The veterans' meeting hall in rural Springfield, Louisiana, hardly looks like a place terrorists would even know about, let alone target. Even the officers who arrived there to examine a mysterious, powder-filled letter believed it was a hoax.
It turned out, it was.
""There's obviously sick people among us who think this is funny and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of it," state police Lieutenant Mike Edmonson said.
Assailing anthrax hoaxes as "no joking matter," Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday that those who perpetrate terrorist scares will be aggressively prosecuted.
False threats of anthrax attacks are "grotesque transgressions of the public trust" and tax the resources of an already overburdened law enforcement system, Ashcroft said at a news conference.
Ashcroft announced the indictment of a Connecticut man charged with making false threats after an anthrax hoax. Other arrests were reported in Colorado and Ohio. It is a federal crime to threaten to use biological agents or toxins.
Since Oct. 1, most of the 2,300 reports of substances feared to be anthrax have been false alarms or practical jokes, FBI Director Robert Mueller said.
Ashcroft highlighted the case of Joseph A. Faryniarz, 48, an employee of Connecticut's environmental agency. Faryniarz told agency security guards on Oct. 11 that he found a powdery substance on a paper towel under some paperwork near his computer.
On the towel was written "ANTHRAX," according to a criminal complaint. All 800 agency employees were evacuated and 12 employees were forced to be washed down with a decontamination solution, Ashcroft told reporters.
The substance turned out to be coffee creamer.
Faryniarz told the FBI he knew the incident was a hoax even before agents arrived because another individual not named in the complaint had claimed responsibility. The two-day evacuation of the building cost taxpayers US$ 1.5 million, Ashcroft said.
Faryniarz was charged with making false statements to FBI agents; he was not charged with perpetrating the hoax. He could face a maximum of up to five years in prison and a fine of US$3 million.
Faryniarz was the second Connecticut man connected to a hoax. Frederick Forcellina was arrested after authorities allegedly determined it was his voice on a 911 call warning that three Connecticut court buildings had been "dusted" and attacks were planned against railroad stations and schools.
"Operator, I'm telling you now that we have gotten together and we are disgusted with how the United States is doing things, and this is no idle talk," the voice said, according to a transcript. "My people have been bombed. Now we are doing a silent warfare. This is not a hoax."
Malicious worm
Meanwhile, a computer virus purporting to provide information about anthrax and its side effects has been discovered, computer security experts said on Tuesday.
The e-mail, written in Spanish, has a subject line that says "Anthrax Info" and claims that the attachment is a photo that shows what the side effects of anthrax are.
Once the attachment is opened the worm spreads itself to everyone listed in the recipient's e-mail address book. The worm also can overwrite certain files.
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