- Group Says Government Had Braced In Advance For Anthrax
Attacks
-
- A conservative group is suing the Bush administration
for access to documents about last fall's anthrax attacks, asserting that
top officials might have known the bioterrorist attack was coming.
-
- Judicial Watch said yesterday it has yet to receive documents
from several agencies after filing requests under the Freedom of Information
Act. The group says the documents will show who knew what, and when.
-
- Judicial Watch, which also has sued for documents about
Vice President Cheney's energy task force, represents U.S. postal workers
at the Brentwood post office in the District. Two workers from Brentwood
died of inhalation anthrax before officials closed the site, which had
handled anthrax-laden letters headed to Capitol Hill.
-
- Larry Klayman, chairman of Judicial Watch, said administration
officials said last fall that some White House staff members had begun
taking the antibiotic Cipro on Sept. 11, weeks before the anthrax attacks
were made public.
-
- "We believe that the White House knew or had reason
to know that an anthrax attack was imminent or underway," Klayman
said. "We want to know what the government knew and when they knew
it."
-
- "We did not know about the anthrax attacks. Period!"
said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.
-
- Johndroe said he did not know why staffers were given
Cipro but guessed it was "a precautionary measure in the early hours
of Sept. 11 before the situation could be fully assessed."
-
- He said he has not seen the lawsuit and had no comment
on whether the administration would release the documents.
-
- Judicial Watch is suing the U.S. Postal Service, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI, the Department of
Health and Human Services and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases.
-
- Federal agencies have come under fire for failing to
realize that the postal workers at Brentwood were at risk for anthrax even
after an anthrax letter was discovered on Capitol Hill and treatment had
begun for Senate staffers. Health officials have said they did not realize
then that anthrax could have escaped a sealed envelope.
-
- Klayman said the mistake goes beyond a bad judgment call.
-
- "They deliberately withheld information," he
said. "The political elite, they'll be protected from day one. The
ordinary folks will be treated in a lesser fashion."
-
-
- © 2002 The Washington Post Company
|
