IP: More clinics receive "anthrax" letters as authorities await results

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: More clinics receive "anthrax" letters as authorities await results
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 19:17:26 -0600
To: believer@telepath.com

Source:  Fox News - AP

More clinics receive letters as authorities await results
 8.00 p.m. ET (101 GMT) October 31, 1998

 By Susanna Ray, Associated Press

 INDIANAPOLIS (AP) � Federal marshals stood watch Saturday over an abortion
clinic that received a letter claiming, "You have just been exposed to
anthrax.'' Authorities meanwhile awaited results of tests on the envelope's
contents. 

 The Planned Parenthood clinic was one of five clinics that received
envelopes Friday containing a brown, powdery substance and threatening
notes. The others were in the southern Indiana town of New Albany,
Knoxville, Tenn., and two in Louisville, Ky. 

 On Saturday, two other clinics � one in Wichita, Kan., and another in
Louisville � reported receiving similar letters. 

 Authorities said the letter to the Wichita clinic was postmarked in
Cincinnati, just like the ones sent to at least four other clinics. Pat
Bashore of the FBI in Louisville said he did not know the origin of two of
the Louisville letters. 

 In Wichita, an employee called the fire department, which contacted
federal authorities. FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said the envelope wasn't
opened but "looking at it through backlighting, it doesn't appear to
contain anything at all.'' The clinic was evacuated for about 45 minutes. 

 Friday's incident at the Indianapolis clinic prompted police to
decontaminate 31 people who were scrubbed down and treated with antibiotics
at hospitals as a precaution. Two people from a Louisville clinic also were
treated at the hospital Friday. 

 Preliminary tests on the contents of the New Albany envelope and one from
Louisville were negative for anthrax, a strain of bacteria that can be used
as a biological weapon. Contents of a letter sent to the Knoxville
Reproductive Health Center will be sent to a lab for testing, the FBI said. 

 Results of testing in the Indianapolis case had not been completed
Saturday, FBI agent Doug Garrison said. 

 Michael Smith, who lives in an apartment near the Indianapolis clinic,
said he's opposed to abortion, but now is scared about what anti-abortion
extremists might do next. 

 "You're automatically wondering what chemicals went off. I mean, my
window's open. ... I feel endangered,'' he said. 

 Meanwhile, a Newsweek poll found that 60 percent of Americans believe the
anti-abortion movement has to share at least some of the blame for recent
violence against abortion provides. Fears of violent attacks against
abortion providers were heightened Oct. 23 when a sniper fatally shot a
doctor who performs abortions near Buffalo. 

 Thirty-three percent of those responding said the anti-abortion movement
is indirectly connected to the violence because of statements that
encourage violence. Another 27 percent believed there is a more direct
connection, the Newsweek poll said. 

 The survey also found that 51 percent of Americans sympathize with
abortion-rights efforts and 39 percent back the anti-abortion effort. 

 The poll appears in the Nov. 9 issue of the magazine, which is on
newsstands Monday. Its margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. 

                  � 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
-----------------------
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