Possible Ricin in Senate 'a Terrorist Activity'
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
WASHINGTON — All Senate office buildings were shut down Tuesday after inital tests showed that letters sent to the office building of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (search) likely contained the lethal poison ricin.
The closures forced the postponement or cancellation of all Senate hearings on Tuesday. An announcement regarding the buildings' reopenings was expected at 5 p.m. EST.
"We've been dealing with this for several years,"
Senate Intelligence Committee member Kit Bond (search), R-Mo., told Fox News on Tuesday. "There is always risk of some kind of terrorist."
Buildings on the House of Representatives side of Capitol Hill remained open, though staffers were handed fliers as they walked in warning them not to open any mail.
Meanwhile, forensic scientists on Tuesday were testing a grayish-white powdery substance that turned up at a Wallingford, Conn., postal facility where anthrax was found in 2001.
Several tests confirmed that the white, powdery substance discovered Monday in the Dirksen Senate Office Building was ricin (search ), Capitol police said.
"There are several confirmations the substance is ricin," U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terry Gainer (search) said in a press conference late Monday night.
Ricin is a highly poisonous substance derived from castor beans. Easy to make, it can cause death 36 to 72 hours after ingestion, inhalation or injection.
At the Wallingford, Conn., post office, forensic scientists were trying to determine the identity of a suspicious powder found in a letter addressed to the Republican National Committee in Washington.
U.S. postal inspectors told The Associated Press that the grayish-white powder addressed to the RNC arrived in a business reply envelope that didn't require postage.
The facility remained open and no one was in need of medical treatment, but the letter had been isolated. The postal worker was wearing gloves when the substance was detected.
The same facility was targeted during the 2001 anthrax scare. One person, an elderly woman, died as a result of anthrax spores sent to that post office.
The powder on Capitol Hill was found by a Senate postal worker shortly after 3 p.m. EST Monday near Frist's office. Initial tests resulted in one positive and one negative for ricin. The substance was then transported by the Capitol Police Hazardous Device Unit to a laboratory, where two out of three tests came out positive for ricin.
According to a government official, the substance has been taken to Fort Detrick in Maryland for more definitive testing. Gainer, who would not confirm the testing location, said results of the tests would be announced Tuesday morning.
Also speaking at the late-night press conference was majority leader Frist, R-Tenn., who urged calm.
"Nobody is sick, we don't expect anybody to get sick," he said. A surgeon before his election to the Senate, he explained that if symptoms of ricin poisoning have not surfaced in about eight hours, contamination is unlikely.
But, he later added, "The mailroom was in my office .... This is a terrorist activity."
The Homeland Security Department (search) earlier said that it was monitoring the situation, and an FBI official said the bureau was awaiting the result of tests at the Fort Detrick laboratory before deciding whether to get more fully involved in the case.
Gainer said it was not clear what letter or package the substance had come from. After it had been discovered, Capitol Police shut down air vents in the building and began evacuating staffers from the fourth floor.
After the first positive test, 16 people who had been on the floor were decontaminated before being sent home.
"We are also looking for anyone else who was in the area," Garner said.
Frist encouraged staffers to check the Senate's Web site for updates on the lab tests and any announcements regarding closures in the building. No indication that extra security had been ordered for the Capitol complex was given, although security in the area has been high since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"This is a criminal action and will be investigated as such," Frist said.
A clue to ricin poisoning is a suddenly developed fever, cough and excess fluid in the lungs, a fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. These symptoms could be followed by severe breathing problems and possibly death. There is no known antidote.
Police found traces of ricin in a north London apartment last January and arrested seven men of North African origin in connection with the virulent toxin that has been linked to Al Qaeda (search) terrorists and Iraq.
A package containing ricin was also found at a postal facility serving Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina in October.
Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota was majority leader in 2001 when anthrax was found in letters sent to his and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy's offices in the Hart Senate Office Building. No one was ever arrested in those incidents.
Hundreds of Capitol workers, reporters and tourists who were in the Hart building lined up for tests and doses of Cipro and other antibiotics after the anthrax attack. Areas of that building were closed for months for decontamination.
Frist said irradiation would likely have no effect on ricin because the substance is neither a virus or a bacterium.
Fox News' Mike Emanuel, Catherine Donaldson-Evans, Jane Roh and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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