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White House Facility Contaminated by Anthrax
An off-site mail screening facility for the White House was confirmed Tuesday with anthrax contamination, bringing a new panic to the capital.
The facility is at a military installation miles from the White House, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer at a hastily arranged briefing. The facility has been closed for further testing an decontamination.
All workers in the facility and mail handlers in the White House are being tested for exposure to anthrax.
Fleischer also said that all environmental tests at the White House itself had so far come back negative. The White House is confident it does not have anthrax spores in light of the tight security precautions in place, Fleischer said.
In all, officials have tallied a suspected three deaths and nine other confirmed infections from anthrax nationwide, including six cases of the skin variety and the other three the more dangerous inhalation type.
Nearly six weeks after terrorists hijacked airliners and struck New York and Washington, and with American warplanes bombing Afghanistan, the US was fighting two fronts in the same war.
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