Officials Prepare to Check for Anthrax

BOCA RATON, Fla. —  FBI agents and scientists ran through decontamination drills Thursday before a planned search of the quarantined headquarters of the National Enquirer for clues in last year’s anthrax attack.

The teams planned to enter the building today of tabloid publisher American Media Inc. to take thousands of samples and search for the letter or package that brought anthrax spores into the property, killing a photo editor.

The FBI wants to compare the samples to the anthrax-tainted letters mailed last fall to the Washington offices of U.S. Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

The fenced-off parking lot, mostly vacant since the publisher’s headquarters was quarantined Oct. 7, is filled with mobile police units, tents, trailers and a row of portable toilets.

In the decontamination drills, workers in white protective suits, boots and air masks are washed with a bleach mixture after they drop off tools and samples, police Cmdr. Maria Maughan said. The air inside the tent surrounding them is monitored for signs of anthrax.

Photo editor Bob Stevens, 63, died and a mailroom employee was hospitalized for weeks in the nation’s first anthrax attack. Anthrax also was sent through the mail to media outlets in New York and a congressional building in Washington, killing four others and sickening more than a dozen people.

After it was quarantined, American Media leased nearby offices to publish its six tabloids, including the Enquirer, Globe and Weekly World News.