WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. investigators still have no evidence linking the widespread anthrax scares with the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller officials said Tuesday.
"While we have not ruled out linkage ... we do not have conclusive evidence that it (the spread of anthrax) is part of that (Sept. 11) incidence of terror," Ashcroft said.
However, there are "similarities" between an anthrax-laced letter mailed to NBC News in New York and one mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office in Washington.
Ashcroft said the similarities included the handwriting on the letters containing the anthrax and a Trenton, N.J., postmark in each case.
Speaking on background after Ashcroft and Mueller's news conference, a Justice Department official said an immigration facility in Vermont was shut down temporarily on Saturday because of suspicious mail, but that suspicion turned out to be false.
Meanwhile, a Connecticut man has been charged in an alleged anthrax hoax, and Justice Department officials said more charges are pending against other suspects in other parts of the country.
Mueller said the FBI has received 2,300 reports of anthrax since Oct. 1, and the "overwhelming majority have been false alarms or practical jokes."
The hoaxes have been using up valuable investigative resources, and Ashcroft said, "The Department of Justice will prosecute and punish" the hoaxes "with the full force of the law."
A federal arrest warrant filed Monday charges Joseph Faryniarz with lying to the FBI about an anthrax threat at the state Department of Environmental Protection in Hartford, Conn.
Agents were called to the DEP on Oct. 11 to investigate a "powdery substance found on a computer station." Faryniarz, a DEP employee, reported the substance to his agency's security office when he arrived at work that day, according to an FBI affidavit.
Faryniarz told investigators he found the substance "on a paper towel under some paperwork on his computer which also contained a notation in black ink, 'ANTHAX,'" the affidavit said.
After Faryniarz spread the report, at least 12 people had to be stripped and bathed in cold water as part of the decontamination procedure. Another 800 were evacuated from the state building.
Understandably expressing worries about their health, the 12 were "swabbed, covered in decontaminate solution and then placed in decontamination suits," the affidavit said.
After FBI questioning, Faryniarz admitted the whole thing might have been a "bad joke," the affidavit said, and tried to implicate two co-workers. Later, he conceded the two workers were not involved, but told the FBI he knew the scare was a hoax from the beginning.
Faryniarz told the FBI another, unnamed individual had told him the scare was a hoax shortly after he reported the powder to security, but he had not told FBI agents about the hoax when they arrived on the scene.
In a news conference in Washington Tuesday, Ashcroft said if convicted, Faryniarz could receive up to five years in federal prison and be fined twice gross loss to the state and the federal government caused by the hoax -- up to $3 million.
In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters and local officials in Palm Beach County Tuesday the law that bans hoaxes involving weapons of mass destruction will be upheld and violators will be prosecuted and sent to jail.
"People are taking advantage of the fear that exists in Florida and in the country," said Bush, the president's younger brother.
"This is part of the strategy in our state," he said. "We have to restore a sense of normalcy in our lives. One of the ways we intend to do this is to increase the level of communication with the constituents that are represented by the elected officials here."
He said officials would use "technology and direct one-on-one contact. We are establishing protocols for our schools and our hospitals for how people who receive suspicious packages -- what they can do.
"We will get through this and Palm Beach County will lead the way," he said.
Bush's comments were echoed in New Jersey by acting Gov. Donald Difrancesco, who talked to reporters in Trenton about anthrax hoax perpetrators, who he said were taking away valuable state resources and time.
"What they are doing is nothing short of treason," Difrancesco said.
He urged New Jersey residents to "remain vigilant and calm" but asked them to take extra care with mail they receive and pay more attention to their surroundings.
