The saboteur who sent anthrax-laced letters to news organizations and politicians did not intend for postal workers to be infected with the bacteria, probers believe.
Investigators suspect spores leaked out of the letters during processing and were circulated in postal stations by air-compression equipment.
Six postal workers contracted inhalation anthrax after the poisoned envelopes came through their stations, and two of the employees have died.
“The person or persons who did this were probably not expecting the intermediaries in the route to become victims,” Dr. Jeffrey Koplan of the Centers for Disease Control said yesterday.
Authorities have identified germ-laden letters sent to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, the New York Post and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle – and they think the killer also sent letters to ABC, NBC and the National Enquirer.
A similar letter postmarked Oct. 9 in Trenton, N.J., was sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy.
The FBI and the CDC have agreed on a scientific approach for opening and analyzing the letter they hope will “yield clues that will help identify the source,” the bureau said in a statement.
Despite the discovery of the Leahy letter, the Senate’s Dirksen and Russell buildings reopened yesterday because medical authorities determined there was no risk to public health. The Hart building remains closed, possibly until January.
Meanwhile, “scant” traces of anthrax have turned up at yet another Washington building, the Bureau of Prisons headquarters. And the CDC was planning to test a suspicious substance found in a letter in Chile.