Statement from Postmaster General on the Tenth Anniversary of the Anthrax Crisis
Filed under: anthrax, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
Ten years ago America experienced the unthinkable when anthrax was sent through the U.S. Mail and caused the death of five individuals, including two postal employees, and caused illness in others.
In the decade since this tragedy, the Postal Service decontaminated and renovated affected facilities, deployed state-of-the-art technology to detect and protect against potential threats and implemented educational programs for our employees and the mailing community.
The anthrax crisis served as a defining moment for the Postal Service and due to the unwavering dedication and commitment of Postal employees across the nation, the mail continued to move.
As we observe the 10-year anniversary of the anthrax crisis, we also acknowledge the more than 550,000 employees who continue to work tirelessly to process, deliver and protect the U.S. Mail — maintaining the public’s safety, confidence and trust in the U.S. Postal Service.
Postal Worker Exposed To Anthrax Facing Different Dilemma Over Transfer Request
Filed under: anthrax, letters to editor, postal, postal news, usps
Patrick O’Donnell was one of the postal workers infected in October 2001 when anthrax showed up at the Hamilton, New Jersey regional distribution center in mail headed for the U.S. Senate. Now 10 years later, O’Donnell is facing a different dilemma. Read more
Postal Workers Upset With USPS Following Incendiary Letter Incidents
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) — Post office employees say it took 45 minutes before police stepped in and evacuated the facility on V Street, SE.
“An employee yelled out that a package exploded. I was probably about 25 feet away from him and all I can think of is getting my coat and warning everyone on the way out,” said James Pickett, postal worker.
But Pickett says other postal employees weren’t able to follow him out the door.
“It was some 40-45 minutes before the building was evacuated,” he said.
“An employee came outside. She was leaving. She let the District Police know what happened and that’s when they came in and evacuated the building,” said Dena Briscoe, President of Local 140 of the Postal Workers Union.
She said managers failed to follow protocol.
“The Postal service failed to share information with employees here and in ‘Curseen Morris.’ They were briefed today; this morning… [it's] very late. It is after the fact,” she said.
Postal workers say Friday’s incident reminds them of the 2001 Anthrax Attacks.
full story via WUSA TV Washington
Six Cities To Train Mail Carriers To Deliver Anti-Terror Drugs
Filed under: anthrax, letter carriers, postal, postal news, usps, white house
WASHINGTON — The Postal Service is ready to deliver lifesaving drugs to about a quarter of the residents of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the only metropolitan area in the nation where letter carriers have been trained to dispense medication after a large-scale terrorist attack involving biological weapons.
Six years after the government began exploring the idea of using postal workers as rapid-response medicine dispensers and eight months after President Obama ordered government agencies to develop a plan to do so, efforts are underway in six cities to train workers to deliver the drugs needed to counter anthrax or other potentially deadly agents, the White House says.
The White House won’t name the six cities, and Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa says she can’t talk about whether more cities are interested in the voluntary program.
The projected cost to set up the program and train postal workers: $1 million per city, according to the White House.
Full story: USA Today- 6 cities to train mail carriers to dispense anti-terror drugs
DOJ, FBI And US Postal Inspection Service Announce Formal Conclusion of Investigation Into 2001 Anthrax Attacks
The following is a press release issued by the Justice Department:
The Justice Department, FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service today announced that the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five individuals and sickened 17 others, has formally concluded.
Earlier today, representatives of the FBI and Justice Department provided a 92-page investigative summary along with attachments to victims of the attacks, relatives of the victims and appropriate committees of Congress. This document sets forth a summary of the evidence developed in the “Amerithrax” investigation, the largest investigation into a bio-weapons attack in U.S. history. As disclosed previously, the Amerithrax investigation found that the late Dr. Bruce Ivins acted alone in planning and executing these attacks.
The investigative summary and the attachments are now accessible to the public and have been posted to the Justice Department Web site at www.usdoj.gov/amerithrax under the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, roughly 2,700 pages of FBI documents related to the Amerithrax case are now accessible to the public and have been posted to the FBI website at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/amerithrax.htm under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Amerithrax Task Force, which was comprised of roughly 25 to 30 full-time investigators from the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and other law enforcement agencies, as well as federal prosecutors from the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s Counterterrorism Section, expended hundreds of thousands of investigator work hours on this case. Their investigative efforts involved more than 10,000 witness interviews on six different continents, the execution of 80 searches and the recovery of more than 6,000 items of potential evidence during the course of the investigation. The case involved the issuance of more than 5,750 grand jury subpoenas and the collection of 5,730 environmental samples from 60 site locations.