The Hindu : Offices in U.S. Capitol shut in ricin scare

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

International

International

Offices in U.S. Capitol shut in ricin scare

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, FEB. 4. Even as the United States Capitol is partially open for business and the Senate trying to maintain its daily schedule, police and enforcement authorities have shut down three major office complexes where Senators have their offices. And the impression is that it will be several more days before full normality is restored.

Officials are now down to serious business of tracking down where that ricin found in Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist's office, came from.

Meanwhile, an unnamed Justice Department official has said that a letter containing ricin was also mailed to the White House last November but was intercepted at a small mail-handling centre away from the White House complex. No announcement of this had ever been made; and the official has said that the ricin came in a small vial; it was of low potency; and quite similar to the toxin found at a mail facility in South Carolina last October.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have not witnessed a scene like this one after the anthrax attacks of late 2001. At that time, five persons including two postal workers in Washington died from the exposure. This time around, there is the feeling on Capitol Hill that the response had been effective.

Authorities are conducting tests on the ricin, which was found by a young worker in Mr. Frist's fourth floor mailroom of the Dirksen Building. Officials are trying to see if the ricin was sufficiently potent to kill people. No illnesses have been reported and first tests have apparently indicated that the toxin had not seeped through the building's ventilation system. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that as time goes by there is less and less concern about the health effects.

On Tuesday, the Senate went about its legislative business but no votes were taken; and it is said that efforts are on to shift the hearings scheduled in Committees to available rooms on the House side.

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