Thomas Daschle: “2 years ago, a letter containing about 1 gram of highly concentrated anthrax was opened in my office in the Hart Senate…”

“2 years ago, a letter containing about 1 gram of highly concentrated anthrax was opened in my office in the Hart Senate Office Building. Potentially deadly anthrax letters were also mailed, apparently by the same person or persons, to my dear friend and colleague, Senator Patrick Leahy, and to several news organizations. Two years later, all of those crimes remain unsolved. The anthrax attack on the Senate remains the largest bioterrorism attack ever on U.S. soil. Here in the Senate my staff and members of Senator Feingold's staff were exposed to up to 3,000 times the lethal dose of anthrax. The entire Hart Senate Office Building was closed for 3 months while scientists searched for a way to do something that had never been done before: To reclaim a building that had been badly contaminated by anthrax. We all remember those times. Coming less than 5 weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the anthrax attacks of 2001 sometimes made it seem as if none of us was safe anywhere. As traumatic as the anthrax attacks were for the people of Capitol Hill, we were actually the fortunate ones. Before those deadly letters arrived in the Senate, they traveled through the U.S. mail where they left a deadly trail. Five innocent people died and still more innocent people suffer today from serious health and debilitating problems resulting from their exposure to the anthrax letters. All too often, they are the forgotten victims of the anthrax attacks on America.”