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JW Sues Bush Administration For Anthrax Docs Seeks Documents About Terrorist Attack that Killed At least Five On June 7, JW filed lawsuits against the FBI, Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Postal Service, and a top military research facility for their failure to respond to JW¹s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding the anthrax attacks. Evidence obtained through Judicial Watch and confirmed by multiple press reports suggest that White House staff had been given doses of the powerful antibiotic Cipro at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks, one month before anthrax was detected on Capitol Hill. At the heart of Judicial Watch¹s investigation is the treatment of those in power versus ordinary citizens. Judicial Watch currently represents hundreds of postal workers from the Brentwood Postal Facility in Washington, D.C. It was through this facility that the anthrax-laced letters to Senators Daschle and Leahy were processed. At the same time staff from The White House and Capitol Hill were treated with antibiotics, postal workers handling contaminated mail were ordered to continue working without medical care. Two of those workers died from inhalation anthrax, while dozens more suffer, even today, from a variety of ailments resulting from the attacks. Thus far, a total of eight postal workers have died since September 11. "It’s like our lives are not as important," said Melvin Thweatt, an employee at the Brentwood facility, in an interview with CNN. During a hearing before Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson testified that he was "frustrated at times," in his efforts to obtain and disseminate information on anthrax. According to the New York Times, Thompson said he "could not disclose all the information that might be important to public health because some was classified and some was restricted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." |
