U.S. Capitol Temporarily Closed

`Anthrax Scares` are spreading out rapidly throughout the United States as the U.S. Capital complex is temporarily closed for anthrax bacteria were found in the Senate Office Building and part of Los Angeles International Airport was closed after the discovery of a unknown white powder.

Terminals of Los Angeles International Airport were closed for a while on Oct. 17 as a suspicious while power was found at a departure gate of Singapore Air Line at Tom Bradley Terminal. The power turned out having nothing to do to with anthrax, but the passengers experienced inconvenience as the departure and the arrival of international flights were disturbed.

The New York Times reported on Oct. 18 that in Capitol Hill, anthrax spores were discovered in the Senate Hart Office Building, a Senate Hall, where Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle1s office is located and in the Dirkson Building, another Senate Hall.

The U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Haster had a news conference on Oct. 17 and said that Congress would be closed from the evening of the day till Oct. 23 as the Capital staffs tested positive for exposure to anthrax and a suspicious letter was discovered in the room of his assistant.

The House of Representatives is planning to performed anthrax tests on all facilities of the Capitol complex. The Senate closed three congressional buildings but decided to remain in business.

Anthrax tests were performed on some1,400 Senate personnel and some 400 House personnel as 31 Capitol workers, that is, 23 workers at Senate Majority Leader Daschle`s office, 3 at Sen. Russell Paynegold`s office and 5 Congress policemen, were found infected with anthrax.

Thus the number of anthrax victims increased to 47 as of Oct. 17, that is, 1 death, 3 anthrax patients and 43 anthrax positive.

New York Governor George Pataki said that anthrax spores were discovered in the New York State Police Station Manhattan.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Oct. 17 that the test result on the anthrax bacteria discovered so far showed that the anthrax bacteria mailed to New York NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw`s office and the ones delivered to the America Media (AMI) were the same.

A possibility is being raised that the same person or the same group could sent the mails containing anthrax bacteria to New York, Washington and Florida for the mail delivered to Brokaw and the one to Daschle were similar to each other in their postmark, handwriting style and the content.

The U.S. health officials is tracing the origin of the anthrax bacteria in question by inquiring from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and working on comparing them with the samples of anthrax bacteria from countries that are able to bio-weapons, including Iraq.

Meanwhile, the U.S. forces attacked targets in Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif on Oct. 17 with 95 fighter-bombers and a Air Force Special Forces AC-130 gunship, and continued to pounded Kabul on Oct. 18 with fighter-jets.

The U.S. President George W. Bush alluded to the imminence of ground operations on Oct. 17, saying ``(By attacking Afghanistan hitherto) We`re paving the way for `friendly troops on the ground` to slowly but surely tighten the net to bring them to justice.``

Han Ki-Heung eligius@donga.com