(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: Anthrax: Reporters Without Borders concerned about threats against the press Reporters Without Borders is deeply concerned about the death from anthrax, on 5 October, of an American journalist, and about the disclosure afterwards of twelve more cases of the same disease – all of them connected […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
Anthrax: Reporters Without Borders concerned about threats against the press
Reporters Without Borders is deeply concerned about the death from anthrax, on 5 October, of an American journalist, and about the disclosure afterwards of twelve more cases of the same disease – all of them connected to the press or to the inquiry into the anthrax issue. Our organization remains cautious about the meaning of this very issue, because so far, no inquiry has been able to show a link between the origin of the bacillus and the identity of its senders. Besides, for several cases, the exact circumstances of the contamination are unclear. Moreover, the presence of the bacillus in two letters sent to a Democratic Party leader in the Senate and a Microsoft branch in Reno (Nevada) excludes the hypothesis of an attack specifically targeting the media.
Robert Stevens, a photographer for The Sun, a publication of American Media Inc. (AMI), in Boca Raton (Florida), died on 5 October after contracting a pulmonary form of anthrax. A few days later, Ernesto Blanco, responsible for the mail service in the AMI building, proved to be contaminated by the same bacillus. His colleague, Stephanie Dalley, working at the same service, turned out to be a healthy germ carrier. On 14 October it was disclosed that five other persons working for AMI had been in contact with the bacillus, but without catching the disease. So far, the circumstances of the contamination of the press group employees is unknown. Several publications of the group had previously described Ossama Bin Laden in an outrageous way.
Furthermore, tests on Erin O’Connor, from the NBC television network, based in New York City, revealed on 12 October that the journalist was suffering a cutaneous form of anthrax, less dangerous than the pulmonary one. The journalist could have been contaminated after opening a letter addressed to Tom Brokaw, a star TV news presenter. The letter, sent on 18 October from Trenton (New Jersey), contained several brown granules revealing traces of anthrax. In the following days, a police officer and two employees of a laboratory investigating the suspicious substance were declared to be healthy germ carriers. Meanwhile, another NBC employee showed signs of infection from anthrax.
On 15 October, Dave Westin, ABC News president, disclosed during a press conference that an ABC employee’s seven-month-old baby had caught a cutaneous form of the disease. The baby had been taken to the ABC office on 28 September. Meanwhile, according to Bernard Kerik, the New York City police chief, nothing could prove that he had been infected at ABC.
On 12 October, the Governor of Nevada announced that traces of the bacillus had been discovered in a letter received by a branch of Microsoft in Reno (Nevada). Nobody has been infected, however. On 15 October, tests on a letter addressed to Tom Daschle, leader of Democrat senators, showed traces of anthrax. The people who were present when the letter was opened were not infected, Daschle stated on 16 October.
Investigators have still not ascertained who the senders of these infected letters are. Although President George Bush stated for the first time, on 15 October, that some links between the head of the Al Qaida network and the 11 September attacks were likely, he acknowledged that he had no accurate proof. As for the bacillus found in Florida, it allegedly came from an Iowa laboratory which sent it to other laboratories worldwide.
