Washington — A suspicious powder was found in an envelope opened Thursday in the Capitol building office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., briefly reviving fears of another anthrax attack. But preliminary tests indicated the material posed no danger, and authorities said they suspect the letter was a hoax.
Capitol police spokesman Lt. Dan Nichols said the envelope also contained a "threatening note," but declined to offer additional details, saying the matter is now the focus of a criminal investigation.
Capitol Hill police officers stand guard outside the Capitol after a package containing a threatening note and a powdery substance surfaced in Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle's Capitol office. Officials said Thursday that initial tests were negative for hazardous materials.
Other law enforcement officials said that whoever mailed the letter apparently attempted to mimic the handwriting on the envelope of a previous letter to Daschle that contained highly potent anthrax spores. The microbes spread through Daschle's suite in the Hart Senate Office Building prompting authorities to shut down much of the Capitol for weeks when it was opened there Oct. 15.
Unlike the original Daschle letter, which was postmarked in Trenton, N.J., this one bore a London postmark, officials said.
"Everything about this points to a hoax," one law enforcement official said.
Since the October attack, authorities have began following elaborate procedures including treating mail with radiation to protect Congress and other key federal institutions from biological attack. It was unclear Thursday how a letter containing powder and a threatening note to the Senate majority leader could have slipped through that system.
Nichols defended the screening procedures, saying they were designed to detect hazardous materials and consequently would not have picked up the apparently benign substance in the latest letter to Daschle.
"We're not looking for powder," Nichols said. "We're looking for things of a hazardous nature."
As a precaution against anthrax bacteria, all mail sent to key federal institutions identified by ZIP codes is routed through privately run facilities in Lima, Ohio, or Bridgewater, N.J., where it is treated with radiation. From there it is trucked to Washington, where it is examined by U.S. postal inspectors for signs "that may jump out as being suspicious," said U.S. Postal Inspector Dan Mihalko.
The mail is then transferred to congressional sorting facilities, where, in the case of the Senate, it undergoes additional screening by Capitol employees. The House employs a private firm, Pitney Bowes Inc., to do the same job.
Among other things, congressional aides say, the mail workers clip the corners off many envelopes to search for powder. Nichols declined to discuss specifics of the screening procedures.
Capitol police learned of the letter about 11:40 a.m., moments after it was opened by a congressional staff member in the majority leader's second-floor office suite in the Capitol. Daschle was working in the suite but was not in the room where the letter was opened. He moved to a room farther from the letter and stayed there until the tests indicated there was no threat.
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