[Reuters - 10/30/01] WASHINGTON - Some 250 U.S. abortion clinics have received mailed anthrax threats since Oct. 15, but none of the powder-laden letters has tested positive for the deadly bacteria, clinic security experts said on Tuesday.
Such threats by mail are nothing new for groups like Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Feminist Majority Foundation and the National Abortion Federation, where the threat of anthrax contamination has been a concern since 1998.
But the number escalated sharply at mid-October -- from 10 to 30 a year, to 250 in two weeks -- in what officials of these groups see as a coordinated campaign.
In similarly typed letters with bogus return addresses of either "U.S. Secret Service" or "U.S. Marshall Service," the mailing to clinics postmarked Oct. 12 and Oct. 13 had a note on the left-lower corner of the envelopes reading "TIME SENSITIVE: Urgent Security Notice Enclosed."
Inside all the envelopes was white powder and a letter that began, "You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you. Army of God, Virginia DARE Chapter," the clinic security officials said in telephone interviews.
The Army of God is a militant anti-abortion group linked to killing doctors and bombing abortion clinics.
No clinic worker has been harmed by the mailings and no anthrax has been detected in tests of the white powder.
There is no direct link between these letters and the hand-printed missives that are tied to more than a dozen confirmed U.S. cases of anthrax.
But Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation that represents many clinics, saw a parallel between those who launched the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) and those who threaten abortion clinics.
'IN THE NAME OF GOD'
"We don't see a whole lot of difference between domestic terrorists who are sending these letters and murdering people, supposedly in the name of God, and Islamic terrorists who are committing acts of terror in the name of God," Saporta said in a telephone interview. "Both need to be stopped."
Saporta said her federation has been contacted by companies and local government agencies around the country, looking to emulate abortion clinics' security measures in the time of anthrax anxiety.
Margaret Moore, who used to investigate abortion clinic attacks for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, now directs law enforcement operations for the Feminist Majority Foundation's National Clinic Access Project.
Under safety protocols in place for the last three years, many clinic workers routinely wear plastic gloves and masks when they go through the mail, Moore said by telephone.
"When they see something suspicious, they put it down, put it in a plastic bag, go wash their hands and call 911," Moore said. "After that, they will call the FBI (news - web sites) and then they will call us, and we'll coordinate generally with law enforcement."
Moore, Saporta and Ann Glazier, director of security for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said they met last week with Ruben Garcia, the FBI's point-person on the anthrax scare. The FBI indicated it would conduct a national investigation of the 250 clinic letters, Glazier said.
"The FBI has experience investigating the Army of God," Saporta said, adding that one member of the group was James Kopp, wanted in the sniper killing of Dr. Barnett Slepian, who performed abortions in Buffalo, New York.
Eric Rudolph, charged in the fatal bombings at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics and at a Birmingham, Alabama, clinic in 1998, has also been linked to the Army of God.
"One of the biggest problems at Planned Parenthood is recognizing that what our anti-choice extremists say they will do, they will do," Glazier said.
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[posted 11/8/01]
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