WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 - Traces of anthrax were found midday Tuesday at a U.S. Navy Yard facility several miles from the White House that processes all White House mail, but Ari Fleischer, President Bush's spokesman, said officials do not believe contaminated mail has circulated at the executive mansion.
The anthrax was detected at the Navy Yard as a result of an environmental sweep late Tuesday morning, and the Secret Service was informed. The president was informed shortly before noon and a news announcement was made shortly before 4 p.m.
Later, President Bush told reporters at a photo session that security personnel were "making sure that the West Wing (the office part of the White House)" is safe.
"Let me put it this way, I'm confident when I come to work tomorrow that I'll be safe," the president said. He declined to answer whether he and Vice President Dick Cheney had been tested for anthrax, but reassured reporters that "I don't have anthrax."
He said this new discovery was another example that "people in this world want to terrorize our country by trying to take a life."
They won't succeed, the president said. Americans "need to know that our government is doing everything we possibly can to protect the lives of our citizens -- everything." He said he is working with the Office of Management and Budget to provide $175 million "for immediate relief, immediate safety at our post offices around the country."
The first public announcement came shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday at an impromptu news briefing by Fleischer. Fleischer said the traces were found "on what's called a slitter, which is a mechanical device that opens the mail. It was not found on any mail itself."
As a result, Fleischer said, "all employees at this site are being swabbed and tested. Mailroom employees at the White House will also be tested swabbed and tested."
He said "mail room handlers, mailroom employees" would have nasal swabs and other tests "and antibiotics will be available" to them. He said that there are no mail facilities in the White House proper and he did not believe any employees of the executive mansion itself would be examined.
Postal workers at the Brentwood U.S. Postal Facility in northeast Washington criticized the government for not conducting prompt medical tests on their facility and providing medical exams to them after a letter processed at Brentwood and carrying anthrax was delivered to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
Almost a week after the Daschle letter was discovered, two postal workers from the Brentwood facility died from inhaling anthrax spores and four more are sick -- with anthrax suspected. A widespread examination and treatment program is now under way.
President Bush said "our hearts are with the loved ones" and he was praying for them.
Fleischer said "an environmental sampling throughout the White House has all shown negative." Fleischer disclosed that environmental samples to detect biological agents in the air at the White House have been conducted on a regular basis even before the terrorist attack last Sept. 11, and they have been negative.
"The White House has always had extraordinary precautions in place. They've even been enhanced after Sept. 11," he said.
The White House is the executive mansion at the center of an 18.07 acre compound, but presidential offices fill other major office buildings along 17th street a block away. Mail facilities are in both the Old Executive Office Building, separated from the mansion by a driveway, and in the New Executive Office building, which is nearly two blocks away.
As a security precaution long before Sept. 11, White House mail was taken from the Brentwood facility to the Navy Yard along the Potomac River four miles from the White House, where it was checked for dangerous elements. Once the mail was cleared it was taken by truck to mail rooms in the White House complex.
