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WHO warns of biowarfare threat Nations should be prepared for chemical, germ strikes Bronwyn Brunner tries on a gas mask at Kaplan's Surplus Store in San Francisco. There has been a surge in gas mask sales since the attacks in New York and Washington. MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS GENEVA, Sept. 24 —  Scientific advances have made it possible for terrorists to kill millions of people with biological or chemical weapons, the World Health Organization warned in a report released Monday. The agency urged nations to prepare for the possibility of such strikes.       THE MAGNITUDE of possible impacts on civilian populations of their use or threatened use obliges governments both to seek prevention and to prepare response plans, said the WHO’s report Health Aspects of Biological and Chemical Weapons.      The agency rushed out a draft of the 179-page report in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States after receiving calls from governments asking for advice on how to combat germ warfare.       The threat of these things is real, David Heymann, WHO’s executive director for communicable diseases, said.   There are agents out there that if they were used in an area where there were millions of people ... could infect a great number of them. CROP-DUSTERS GROUNDED      WHO’s report comes as U.S. federal authorities have twice grounded crop-dusting planes amid fears that terrorists could use them following the attacks on New York and Washington.      Are you worried that      the United States is      vulnerable to attacks      with biological or      chemical weapons?         Yes        No        Not sure            Vote to see results       Employees of a Florida fertilizer company said a group of Middle Eastern men repeatedly asked about crop-duster planes in the months leading up to the terrorist attacks. An employee identified one of the men as Mohamed Atta, believed to be one of the suicide hijackers in the terrorist attacks.       The report said modern technology had made large-scale attacks with diseases or poison a reality.  For example, the WHO report noted the advent of ‘genetic engineering’ offers ... means of producing novel and perhaps more efficacious biological agents and toxins as compared with those of past weapons programs.      Even though the threat is small, the potential effects are devastating.      If a small number of people in a large city were infected with a disease that took several days to show itself, they would infect many more before they even knew they were ill. If the outbreak came in a city with a large airport, the disease could go all over the world, Heymann said.       Vulnerability to biological agents exists chiefly because of present inability to detect their presence in time for prompt masking or sheltering, the report warned, but added, rapid detection methods _base_d on modern molecular techniques are now being brought into service.      Heymann said preparing for a bioterrorism attack is much the same as preparing for the natural spread of a disease and needs strong public health planning.       The United States in particular is working to improve its public health monitoring and reaction system at the moment, he said. September 24 — Bioterrorism expert Mark Osterholm says the United States is vulnerable to attack with biological weapons.      Michael Osterholm, state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, told NBC’s Today Show on Monday that the United States is unprepared to deal with attacks with biological weapons.       We live in a new world order, biological weapons have been developed and will be delivered, he said.   Unfortunately, what we’re hearing on the Hill right now is that most of the resources dedicated to this will now go largely to the military. That’s going to leave us still very unprepared from a public health perspective.       We’re talking about the difference between what we saw in New York City, where it was a horrible situation with more than 5,000 fatalities but the [medical] system wasn’t overwhelmed because there were only 4,000 or 5,000 wounded people, he said. Imagine now 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 people presenting for medical care in the New York medical system. That’s what biological weapons can do and that’s what we as a nation are largely unprepared to deal with. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION URGED    The Italian health ministry said Monday it was putting together a rapid response group to coordinate preventative operations in light of the delicate international situation.  Italy already has designated a secure laboratory and isolation facilities, it said.       The WHO report said countries needed to cooperate because an attack could easily overwhelm the resources of a single nation. It also called for all countries to sign and enforce the U.N.’s treaties on banning biological and chemical weapons.      During the Cold War, The United States and the former Soviet Union built vast germ-warfare stockpiles. In July, the Bush administration pulled out of negotiations to enforce the biological weapons ban. Anthrax Alarm What had been a public-health probe in Florida is now a criminal investigation By Joseph Contreras, Michael Isikoff and Howard Fineman NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Oct. 8 —  The possibility that a photo editor for the weekly tabloid The Sun was killed in a bioterrorism attack took on a new sense of urgency today after Florida public-health officials disclosed that a nose swab taken from a 73-year-old hospitalized co-worker contained the rare bacteria spore that induces Anthrax, an often-fatal illness. PUBLIC-HEALTH OFFICIALS confirmed that Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year-old Cuban-American who works in the mailroom of American Media office building in Boca Raton tested as having been exposed to Anthrax. Blanco was admitted to a Miami hospital last week with symptoms of pneumonia. On Friday, Bob Stevens, a photo editor at The Sun, died from disease. What had been described as a public-health probe instantly became a criminal investigation as FBI agents on Sunday evening sealed off the office building, which houses the offices of most of the country’s supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, The Star, The Globe, News of the World and others. Employees and visitors to the building were ordered to undergo medical tests. Grim-faced state officials who had initially tried to downplay speculation late last week that Stevens’s demise might have been caused by foul play didn’t sound so sure at a Monday afternoon press conference. “We can’t speculate as to the source of this particular anthrax germ,” said acting Florida Secretary of Health Dr. John Agwunobi, who confirmed earlier reports that Anthrax spores had been found on the computer keyboard at Bob Stevens’s desk. Other officials went further.  “We have to assume that a human element was involved,” concluded Florida Health Department director of disease control Dr. Landis Crockett. NEWSWEEK has learned that the FBI is aggressively trying to locate a summer intern from nearby Florida Atlantic University in connection with the investigation. The intern, who sources said came from a Middle Eastern country, had sent an e-mail to all employees that a top American Media official described as “peculiar.” The e-mail thanked company employees for the help he gave them, but then contained language suggesting that he wasn’t saying “goodbye.” Another company official recalled the email as having “a sense of foreboding” and referring to a “surprise” or “something that he left behind.” Said the official, “it was weird.” Sources at American Media said the FBI has asked company employees about any “enemies” the company or its papers might have. Given the content of the weekly tabloids, “that list would go on forever,” joked one employee. Alarmed workers say they are urgently trying to recall receiving suspicious or unusual letters and packages. Several are focusing on a letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez”—similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. The letter, per routine, was taken in by the joint mailroom of the company. Employees said the letter was handled both by Stevens and Blanco. By late Monday afternoon, Boca Raton fire rescue vehicles and unmarked trucks and vans had descended on the American Media office building and investigators in white germproof suits were combing the ramp leading into the underground parking lot. Earlier in the day, hundreds of office workers filled out four-page forms at the Delray Beach health center asking them questions about their medical history, any recent unusual events that had occurred inside the building and whether they had visited the mail room and a photo library frequented by Blanco and Stevens. The office workers were issued 15-day supplies of the antibiotic Cipro that doctors prescribe in cases of Anthrax exposure. A skittish golf pro who works at a course adjacent to the premises of the American Media headquarters looked on warily from a distance as law enforcement officials swarmed around the building this morning. “I’m very concerned, and I’m going to give my lessons on the far side of the course,” said Broken Sound Golf Course instructor Michael Meredith. “I’m going to try to stay as far away as possible.” He was not alone in voicing such sentiments on a day when the specter of bioterrorism suddenly loomed large over the placid suburbs of Palm Beach County. Anxious About Anthrax A few cases do not an epidemic make. But they’re unprecedented; worry over what’s next is
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Nations should be prepared for chemical, germ strikes Bronwyn Brunner tries on a gas mask at Kaplan's Surplus Store in San Francisco. There has been a surge in gas mask sales since the attacks in New York and Washington. MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS GENEVA, Sept. 24 —  Scientific advances have made it possible for terrorists to kill millions of people with biological or chemical weapons, the World Health Organization warned in a report released Monday. The agency urged nations to prepare for the possibility of such strikes.       THE MAGNITUDE of possible impacts on civilian populations of their use or threatened use obliges governments both to seek prevention and to prepare response plans, said the WHO’s report Health Aspects of Biological and Chemical Weapons.      The agency rushed out a draft of the 179-page report in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States after receiving calls from governments asking for advice on how to combat germ warfare.       The threat of these things is real, David Heymann, WHO’s executive director for communicable diseases, said.   There are agents out there that if they were used in an area where there were millions of people ... could infect a great number of them. CROP-DUSTERS GROUNDED      WHO’s report comes as U.S. federal authorities have twice grounded crop-dusting planes amid fears that terrorists could use them following the attacks on New York and Washington.      Are you worried that      the United States is      vulnerable to attacks      with biological or      chemical weapons?         Yes        No        Not sure            Vote to see results       Employees of a Florida fertilizer company said a group of Middle Eastern men repeatedly asked about crop-duster planes in the months leading up to the terrorist attacks. An employee identified one of the men as Mohamed Atta, believed to be one of the suicide hijackers in the terrorist attacks.       The report said modern technology had made large-scale attacks with diseases or poison a reality.  For example, the WHO report noted the advent of ‘genetic engineering’ offers ... means of producing novel and perhaps more efficacious biological agents and toxins as compared with those of past weapons programs.      Even though the threat is small, the potential effects are devastating.      If a small number of people in a large city were infected with a disease that took several days to show itself, they would infect many more before they even knew they were ill. If the outbreak came in a city with a large airport, the disease could go all over the world, Heymann said.       Vulnerability to biological agents exists chiefly because of present inability to detect their presence in time for prompt masking or sheltering, the report warned, but added, rapid detection methods _base_d on modern molecular techniques are now being brought into service.      Heymann said preparing for a bioterrorism attack is much the same as preparing for the natural spread of a disease and needs strong public health planning.       The United States in particular is working to improve its public health monitoring and reaction system at the moment, he said. September 24 — Bioterrorism expert Mark Osterholm says the United States is vulnerable to attack with biological weapons.      Michael Osterholm, state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, told NBC’s Today Show on Monday that the United States is unprepared to deal with attacks with biological weapons.       We live in a new world order, biological weapons have been developed and will be delivered, he said.   Unfortunately, what we’re hearing on the Hill right now is that most of the resources dedicated to this will now go largely to the military. That’s going to leave us still very unprepared from a public health perspective.       We’re talking about the difference between what we saw in New York City, where it was a horrible situation with more than 5,000 fatalities but the [medical] system wasn’t overwhelmed because there were only 4,000 or 5,000 wounded people, he said. Imagine now 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 people presenting for medical care in the New York medical system. That’s what biological weapons can do and that’s what we as a nation are largely unprepared to deal with. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION URGED    The Italian health ministry said Monday it was putting together a rapid response group to coordinate preventative operations in light of the delicate international situation.  Italy already has designated a secure laboratory and isolation facilities, it said.       The WHO report said countries needed to cooperate because an attack could easily overwhelm the resources of a single nation. It also called for all countries to sign and enforce the U.N.’s treaties on banning biological and chemical weapons.      During the Cold War, The United States and the former Soviet Union built vast germ-warfare stockpiles. In July, the Bush administration pulled out of negotiations to enforce the biological weapons ban. Anthrax Alarm What had been a public-health probe in Florida is now a criminal investigation By Joseph Contreras, Michael Isikoff and Howard Fineman NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Oct. 8 —  The possibility that a photo editor for the weekly tabloid The Sun was killed in a bioterrorism attack took on a new sense of urgency today after Florida public-health officials disclosed that a nose swab taken from a 73-year-old hospitalized co-worker contained the rare bacteria spore that induces Anthrax, an often-fatal illness. PUBLIC-HEALTH OFFICIALS confirmed that Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year-old Cuban-American who works in the mailroom of American Media office building in Boca Raton tested as having been exposed to Anthrax. Blanco was admitted to a Miami hospital last week with symptoms of pneumonia. On Friday, Bob Stevens, a photo editor at The Sun, died from disease. What had been described as a public-health probe instantly became a criminal investigation as FBI agents on Sunday evening sealed off the office building, which houses the offices of most of the country’s supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, The Star, The Globe, News of the World and others. Employees and visitors to the building were ordered to undergo medical tests. Grim-faced state officials who had initially tried to downplay speculation late last week that Stevens’s demise might have been caused by foul play didn’t sound so sure at a Monday afternoon press conference. “We can’t speculate as to the source of this particular anthrax germ,” said acting Florida Secretary of Health Dr. John Agwunobi, who confirmed earlier reports that Anthrax spores had been found on the computer keyboard at Bob Stevens’s desk. Other officials went further.  “We have to assume that a human element was involved,” concluded Florida Health Department director of disease control Dr. Landis Crockett. NEWSWEEK has learned that the FBI is aggressively trying to locate a summer intern from nearby Florida Atlantic University in connection with the investigation. The intern, who sources said came from a Middle Eastern country, had sent an e-mail to all employees that a top American Media official described as “peculiar.” The e-mail thanked company employees for the help he gave them, but then contained language suggesting that he wasn’t saying “goodbye.” Another company official recalled the email as having “a sense of foreboding” and referring to a “surprise” or “something that he left behind.” Said the official, “it was weird.” Sources at American Media said the FBI has asked company employees about any “enemies” the company or its papers might have. Given the content of the weekly tabloids, “that list would go on forever,” joked one employee. Alarmed workers say they are urgently trying to recall receiving suspicious or unusual letters and packages. Several are focusing on a letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez”—similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. The letter, per routine, was taken in by the joint mailroom of the company. Employees said the letter was handled both by Stevens and Blanco. By late Monday afternoon, Boca Raton fire rescue vehicles and unmarked trucks and vans had descended on the American Media office building and investigators in white germproof suits were combing the ramp leading into the underground parking lot. Earlier in the day, hundreds of office workers filled out four-page forms at the Delray Beach health center asking them questions about their medical history, any recent unusual events that had occurred inside the building and whether they had visited the mail room and a photo library frequented by Blanco and Stevens. The office workers were issued 15-day supplies of the antibiotic Cipro that doctors prescribe in cases of Anthrax exposure. A skittish golf pro who works at a course adjacent to the premises of the
... read more »

WHO warns of biowarfare threat Nations should be prepared for chemical, germ strikes Bronwyn Brunner tries on a gas mask at Kaplan's Surplus Store in San Francisco. There has been a surge in gas mask sales since the attacks in New York and Washington. MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS GENEVA, Sept. 24 —  Scientific advances have made it possible for terrorists to kill millions of people with biological or chemical weapons, the World Health Organization warned in a report released Monday. The agency urged nations to prepare for the possibility of such strikes.       THE MAGNITUDE of possible impacts on civilian populations of their use or threatened use obliges governments both to seek prevention and to prepare response plans, said the WHO’s report Health Aspects of Biological and Chemical Weapons.      The agency rushed out a draft of the 179-page report in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States after receiving calls from governments asking for advice on how to combat germ warfare.       The threat of these things is real, David Heymann, WHO’s executive director for communicable diseases, said.   There are agents out there that if they were used in an area where there were millions of people ... could infect a great number of them. CROP-DUSTERS GROUNDED      WHO’s report comes as U.S. federal authorities have twice grounded crop-dusting planes amid fears that terrorists could use them following the attacks on New York and Washington.      Are you worried that      the United States is      vulnerable to attacks      with biological or      chemical weapons?         Yes        No        Not sure            Vote to see results       Employees of a Florida fertilizer company said a group of Middle Eastern men repeatedly asked about crop-duster planes in the months leading up to the terrorist attacks. An employee identified one of the men as Mohamed Atta, believed to be one of the suicide hijackers in the terrorist attacks.       The report said modern technology had made large-scale attacks with diseases or poison a reality.  For example, the WHO report noted the advent of ‘genetic engineering’ offers ... means of producing novel and perhaps more efficacious biological agents and toxins as compared with those of past weapons programs.      Even though the threat is small, the potential effects are devastating.      If a small number of people in a large city were infected with a disease that took several days to show itself, they would infect many more before they even knew they were ill. If the outbreak came in a city with a large airport, the disease could go all over the world, Heymann said.       Vulnerability to biological agents exists chiefly because of present inability to detect their presence in time for prompt masking or sheltering, the report warned, but added, rapid detection methods _base_d on modern molecular techniques are now being brought into service.      Heymann said preparing for a bioterrorism attack is much the same as preparing for the natural spread of a disease and needs strong public health planning.       The United States in particular is working to improve its public health monitoring and reaction system at the moment, he said. September 24 — Bioterrorism expert Mark Osterholm says the United States is vulnerable to attack with biological weapons.      Michael Osterholm, state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, told NBC’s Today Show on Monday that the United States is unprepared to deal with attacks with biological weapons.       We live in a new world order, biological weapons have been developed and will be delivered, he said.   Unfortunately, what we’re hearing on the Hill right now is that most of the resources dedicated to this will now go largely to the military. That’s going to leave us still very unprepared from a public health perspective.       We’re talking about the difference between what we saw in New York City, where it was a horrible situation with more than 5,000 fatalities but the [medical] system wasn’t overwhelmed because there were only 4,000 or 5,000 wounded people, he said. Imagine now 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 people presenting for medical care in the New York medical system. That’s what biological weapons can do and that’s what we as a nation are largely unprepared to deal with. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION URGED    The Italian health ministry said Monday it was putting together a rapid response group to coordinate preventative operations in light of the delicate international situation.  Italy already has designated a secure laboratory and isolation facilities, it said.       The WHO report said countries needed to cooperate because an attack could easily overwhelm the resources of a single nation. It also called for all countries to sign and enforce the U.N.’s treaties on banning biological and chemical weapons.      During the Cold War, The United States and the former Soviet Union built vast germ-warfare stockpiles. In July, the Bush administration pulled out of negotiations to enforce the biological weapons ban. Anthrax Alarm What had been a public-health probe in Florida is now a criminal investigation By Joseph Contreras, Michael Isikoff and Howard Fineman NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Oct. 8 —  The possibility that a photo editor for the weekly tabloid The Sun was killed in a bioterrorism attack took on a new sense of urgency today after Florida public-health officials disclosed that a nose swab taken from a 73-year-old hospitalized co-worker contained the rare bacteria spore that induces Anthrax, an often-fatal illness. PUBLIC-HEALTH OFFICIALS confirmed that Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year-old Cuban-American who works in the mailroom of American Media office building in Boca Raton tested as having been exposed to Anthrax. Blanco was admitted to a Miami hospital last week with symptoms of pneumonia. On Friday, Bob Stevens, a photo editor at The Sun, died from disease. What had been described as a public-health probe instantly became a criminal investigation as FBI agents on Sunday evening sealed off the office building, which houses the offices of most of the country’s supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, The Star, The Globe, News of the World and others. Employees and visitors to the building were ordered to undergo medical tests. Grim-faced state officials who had initially tried to downplay speculation late last week that Stevens’s demise might have been caused by foul play didn’t sound so sure at a Monday afternoon press conference. “We can’t speculate as to the source of this particular anthrax germ,” said acting Florida Secretary of Health Dr. John Agwunobi, who confirmed earlier reports that Anthrax spores had been found on the computer keyboard at Bob Stevens’s desk. Other officials went further.  “We have to assume that a human element was involved,” concluded Florida Health Department director of disease control Dr. Landis Crockett. NEWSWEEK has learned that the FBI is aggressively trying to locate a summer intern from nearby Florida Atlantic University in connection with the investigation. The intern, who sources said came from a Middle Eastern country, had sent an e-mail to all employees that a top American Media official described as “peculiar.” The e-mail thanked company employees for the help he gave them, but then contained language suggesting that he wasn’t saying “goodbye.” Another company official recalled the email as having “a sense of foreboding” and referring to a “surprise” or “something that he left behind.” Said the official, “it was weird.” Sources at American Media said the FBI has asked company employees about any “enemies” the company or its papers might have. Given the content of the weekly tabloids, “that list would go on forever,” joked one employee. Alarmed workers say they are urgently trying to recall receiving suspicious or unusual letters and packages. Several are focusing on a letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez”—similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. The letter, per routine, was taken in by the joint mailroom of the company. Employees said the letter was handled both by Stevens and Blanco. By late Monday afternoon, Boca Raton fire rescue vehicles and unmarked trucks and vans had descended on the American Media office building and investigators in white germproof suits
... read more »

WHO warns of biowarfare threat Nations should be prepared for chemical, germ strikes Bronwyn Brunner tries on a gas mask at Kaplan's Surplus Store in San Francisco. There has been a surge in gas mask sales since the attacks in New York and Washington. MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS GENEVA, Sept. 24 —  Scientific advances have made it possible for terrorists to kill millions of people with biological or chemical weapons, the World Health Organization warned in a report released Monday. The agency urged nations to prepare for the possibility of such strikes.       THE MAGNITUDE of possible impacts on civilian populations of their use or threatened use obliges governments both to seek prevention and to prepare response plans, said the WHO’s report Health Aspects of Biological and Chemical Weapons.      The agency rushed out a draft of the 179-page report in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States after receiving calls from governments asking for advice on how to combat germ warfare.       The threat of these things is real, David Heymann, WHO’s executive director for communicable diseases, said.   There are agents out there that if they were used in an area where there were millions of people ... could infect a great number of them. CROP-DUSTERS GROUNDED      WHO’s report comes as U.S. federal authorities have twice grounded crop-dusting planes amid fears that terrorists could use them following the attacks on New York and Washington.      Are you worried that      the United States is      vulnerable to attacks      with biological or      chemical weapons?         Yes        No        Not sure            Vote to see results       Employees of a Florida fertilizer company said a group of Middle Eastern men repeatedly asked about crop-duster planes in the months leading up to the terrorist attacks. An employee identified one of the men as Mohamed Atta, believed to be one of the suicide hijackers in the terrorist attacks.       The report said modern technology had made large-scale attacks with diseases or poison a reality.  For example, the WHO report noted the advent of ‘genetic engineering’ offers ... means of producing novel and perhaps more efficacious biological agents and toxins as compared with those of past weapons programs.      Even though the threat is small, the potential effects are devastating.      If a small number of people in a large city were infected with a disease that took several days to show itself, they would infect many more before they even knew they were ill. If the outbreak came in a city with a large airport, the disease could go all over the world, Heymann said.       Vulnerability to biological agents exists chiefly because of present inability to detect their presence in time for prompt masking or sheltering, the report warned, but added, rapid detection methods _base_d on modern molecular techniques are now being brought into service.      Heymann said preparing for a bioterrorism attack is much the same as preparing for the natural spread of a disease and needs strong public health planning.       The United States in particular is working to improve its public health monitoring and reaction system at the moment, he said. September 24 — Bioterrorism expert Mark Osterholm says the United States is vulnerable to attack with biological weapons.      Michael Osterholm, state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, told NBC’s Today Show on Monday that the United States is unprepared to deal with attacks with biological weapons.       We live in a new world order, biological weapons have been developed and will be delivered, he said.   Unfortunately, what we’re hearing on the Hill right now is that most of the resources dedicated to this will now go largely to the military. That’s going to leave us still very unprepared from a public health perspective.       We’re talking about the difference between what we saw in New York City, where it was a horrible situation with more than 5,000 fatalities but the [medical] system wasn’t overwhelmed because there were only 4,000 or 5,000 wounded people, he said. Imagine now 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 people presenting for medical care in the New York medical system. That’s what biological weapons can do and that’s what we as a nation are largely unprepared to deal with. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION URGED    The Italian health ministry said Monday it was putting together a rapid response group to coordinate preventative operations in light of the delicate international situation.  Italy already has designated a secure laboratory and isolation facilities, it said.       The WHO report said countries needed to cooperate because an attack could easily overwhelm the resources of a single nation. It also called for all countries to sign and enforce the U.N.’s treaties on banning biological and chemical weapons.      During the Cold War, The United States and the former Soviet Union built vast germ-warfare stockpiles. In July, the Bush administration pulled out of negotiations to enforce the biological weapons ban. Anthrax Alarm What had been a public-health probe in Florida is now a criminal investigation By Joseph Contreras, Michael Isikoff and Howard Fineman NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Oct. 8 —  The possibility that a photo editor for the weekly tabloid The Sun was killed in a bioterrorism attack took on a new sense of urgency today after Florida public-health officials disclosed that a nose swab taken from a 73-year-old hospitalized co-worker contained the rare bacteria spore that induces Anthrax, an often-fatal illness. PUBLIC-HEALTH OFFICIALS confirmed that Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year-old Cuban-American who works in the mailroom of American Media office building in Boca Raton tested as having been exposed to Anthrax. Blanco was admitted to a Miami hospital last week with symptoms of pneumonia. On Friday, Bob Stevens, a photo editor at The Sun, died from disease. What had been described as a public-health probe instantly became a criminal investigation as FBI agents on Sunday evening sealed off the office building, which houses the offices of most of the country’s supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, The Star, The Globe, News of the World and others. Employees and visitors to the building were ordered to undergo medical tests. Grim-faced state officials who had initially tried to downplay speculation late last week that Stevens’s demise might have been caused by foul play didn’t sound so sure at a Monday afternoon press conference. “We can’t speculate as to the source of this particular anthrax germ,” said acting Florida Secretary of Health Dr. John Agwunobi, who confirmed earlier reports that Anthrax spores had been found on the computer keyboard at Bob Stevens’s desk. Other officials went further.  “We have to assume that a human element was involved,” concluded Florida Health Department director of disease control Dr. Landis Crockett. NEWSWEEK has learned that the FBI is aggressively trying to locate a summer intern from nearby Florida Atlantic University in connection with the investigation. The intern, who sources said came from a Middle Eastern country, had sent an e-mail to all employees that a top American Media official described as “peculiar.” The e-mail thanked company employees for the help he gave them, but then contained language suggesting that he wasn’t saying “goodbye.” Another company official recalled the email as having “a sense of foreboding” and referring to a “surprise” or “something that he left behind.” Said the official, “it was weird.” Sources at American Media said the FBI has asked company employees about any “enemies” the company or its papers might have. Given the content of the weekly tabloids, “that list would go on forever,” joked one employee. Alarmed workers say they are urgently trying to recall receiving suspicious or unusual letters and packages. Several are focusing on a letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez”—similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the
... read more »