Ponds used to process anthrax letters says report

WASHINGTON - Anthrax that killed five people in 2001 after it was sent through the United States mail may have been placed in envelopes by someone using a pond as a processing facility, the Washington Post reported.

The newspaper cited investigators as saying the Federal Bureau of Investigation was mulling a new theory in which the perpetrator placed the anthrax bacteria into envelopes while working from a partially submerged airtight chamber in ponds in Frederick, Maryland, near Washington, DC.

Shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington several letters containing anthrax spores were mailed through a New Jersey postal centre to news media offices in Washington, New York and Florida.

Anthrax-laced letters were also sent to the offices of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, both Democrats.

Among the five who died were two US Postal Service workers at the Brentwood mail facility in Washington.

No arrests have been made and some law-enforcement agencies have said they thought the crimes were the work of a disaffected individual, and not linked to al Qaeda, the group accused of carrying out the September 11 attacks.

The Post reported that handling anthrax in water could provide some natural protection against self-contamination as well as a convenient place to dump materials used to handle the anthrax.

The newspaper said the FBI planned to drain a pond soon to search for evidence.

- REUTERS