NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Gov. George Pataki and city commissioners testified at a House subcommittee on terrorism Monday in city hall regarding the city's response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"A very close working relationship between the FBI, other federal agencies and state and local law enforcement is absolutely necessary," Giuliani said. "I believe the FBI should establish an office and put some very high-level assistant director in charge of making sure this happens."
The 600,000 local law enforcers in the nation could be a great help to the FBI if they received counter-terrorism information, but Giuliani acknowledged that with sensitive information, the fewer the people that know the better.
The mayor testified on New York City's disaster preparedness and how those preparations and drills assisted in the city's response and what could improve. Ironically, the hearing had been scheduled at the World Trade Center before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, whose states have been targeted by terrorists, are scheduled to testify.
The mayor, a former federal prosecutor, said that communications among law enforcement agencies must improve. He was reported to be livid after finding out that the FBI did not test a suspicious envelope for anthrax sent to Tom Brokaw at NBC or speak with Brokaw's assistant who was the first person to contract cutaneous anthrax.
"The FBI tried to wave them off," Brokaw said in an interview on NBC's "The Today Show" on Oct. 17. "They had public health officials trying to wave them off. That misled us in turn."
NBC announced Brokaw's assistant had contracted the skin type from a letter received around Sept. 25. The network announced the employee had anthrax on Oct. 12.
A New York City postal supervisor did not have anthrax, the New York City medical examiner's office said Monday. Laura Jones died Oct. 10 of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, or high blood pressure and an existing heart condition, the office said.
The medical examiner re-evaluated the medical records and spoke to the doctors of Jones when it was discovered that four sorting machines at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in Manhattan were contaminated with anthrax. Jones' body was not exhumed.
Meanwhile, postal union leaders were scheduled to be in federal court Monday afternoon asking a judge to shut down the midtown Manhattan mail-processing center where anthrax spores were detected. The Morgan Center processes 20 million pieces of mail for Manhattan and the Bronx daily. No New York City postal workers have tested positive for anthrax, but thousands have had the anthrax antibiotic Cipro made available to them.
Postal authorities have kept the facility open but cordoned off four sorting machines plus 30 surrounding machines on the third floor where anthrax spores were found. The union wants the facility closed until the anthrax has been destroyed and the building tested again.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., wants to hold a town meeting in New York to discuss anthrax among postal managers, workers and medical and scientific experts. Clinton also proposed a standard protocol to deal with anthrax reports in all federal buildings -- from Capitol Hill to U.S. postal facilities.
In other news, security at Yankees Stadium will be ratcheted up a notch based on reports that President Bush plans to watch the World Series at the Bronx stadium on Tuesday. Security is expected to be even tighter than the usual precautions taken in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
More than 1,000 members of the New York Police Department will use video cameras, rooftop snipers and bomb-sniffing dogs at the ballpark before Game 3 of in the series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Helicopters and two F-16 fighter jets will fly over the stadium. Fans will be searched and no backpacks or bags will be allowed in the ballpark.
The president is an avid baseball fan and was the owner of the Texas Rangers before being elected governor of Texas.
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(Reporting by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)
