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Postal workers line up outside DC General Hospital, Tuesday, October 24, 2001, to be tested for anthrax in the wake of contaminated letters, photo by chuck kennedy/krt campus Anthrax Two employees still hospitalized CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Six weeks after terrorists killed thousands in Washington and New York, administration offi cials drew a rhetorical connection to the outbreak of anthrax. The FBI released the text of three an thrax-tainted letters - each of them dated Sept. 11, the date that hi jackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Bush believes the spread of an thrax “is another example of how this is a two-front war: that there are people who would seek to do evil to this country, that there are people who mean us harm,” Fleischer said. “And they have mailed letters, obviously, to high impact places - the news media, to Majority Leader (Tom) Daschle, perhaps, in this case, to the White House.” The administration has been buffeted by criticism for waiting several days after the discovery of the letter addressed to Daschle before ordering testing at the cen tral postal facility for the nation’s capital. Without acknowledging any shortcomings, several offi cials pointed to changes in their outlook. “We’re going to err on the side of caution in making sure people are protected,” said Thompson. “When a case of anthrax does emerge, we will immediately move in at any and all postal fa cilities that might have handled that piece of mail,” he said. Koplan, appearing before a sep arate panel, said, “the public health system of the United States is severely challenged at this mo ment.” The latest evidence of that was in Washington and New Jersey, at postal facilities known to have processed one or more anthrax tainted letters in the past few weeks. Both were closed after the presence of anthrax was detected. Postal Service Vice President Deborah Willhite said the Washington facility was “a crime scene because someone has been murdered.” There, officials confirmed two postal worker deaths due to an thrax and said the disease had sent more to the hospital. Thousands more mail employees were doing tests and taking an tibiotics. District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams said final lab oratory results confirmed in halation anthrax as the cause of death of two men who worked at the city’s main Brentwood postal facility. Other officials said two more employees remain hospi talized with the disease and that anthrax was suspected in an ad ditional four cases. Anthrax laced mail delivered last week to Daschle’s office was postmarked in Trenton, N.J., and went through the Brentwood facility. “We do not need further test ing,” said Dr. Ivan Walks, the city’s top health official. “But we need to treat. And we need to treat quickly.” He urged anyone who visited the back area of the cen tral mail facility to come in for an tibiotics. Earlier, New Jersey officials announced that a woman had been hospitalized in the Trenton area and was presumed to be suf fering from the inhalation form of the disease. “She’s holding her own,” said Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, the state epidemiologist. The woman, whose name was not released, works at a Trenton area postal facility believed to have processed at least three an thrax-laced letters - one to Daschle, the second to NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw and the third to the New York Post. Still later, officials in Montgomery County, Md., said they suspected anthrax in the case of two postal workers from Brentwood, both of whom were being treated at a local hospital. And state officials in Towson, Md., said one patient at a separate hos pital is suspected to have the dis ease. The FBI released copies of the spiked letters mailed to Daschle, Brokaw and the New York Post. All three contained anti American and anti-Israeli mes sages. “You can not stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great,” said the letter to Daschle. / , Fake attack scares officials Military didn’t warn officials about ‘attack’ on nuclear plant RALEIGH, N.C. — A special op erations mock attack on a nu clear power plant just days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks alarmed officials in two states be cause the military didn’t notify them. The unannounced exercise in cluded soldiers rappelling from helicopters and small arms fire around the Duke Energy Co.’s Catawba Nuclear Power Plant at York, S.C. A Duke Energy spokesman said Monday the company still doesn’t know what was going on. “We were not part of an exer cise, and there was no contact made with the station,” said Joseph Maher. Fighter jets from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina were scrambled to check reports of an assault on the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, The News & Observer in Raleigh reported Tuesday. Later that night, the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management’s command center in Raleigh received unconfirmed information that it had been a U.S. military special forces oper ation, according to a report made available Monday. The Department of Defense ap parently forgot to advise regional authorities of the exercise, North Carolina emergency manage ment reported. “This could have been a cata strophic event,” the emergency management report said. Word of the exercise began about 8 p.m. Sept. 15, when peo ple called Rock Hill police to say four or five helicopters were fly ing low near Interstate 77, fol lowing the Catawba River north toward the nuclear power plant. City police officers saw the air craft in the distance but couldn’t identify them, police Capt. Charles Cabaness said. The county’s emergency oper ations center couldn’t reach the helicopters on any radio channel and learned that air traffic con trollers at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport couldn’t reach them, either. By midnight, eight state and federal agencies, including the FBI, had been notified and were looking into the scare. Carolina Power & Light secu rity personnel also monitored the situation, concerned that there might be security breaches at oth er nuclear plants. Duke and CP&L have nuclear plants in both states. By 5 a.m., FBI agents told local officials they had determined the power plant was not under at tack, according to the report. Maj. Gary Kolb, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, said the helicopters were not from that base or involved in any exercise there. He said Army special forces normally notify re gional civilian authorities ahead of any urban training. Some law enforcement and emergency management officials are concerned about not being no tified, especially on the heels of the attacks in New York and Washington. “It wasn’t a good time for the military to do whatever they were doing,” said Cotton Howell, York County’s emergency man agement director. “Their timing was real bad.” “It wasn’t a good time for the military to do whatever they were doing. Their timing was real bad.” COTTON HOWELL YORK COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR USG BRIEFS • Career seminars held for students Liberal Arts Career Week activities held at the Career Center this week will help students gain information on finding jobs, determining reaistic salaries and first year job survival. Remaining seminars for the week will be held in Career Center room 602B. They include: ♦ “Are.You Salary Savvy?” Wed, Oct. 24,2:30-3:30 p.m. ♦ “An Offer You Can’t Refuse!” Wed, Oct. 24,5:30-6:30 p.m. ♦ “Paying Your Dues!” Thur, Oct. 25,3:30-4:30 p.m. Journalism college honors alumni The USC College of Journalism and Mass Communications honored Robert M. Hitt, III and John K. DeCrosta at the Distinguished Alumni luncheon on Friday, Oct. 18. ■ Hitt, a 1973 bachelor’s degree graduate of USC and the manager of public affairs at BMW Manufacturing Corporation in Greenville, received the 2001 Distinguished Alumnus Award. DeCrosta, a 1991 master’s degree graduate and director of legislative affairs for APL, Ltd. in Washington, D.C., received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. Lecturer to speak at USC law library The College of Liberal Arts will feature archi tectural historian Richard Guy Wilson at its annual Townsend Lecture. The lecture will be held on Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. in the USC School of Law Library, and is free and open to the public. Wilson will discuss the question, “Is There a Southern Architecture?” He is the Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History and chairman of the department of history at the University of Virginia, specializing in architecture, design and art from the 18th and 20th centuries. THE •GAMECOCK We’ve got use covered. Palmetto Slide ‘6.95 ^ MUSic « • New and Used Instruments <-'V /\ / % • Lessons • CD's, Tapes, & Books • Accessories 710 Meeting Street PICKIN’'PARLOR West Columbia 796-6477 « www.billsmusicshop.com_ i ■ FIT P—: : AVAIIMME TO RENT ON ¥IKO or own on mm October zm REGENCY EN1ERPBISES phswb h HEW BlCENOf/MBSl miwnn 1DM GlltEN 'll! Iflfll' fill MU mmmm mimi in -wim jmisjb jiwhii! mgliK llUtst/nst W Ml "MI/1 UiEM HMIIHB^IHKHI mzm § bk-— pas- "UHIKH 3SL www.freddygotfingereddvd.coni l™'.**■"?*R‘rr;'T.'^**:c**"-s,