said, adding that they were still waiting for results of an official exposure test. O’Connor complained of a sore on her chest on September 28 and started taking antibiotics on October 1, but the FBI only tested the letter containing the brown substance late Friday. It was not, however, immediately clear if the new cases detected among employees of American Media Incorporated (AMI) in Boca Raton, Florida were related to the three earlier exposures. AFP Ends