25 October 2001
Transcript: White House Briefing October 25 on Homeland Security Issues
(Anthrax sent to Fla., N.Y., D.C. from same strain, officials say)
(4570)
The anthrax sent to Florida, New York and Washington, D.C. is highly
concentrated and from the same strain, Homeland Security Director Tom
Ridge told reporters at a White House briefing October 25.
Based on the latest DNA testing, "it is clear that the terrorists
responsible for these attacks intended to use this anthrax as a
weapon," he said.
"We still don't know who is responsible, but we are marshaling every
federal, state and local resource to find them and bring them to
justice."
He said officials do not know whether the anthrax is coming from one
source or multiple sources.
"I'm not prepared to tell you today the range of potential actors who
could have created as pure and as concentrated and as respirable an
anthrax as we are working on and investigating now. I don't know
whether it's a large range or a narrow range," Ridge said.
But "clearly we are up against a shadow enemy," people who have no
regard for human life, and who "are determined to murder innocent
people."
Major General John Parks, the commanding general at the U.S. Army
Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrik, Maryland told
reporters:
"I can say to you without question, this is anthrax, and the samples
from New York, Washington and Florida are all from the same family or
strain. That's been documented by DNA testing. When we look at these
spores underneath the microscope, they are uniform in size and highly
concentrated, and highly pure. And these individual spores are very
light, and if given some energy from, say, wind or clapping or motion
of air in a room, they will drift in the air and fall to the ground.
"The good news," Parks said, "is that this strain is susceptible to
all of the antibiotics that we have in the United States, from
penicillin all the way to the most recent advanced quinolines that we
have available."
Following is the White House transcript:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
October 25, 2001
PRESS BRIEFING BY THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY,
GOVERNOR TOM RIDGE; AND THE COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE U.S. ARMY
MEDICAL RESEARCH AND MATERIEL COMMAND, MAJOR GENERAL JOHN PARKER; AND
DEPUTY SURGEON GENERAL ADMIRAL KENNETH MORITSUGU ON HOMELAND SECURITY
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:55 P.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER: Now I would like to introduce Governor Ridge, the
Director of the Office of Homeland Security. He is joined by Major
General John Parker, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Medical
Research and Materiel Command; as well as Admiral Kenneth Moritsugu,
the Deputy Surgeon General.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Good afternoon. Today I'd like to share with you the
latest information and actions we are taking to protect the American
people from the anthrax threats here at home.
Our investigation continues. We are aggressively pursuing every
conceivable lead to find and bring to justice those responsible for
these terrorist acts. Our health system nationwide is on full alert,
and is working around the clock -- and is working around the clock --
to identify and treat those potentially affected by anthrax.
Today we want to share with you the latest scientific analysis of the
anthrax samples. Major General John Parker, Commanding General of the
United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, has joined
me today to further explain and answer your questions concerning these
latest findings.
As I outlined last week, Department of Defense DNA tests showed the
anthrax samples from Florida, New York and Washington are
indistinguishable, meaning that they all come from the same strain of
anthrax or the same family of anthrax. That continues to be the case.
The DNA tests have also revealed that none of the anthrax samples have
been genetically altered, which is very good news, obviously, because
it means that the samples all respond to antibiotics. And, therefore,
people who are exposed can be treated.
This week, we have received new information from additional laboratory
tests. I convened a meeting at the White House last night to bring
together the scientists, as well as representatives of the different
agencies, to analyze and evaluate this information. It shows that the
anthrax in the letter received in Senator Tom Daschle's office had
some different characteristics. It is highly concentrated. It is pure.
And the spores are smaller. Therefore, they're more dangerous because
they can be more easily absorbed in a person's respiratory system.
We've also received a new preliminary analysis on the anthrax that was
mailed to The New York Post. The preliminary analysis shows that it is
more coarse and less concentrated than the anthrax in the Daschle
letter. But I want to tell you, it's still highly concentrated. The
New York Post anthrax is also sensitive to antibiotics.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to conduct similar tests on the
anthrax from Florida or the Brokaw letter because of limited amounts
of substance retrievable from the scene. Just wasn't enough for us to
retrieve from the scene to conduct the same tests.
Now, I know there has been a lot of both public and private
discussion, some of it with me and much of it among yourselves and
even within this country, about the term "weaponize." It seems to have
different meanings, different definition and meanings to different
people. Based on these latest lab reports, it is clear that the
terrorists responsible for these attacks intended to use this anthrax
as a weapon. We still don't know who is responsible, but we are
marshaling every federal, state and local resource to find them and
bring them to justice.
And General Parker is here to give you more of the details. But before
he briefs you, I would like to take a minute to share with the
American people the steps we are taking to protect postal workers.
As of this morning, health officials have tested and treated more than
4,000 postal workers in the impacted areas. In addition, the Postal
Service, working with federal, state and local officials, have begun
environmental testing at the 200 postal facilities along the Eastern
corridor. The Postal Service will also conduct random environmental
testing at major postal facilities nationwide. It will conduct random
testing nationwide. It is strictly a precautionary measure. It is
taken to protect the mail.
I want to reiterate: There is no indication of any new exposure at
this time at these sites, but the Postmaster General felt that it was
appropriate to begin conducting random sample testing.
As the President announced on Tuesday, we are authorizing funds to
implement immediate security measures to better protect our nation's
mail. These funds will help purchase new technology to sanitize mail,
and protective gear to help protect postal workers.
Clearly we are up against a shadow enemy, shadow solders, people who
have no regard for human life. They are determined to murder innocent
people. President Bush is very proud of the federal, state and local
health care officials whose quick actions have no doubt saved many
lives in the face of a new and horrible threat. Our country has never
experienced this type of terrorism. Tragically, we have lost lives,
starting with those in New York City in the Towers, but also including
those who wear the uniform overseas in this war, and those who wear
the uniform of the Postal Service here at home.
Our government will continue to do everything we can to make our
nation safe, stronger and more prepared. We will continue to provide
the American people with as much accurate information as we can, as
soon as we can, to protect them from future attacks.
Before I respond to some questions, I would like Major General Parker
to brief you, as well.
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Thank you, Governor Ridge. I represent some
great scientists and engineers at Fort Detrick who are currently
working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, processing samples and
helping to define the characteristics of the compounds that are given
us to take a look at.
I can say to you without question, this is anthrax, and the samples
from New York, Washington and Florida are all from the same family or
strain. That's been documented by DNA testing. When we look at these
spores underneath the microscope, they are uniform in size and highly
concentrated, and highly pure. And these individual spores are very
light, and if given some energy from, say, wind or clapping or motion
of air in a room, they will drift in the air and fall to the ground.
The good news is that this strain is susceptible to all of the
antibiotics that we have in the United States, from penicillin all the
way to the most recent advanced quinolines that we have available.
The characteristics I already mentioned. When you look at it, it's
like a very, very fine powder. And you can imagine, in your bathroom,
if you take a fine talcum powder and you blow it, it drifts up into
the air and then eventually drifts down to the ground and falls to the
floor, where it sticks.
We are continuing to try to characterize the products. When we looked
at the New York Post sample and compared that to the Daschle sample,
even in gross introspection, it appeared that the New York Post sample
was clumpy and rugged, and the Daschle sample was fine and floaty.
Now, one of my scientists actually described the New York Post sample
as looking like Purina Dog Chow, clumpy like a pellet.
Q: Under the microscope?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: No, that's not under a microscope, that's
grossly. Under the microscope, the spores are densely packed in both
samples, and highly concentrated in both samples. I just want to
mention one other thing, is that I know there's a lot of questions
about some other things. We are trying very hard to characterize
anything that would be associated with the sample, and we continue to
do that research and we're continuing to do that investigation. And I
don't have the absolute answers until all of those investigations are
in.
Q: Can I ask you a question about, given the nature of the powder,
especially that was sent in the letter to Senator Daschle, what can
you and the others say about where this was produced, how it was
produced, and ultimately by whom -- domestically or foreign?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Tests may give us answers to some or all of those
questions, as well as investigations being conducted by the FBI and
the Department of Justice. The tests now give us very specific
characteristics, but the tests may or may not lead us to the source.
Q: Can I follow and say, at this point, are you able to say at any
level, preliminarily or otherwise, that this is the kind of anthrax
that could have been produced by an individual or several individuals
here in the United States? Or is this the kind of stuff that could
only be produced by a foreign nation?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I believe further testing will give us the range. It
will either expand it or contract it. But right now there are other, I
believe chemical tests and other tests in a series of tests that have
to be conducted.
I mean, one of the challenges we have with trying to give you as much
information as we have as quickly as we get it, and give America this
information, is that the properties of this anthrax and our ability to
describe its characteristics really depend on ability for us to
conduct several tests -- some simultaneously, some in different parts
of the world, some one after another.
I will tell you that one set of tests often generates a recommendation
that another set of tests, so we just -- the testing is incomplete,
and we can't give you the answers to that question yet, if ever.
Q: There was a report today that preliminary tests suggest that the
anthrax could not have been produced in Russia or Iraq.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Could not have been?
Q: Could not have been, implying that it was produced in the United
States. Is that accurate or not? Preliminary tests suggest this.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I don't think I've seen any preliminary tests that
drew any conclusions as to where it could or could not have been
produced.
Q: -- is aggressive? In other words, if these were mailed over a
series of days and the Daschle is much more sort of concentrated,
could it be that somebody is testing and getting more aggressive with
the anthrax, and will that continue, perhaps?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I think people are inclined to draw conclusions about
the number of letters in the mail, or the ability, the capacity of one
letter to have contaminated multiple stations. I mean, right now, as
we continue to conduct the investigation, we alert you to the letters
we have and to the samples we have, and until we have thoroughly
completed our investigation, we can't draw any conclusions as to
number or source.
Q: Governor Ridge, the apparent lethality of the anthrax sent to
Senator Daschle was apparently understood more quickly in Congress
than it was throughout other federal agencies. Are you and Major
General Parker satisfied that the information flow about what was
learned about the anthrax in the Daschle letter went to all of the
agencies as fast as possible, and therefore, everything was done to
protect the postal workers who have since been exposed, whereas,
members of Congress were not?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: My sense was that -- I think it may have been General
Parker and other people within the administration gave -- briefed
Senator Daschle. And I think -- I'm not certain where the Senator got
his information, but I suspect it's from the information that we had.
And the recognition of the pureness of the spores, the concentration
-- the highly concentrated nature of these spores, it's the conclusion
that it hasn't been genetically altered, a lot of these things have
occurred since that initial briefing, as we've had a series of tests
to confirm it.
I will tell you what, I think because it was respirated, because we
had several people who died because of inhalation anthrax, and because
there's a body of scientific evidence out there that it is easier and
certainly has much greater potential for infection if it's a smaller,
purer form of anthrax, people legitimately, without doing the samples,
could conclude that it had to be of higher concentration, it had to be
a purer form, based on the information that we had at the time about
anthrax.
We're now running through the series of tests. We're finding not only
what might have been a good thing to conjecture from previous research
on anthrax, but we have confirmed it. But there are other
characteristics that we may or may not be able to confirm in future
tests.
Q: Doesn't the very fact that, as General Parker said, this is free
and floaty anthrax that was sent to Senator Daschle, aerosolized, show
that it is a very sophisticated operation that produced it, not a grad
student in a basement, and that the knowledge of how to do that would
be limited to a very narrow circle of people, some state actors and
some people with access to American secrets?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I'm not prepared to tell you what level of competency,
accessibility to equipment, and other training either an individual or
an institution needs in order to develop this level of anthrax.
Q: General Parker, can we ask you a question, sir? If you wouldn't
mind stepping up to the podium. I take it that some of the tests that
you were alluding to are on this chemical agent that's been mixed in
with the anthrax to modify the electro-static properties of the
anthrax. Can you tell us what your preliminary investigation shows
about that? And who has the ability to alter the electro-static
properties of anthrax spores?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Well, first of all, your question is complex,
and I'd like to say that, although we may see some things on the
microscopic field that may look like foreign elements, we don't know
that they're additives, we don't know what they are, and we're
continuing to do research to find out what they possible could be.
They're unknowns to us at this present time.
Q: Can you tell us who has the ability to alter the electro-static
properties of anthrax spores in order to allow them to become more
easily aerosolized?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Sir, that's beyond my knowledge. I don't know.
Q: Isn't it limited to a very small number of countries?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: I don't know, sir.
Q: -- sophisticated product? Are you looking at a sophisticated
product, essentially?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: What the General is trying to relate to you is that
this still has -- there's a series of tests that need to be conducted
by these men, who are far better equipped intellectually and by
experience, to draw some conclusions from those results. And the fact
of the matter is, we don't have all the information available to us
yet to draw any of the conclusions to answer some of the questions
you're asking.
Q: When you say they're from the same -- all letters are from the same
strain or family, how much does that really narrow this down?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Not much.
Q: Not much?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I don't think. I mean, I've got -- my sense is, it
doesn't narrow it much at all. My brother and I are from the same
family. So it means, it's a very broad and genetic classification.
But, apparently, there are several strains available for research
around the world.
Q: Can you tell us which strain it is, sir? And does the fact that
these are a little bit --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Ames strain.
Q: And can you tell us -- let me just finish my question. If you could
tell us, since these are a little bit different in their qualities,
does that suggest that these letters came from different people?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Well, right now, first of all, you should know that,
even though preliminary tests on The New York Post letter shows it to
be of a different quality and, I guess, more readily in clumps than
the other, it is still highly concentrated. And I don't think, to
date, with the preliminary tests, we can point to one source or
multiple sources.
Q: Yes, sir. Two children, according to various -- including The New
York Times, Agence France Presse, have been checked into Children's
Hospital -- a girl age 2, a boy age 11, with, apparently, anthrax-like
symptoms. Do you know anything about it?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I do not. And what hospital?
Q: Children's Hospital in Washington.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Children's in Washington? I do not know that.
Q: Governor, a non-scientific question. Chances are that the person or
persons who did this would be inclined to follow every briefing, every
statement. That said, what would your message be to the person or
persons who have sent this stuff?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: We'll find you. We'll bring you to justice.
You know, trying to think the way some individual who would use the
United States mail service and take an envelope and turn it into a
weapon of terror, it's pretty difficult for me to be able to, I
suspect, to be able to communicate with that individual on any terms
and within a value system that we share in this country. So I'm not
sure we could communicate to him in a democratic, American way, how we
feel about him and how we feel about this incident. But we'll get him.
Q: Governor Ridge, there have been reports recently of tensions
between the FBI, CDC and other federal agencies over the sharing of
information or full disclosure of information on the quality of
anthrax in the Daschle letter. Could you address that, please? And
also, could you tell us a little more about the meeting last night at
the White House?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Yes. First of all, you know that as Director of
Homeland Security, I interact with these agencies on a daily basis, if
not an hourly basis. And I would tell you from day one, there has been
collaboration and coordination, and every day it continues to
accelerate as the circumstances of the threat bring people and people
closer together.
There has -- everybody is intensely working on this issue. There has
been extraordinary collaboration. There has been new relationships
that have developed. And I thought it was important to have the
meeting last night not just with the principals, but with the
scientists that we're all relying upon, in order to consolidate
whatever information we have, and to see if we can further accelerate
the process of answering the questions that America seeks from the
administration.
And I thought it was a very productive meeting. They have been working
together, side by side. They will continue to work together. There's
intense effort to collaborate. We live in a virtual world, but we
can't always come up with virtual answers. And so, there's a process
that goes along with trying to answer the questions that you and the
rest of America has. But their coordination is fine. Maybe last night
accelerated it even further. But it's not a question -- they share
information; I assure you.
Q: You said a few moments ago that this was intended as a weapon,
whoever sent this intended it to be used as a weapon. Does that meet
your definition of weapons?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I don't use that word, because I don't think
"weaponize" has any medical or scientific value. I mean, we never
thought a 747 could be turned into a missile. But someone who took an
instrument that's part of who we are and what we do every day, an
airplane, turned it into a weapon. Somebody took an envelope and
turned it into a weapon.
Q: What I'm getting at is, based on what you know to this point, can
you put into context how lethal this -- how concentrated, how pure,
how dangerous this was --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: It is -- it was not contaminated, which meant that the
mass -- again, the General could answer this better -- but as I
understand it, explained to me as a layman, and relate to people who
don't have a background in microbiology or chemistry -- but as I
understand it, if you took a look at the spores under the microscope,
there was not any extraneous material. It was very pure. Practically
everything you saw, every -- was an anthrax spore, and it was of such
a size that with -- it was respirable; that if it was given a little
energy, it could get up into the air.
Q: I just want to clarify something from an earlier question. The fact
is much of what you've told us here today we've already heard from
other sources, and the debate over "weaponized," whether or not you
want to use that word, has been going on for some time. But I just
want to be clear --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I don't want to use it, so there's no debate with me.
It adds no scientific -- you could put this on the head of a missile,
you could put it in an envelope, you could distribute it other ways.
So it can -- anthrax, itself, is a weapon. I'm sorry.
Q: My question is, if you, standing in front of us, are the definitive
voices on anthrax, and you cannot even tell us, based on what you've
discovered so far, the countries that can produce this strain and
whether or not we can rule any of these countries out, be it Iraq,
Russia, or the United States?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: We know it's -- I do not know. It is a an Ames strain
-- look, there are other characteristics that may be discovered in the
course of this investigation that may lead this government and our
scientists to further conclusions. Right now, I'm not prepared because
we don't have the answers.
Q: -- characteristics to the strain developed by those countries,
military --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I don't know.
Q: Governor, given all the things that are on your plate, Governor
Ridge, given all the things that are on your plate, is your day
defined more by facts you know, that expand what you know, or is it
defined more by questions that expand what you don't know?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: It's a little bit of both. I mean, there are questions
that I seek in my capacity as Director of Homeland Security that I
ask, just because of information that comes across my desk. There's
also information that I receive that's unsolicited that expands my
knowledge as well. So, I mean, I think it's a little bit of a
combination of both.
Q: Do you have any preliminary idea -- forget which country or what
the strain is -- do you have any preliminary idea about whether or not
this is something that would have had to have been produced by a large
organization such as a state, or if it's something that could possibly
have been cooked up in a laboratory somewhere in Trenton?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I'm not prepared to tell you today the range of
potential actors who could have -- the range of potential actors who
could have created as pure and as concentrated and as respirable an
anthrax as we are working on and investigating now. I don't know
whether it's a large range or a narrow range.
Q: But do you know and you won't tell us, or -- I mean, isn't this
information that the government has?
Q: -- you and the government intentionally downplay the threat to the
American public? And why, over time, have your statements changed
about what the American public should be worried about?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: The information in the literature on anthrax that
existed before this threat suggested the only way you can get
inhalational anthrax -- that it would be much easier to get
inhalational anthrax if the spores were smaller. And we not only have
cases of anthrax, but we also have fatalities. So, based on the
literature that existed, and even prior to the testing, that confirmed
our worst suspicions that this was a different kind and a different
grade of anthrax. It had to be -and so we shared that information with
you. We shared it with the people on the Hill.
We run through a series of tests. The test tells us very specifically,
the anthrax spores are not only smaller and concentrated, they are
very pure. There are still some additional tests to be run on these
individual spores. When we get additional information, I'll --
Q: What about --
Q: Governor, is there --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Thank you.
(end White House transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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