Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, October 29, 2001, Page 8, Image 8

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    UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
CAREER
Explore your options.
Find your direction.
Now is the time.
The Career Development Internship Program (CDIP)
provides a unique opportunity for
undergraduates to explore their career options. Intern
ships are available in a variety of areas. Now is the
time to get started! Interview sign-ups will take place
at the upcoming orientation, and
attendance is required in order to participate. Join us,
and see where you can go with an internship!
CDIP Orientation Session:
October 29, 2001 - 3:30-5pm
EMU Fir Room
Practice
Made Perfect
Bastyr is known worldwide for our innovative graduate
programs in the natural health sciences. We prepare you
for rewarding careers in complementary and alternative
medicine. Learn to make a difference.
Learn more about our graduate programs:
Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine
Naturopathic Medicine
Nutrition
Baffled by anthrax,
officials start search
for saliva on letters
By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON (KRT) — Gov
ernment officials voiced fear Sun
day that more anthrax-tainted let
ters might be working their way
through the postal system as inves
tigators remained baffled about the
source of the deadly mail.
“We don’t know how many let
ters there might be. We don’t have
any evidence to believe there are
lots of letters, but we are being
very, very careful,” White House
chief of staff Andy Card said.
In a development that under
scored the potential threat, the
Centers for Disease Control con
firmed Sunday that a New Jersey
postal worker had contracted in
halation anthrax. The female vic
tim worked at a major processing
facility in Hamilton that handled
contaminated letters sent to Sen
ate Majority Leader Tom Daschle,
NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and the
New York Post. Another worker at
the facility also is suspected to
have inhalation anthrax.
It was the eighth confirmed case
of inhalation anthrax, the deadliest
form of the disease. Five other vic
tims have contracted less serious
anthrax skin infections. Three peo
ple have died from inhalation an
thrax — two Washington postal
workers and an employee at a
tabloid newspaper in Florida.
Although Card repeatedly called
the anthrax mailings a “terrorist at
tack,” he acknowledged that feder
al investigators have no idea who
is behind them. Three weeks after
the first anthrax case surfaced in
Florida, the FBI and the CIA have
not agreed on which theory to pur
sue.
Card disputed a Washington
Post report that investigators be
lieve that the mailings were the
work of a domestic terrorist.
After a weekend with no re
ports of new anthrax outbreaks,
authorities braced for the possi
bility that this week’s mail could
bring more bad news. Although
postal officials have not found
additional anthrax-tainted letters,
they remained on guard.
Reports of suspicious letters
and hoax calls have been pouring
into the Postal Service at a rate of
about 600 a day. There are only
about 2,000 postal inspectors na
tionwide to handle the calls and
to continue the anthrax investiga
tion with the FBI.
Postal inspectors will seek
more clues this week in the an
thrax-tainted mail that was sent
to Fort Detrick, Md., for testing,
as well as in the truckloads of
other mail diverted from Con
gress to a plant in Lima, Ohio, to
be decontaminated with electron
beams normally used to sterilize
hospital equipment.
Among other possible clues, in
vestigators hope to get a DNA
sample from a licked envelope or
stamp.
In Miami, FBI spokeswoman
Judy Orihuela said that tests for
anthrax in cars that had been
owned by two of the Sept. 11 hi
jackers came back negative. Mo
hamed Atta and Marwan al Shehhi
sold the cars about a week before
the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.
To guard against future out
breaks, postal officials signed a $40
million contract for equipment
that sanitizes mail with electron
beams, but it will not be delivered
until November. The first ma
chines will be installed in Wash
ington.
Traces of the lethal bacteria have
been found at remote mail centers
serving the White House, the
Supreme Court, the State Depart
ment and the CIA. Some contami
nated House and Senate office
buildings were expected to remain
closed when Congress returned to
work on Monday.
More than 20,000 postal work
ers, congressional aides and others
who might have come in contact
with anthrax have been given an
tibiotics to counteract the bacteria.
Card, the highest-ranking
White House aide, used the.Sun
day talk show circuit to defend
the Bush administration’s, han
dling of the anthrax scare. Critics
contend that administration offi
cials downplayed the seriousness
of the threat, offered misleading
information and were slow to
protect postal workers.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said
the White House also gave the “ap
pearance of a double standard” by
moving swiftly to protect senior
government workers while postal
employees remained at risk.
Card said government officials
are doing the best they can with
the little information available to
them.
“We have a brand new threat to
this country that almost no one
could have anticipated,” he said.
“The early days of any battle intro
duce what’s called the fog of war,
and we’re still looking through
that fog to find the truth.”
Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondents
Tony Pugh, Lenny Savino and Tom Avril
contributed to this report. © 2001, Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
University events
Wednesday, Oct. 31
Brown Bag: Center tor the Study of
Women in Society presents Connie
Dickinson, linguistics graduate
student, discussing “Star Woman and
Female Shamans: The Representation
of Women i n Tsaeht Narratives ”
l\loon-1 p.m. 330 Hendricks. Free, For
information, browse
http://csws.uore8on.edu/ or call 346
5015.
Teach-In: Political science and ASUO
present "After September 11" with
Christine Kearney, Ronald Mitchell and
Dennis Galvan of political science,
leading a discussion on "The Clash of
Civilizations?” 3:30-5 p.m. 110
Fenton. Free. For information, browse
iittp^/{jarkwing.yoregon.edu/~polisci/
teach-in/ or call 346-4626
or 346-4864.
Thursday, Nov. 1
ITC Workshop: Kathy Heerema
presents “PowerPoint Basics,” a
workshop teaching howto create
dynamic lectures or presentations
with Microsoft PowerPoint. fTC
workshops are open to faculty, staff,
and currency enrolled students.
Seating is available first come, first
served. Free. 2-3:50 p.m. ITC
Classroom, 267B Knight Library.
campus just north of Seattle
BASTYR
UNIVERSITY
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