WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- An anthrax-laden letter sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., will not be opened until at least Thursday because investigators consider it a "significant lead" in the investigation and want to proceed with caution, Hill sources said Tuesday. The letter -- which apparently contains enough spores to infect thousands of people -- is identical to a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
The FBI and investigators from Fort Detrick, Md., have isolated the envelope, which has identical markings to the Daschle letter received over a month ago -- and they hope to use the experience in dealing with that envelope to better protect any evidence contained in the Leahy letter, a Senate source said.
As the investigation progresses, the Capitol campus has not returned to its pre-anthrax normalcy despite celebrating its sixth consecutive week without any new anthrax infections, the Leahy letter was found isolated in a remote storage facility and never reached the Capitol complex itself.
The Senate Hart Office Building -- where the Daschle letter was opened, exposing scores of staff to the spores -- will remain closed "until the remediation process is complete," according to a memo issued Tuesday by the Secretary of the Senate. The offices of Senators Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., where some spores were found last week, were reopened Tuesday, except for their mail-sorting facilities.
Other House and Senate buildings are open and operating normally, the memo said.
