>From The Palm Beach Post,
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/friday/news_b32ee455324fb164000c.html
-
Terrorism suspects' homes never tested for anthrax
By Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 2, 2001
In the search for possible sources of the anthrax that killed a
tabloid worker in Boca Raton and has been found at several Palm Beach
County postal locations, left unchecked are the apartments and hotel
rooms in South Florida where at least 12 of the 19 presumed Sept. 11
hijackers lived.
The FBI did test for anthrax in some cars believed used by the
hijackers, but not their residences, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela
said from Miami.
"Our investigation has been completed there," Orihuela said. "We
searched for evidence, but we did not test for anthrax."
A spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
it would have been the responsibility of the FBI to do any such
testing.
"CDC was doing a public health investigation," Kathy Harben said from
Atlanta. "We were not involved."
Federal officials have said they have not confirmed any links
connecting the hijackers or the Al-Qaeda network or suspected
terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to the anthrax situation and have
said it could be the work of domestic terrorists. But they have not
ruled out bin Laden's involvement, with President Bush saying on Oct.
15, "I wouldn't put it past him."
The alleged hijackers have been dead more than six weeks and their
temporary residences were combed by authorities and later rented out
to others. Because of that, the public health concern is small, since
someone who was exposed would have become sick by now, said Eric
Croddy, senior research associate at the private Monterey Institute of
International Studies. But he said testing might have provided
critical evidence.
"That does seem odd," Croddy said from Monterey, Calif. "They could
probably do a quick swab and come to a conclusion pretty quickly. It
would seem to be due diligence you would go ahead and do it anyway."
Croddy said agents may already have strong evidence connecting or
ruling out the men that they are not revealing or may have decided to
focus on other angles in the rapidly changing deadly situation.
"This is the first I've learned of this," said U.S. Rep. Robert
Wexler, D-Delray Beach, whose district includes places in the Delray
Beach area where at least seven of the hijacking suspects lived, as
well as the AMI building in Boca Raton, where the first anthrax case
surfaced.
"My first call will be to ask them what the reasoning is, what's the
justification," Wexler said from Washington. "I hate to second-guess
law enforcement experts, but it seems any logical analysis would
require that everything that was a part of the hijackers' life,
particularly their home, ought to be tested for anthrax. It's almost
unfathomable."
Wexler also wondered about a Delray Beach pharmacist's apparent
encounter with suspected hijacker Mohamed Atta, who came in this
summer with irritated hands.
Wexler said he was almost tempted to spend his own money for the
tests, adding, "That unfortunately raises another question to me: What
else has the FBI not done in terms of its investigation of the
hijackers and their relationship to South Florida?"
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham will likely add the issue to a list of questions
he has for intelligence committee oversight hearings on the attacks,
spokesman Paul Anderson said.
A Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman said officials aren't
as concerned about the hijackers' homes as they are about the anthrax
already found at the American Media Inc. building and other places.
"Our direction right now is the mail," Tim O'Connor said. "They took a
number of pieces of evidence from AMI as part of the criminal
investigation. That's where they would do the tie-in, if you will, of
where it came."
And, he said, "Our biggest concern is the bigger overall public health
side of it and preventing any additional cases."
Palm Beach County Sheriff's spokeswoman Diane Carhart said, "We don't
comment on other departments' procedures."
Managers reached at some of the places where the hijackers lived in
Broward and Palm Beach counties said they had not received, been
alerted to, or asked for anthrax tests.
At the Homing Inn, where Waleed and Wail Alshehri and Satam al-Suqami
stayed for a month, owner Kirit Shah said no one tested the rooms,
which were rented out to others as soon as the suspected hijackers
left on July 26. He said he was not worried about anthrax.
Two rental cars that Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi rented from Warrick
Rent-A-Car sat in the Pompano Beach firm's garage for a month before
owner Brad Warrick noticed about a teaspoon of white powder in the
trunk of one car earlier this week. As an ABC news crew shot video of
the 1996 Chevy Corsica and a 1995 Ford Escort, Warrick opened the
Escort's trunk and noticed the white powder, which Warrick said looks
like laundry detergent.
"Everyone freaked out, jumped back and turned white themselves,"
Warrick said. He said an FBI agent told him it was likely powder the
FBI left behind after agents searched the cars. "They said there was
no need to test the car since it's been in the building with us, and
we're all healthy and well," Warrick said.
Staff writers Michelle Mundy, Dani Davies and Sanjay Bhatt contributed
to this story.
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