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Postal Workers Sue Over Anthrax Probe Wes Vernon, NewsMax.comWASHINGTON – Five federal agencies are being sued for withholding documents concerning the terrorist anthrax attacks of October 2001. Additionally, the White House is being asked to explain what information led it to order its staff to take a strong antibiotic before the anthrax letters reached Capitol Hill. Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm, is taking legal action against the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the U.S. Postal Service. The suit, filed on behalf of hundreds of postal employees who worked at the facility contaminated by the anthrax letters, alleges these agencies have not complied with requests for information on the attack. The legal action was filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). And this is just the beginning. Judicial Watch has additional anthrax-related FOIA requests pending with the White House and other government agencies that the firm says "will see legal action in the next two weeks.” The complaint makes an allegation that, if true, would constitute a classic case of bureaucratic privilege over average citizens. Capitol Hill workers received prompt medical care after the anthrax letters reached the offices of Sens. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. At the same time, workers at the Brentwood Postal Facility in Washington were ordered by the Postal Service to continue working in the contaminated facility. Two Brentwood workers died from inhalation anthrax. Dozens more are still suffering from ailments related to the anthrax attacks. "A variety of legal actions are being planned for the disparate treatment and reckless endangerment the Brentwood postal workers faced,” says Judicial Watch. The firm is also "aggressively pursuing” disclosure of what facts led to the decision for White House staff, and President Bush as well, to begin taking the antibiotic Cipro nearly a month before anthrax was detected on Capitol Hill. Press reports in October indicated the staff at the White House had been on Cipro since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "The American people deserve a full accounting from the Bush administration, the FBI, and other agencies concerning anthrax attacks,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman. "One doesn’t simply start taking a powerful antibiotic for no good reason. The American people are entitled to know what the White House staffers knew nine months ago.” One anticipated explanation is that 9-11 prompted the White House to take preventive measures to protect the president from any possible threat. If that’s true, Judicial Watch apparently is arguing the public should have been informed as well. However, to date there has been no explanation given by the White House. Judicial Watch will likely have to do a lot of digging before such an explanation is forthcoming. Attorney General John Ashcroft, right after Sept. 11, circulated a memo throughout the government urging that opfficials drag their feet on FOIA requests and saying if that means a court battle, so be it. Klayman notes the FBI investigation into the anthrax attacks "seems to have dead-ended, and frankly, that is not very reassuring given their performance with the September 11th hijackers.”
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