ABC Radio reports, "Field tests indicate a white powder found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's mail room may be the poison Ricin." ABC adds, "The Senate will be in business this morning, but Senators cannot get into their offices."
CBS Radio (2/3) reports this morning, "Capitol Hill offices of most members of Congress will be closed at least for time today amid the discovery of a suspicious powder in mail delivered to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frists's office. It has tested positive as ricin, a deadly poison."
AP
The AP (2/3, Holland) reports, "The Senate majority leader's office apparently has suffered its second bioterror attack in three years, with another suspicious white powder delivered through the mail system -- this time laced with poisonous ricin, officials said. 'This is a criminal action,' said Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose staff discovered the white powder in their Dirksen Senate Office Building mailroom Monday afternoon. Sixteen people on the floor were decontaminated, and others who might have been in the area were urged to contact Senate officials, Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer told reporters at a late Monday night news conference. However, no one was expected to get sick, said Frist." According to the AP, "The Homeland Security Department was monitoring the situation, spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. An FBI official said the agency was awaiting a final test from a laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., before deciding whether to get more fully involved in the case."
USA Today
USA Today (2/3, Vanden Brook) reports, "Chief Terrance Gainer said at a news conference. 'We have had several confirmations that it is ricin,' Gainer said. ... The Centers for Disease Control said that reports have shown that ricin was found in caves used by al- Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan."
Washington Post
The Washington Post (2/3, A1, Weil) reports, "Witnesses said that several people apparently had undergone decontamination last night in a van parked outside the building and that as many as 40 people in all would undergo the process before being sent home. Three people who had apparently gone through the van came out into the cold late last night in T-shirts and pants; the fourth was wearing a white jumpsuit. One ran down the block and into the Dirksen building. According to officials, the powder was discovered in Room 454, which was described as a mailroom that is part of Frist's offices. At first, according to accounts from witnesses, officials displayed some uncertainty as to the seriousness of the problem. A member of Frist's staff said that an interoffice e-mail sent about 3 p.m. told everyone to stay put. It was followed an hour later by a message declaring everything was all right. Around 6:30 p.m., 10 or so Frist staff members who were at work were led out of their office and into an Appropriations Committee room. Late last night, a few members of Frist's staff were being held in his office, a Senate source said."
NY Times
The New York Times (2/3, Hulse) reports, "Officials said that the ventilation system had been shut down and that the mail room workers had been moved elsewhere in the building for medical supervision and decontamination. Dr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon who wrote a book advising the public on how to prepare for a bioterror attack, said no one had shown signs of sickness. 'Most importantly, nobody has been hurt,' Dr. Frist said. An official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday night that if the case appeared to be a criminal or terrorist act against a member of Congress, the bureau was prepared to begin an investigation."
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