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Princeton, NJ --- Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) today joined postal employees in calling on the FBI to account for its lack of progress in prosecuting the 2001 anthrax attacks that originated in Central New Jersey, resulted in five deaths and many illnesses, and paralyzed the government and national commerce. The attacks particularly affected the lives and livelihoods of postal workers in Mercer County.
“More than five years ago, our nation suffered a bioterrorist attacks that brought business, government, and daily lives around the country to a grinding halt, especially for postal employees” said Holt. “It is past time for the FBI to update the American people on the status of their investigation of this crime that caused severe harm to the lives and security of the American people.”
The 2001 anthrax attacks originated from a mailbox in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District and affected the lives and livelihoods of New Jerseyans. Rep. Holt’s own Congressional office in Washington, D.C. was shut down after it was found to be contaminated with anthrax.
“Postal workers and the general public deserve protection and safety in the processing of mail. Nothing is more important for our organization,” said Bob Blum, Vice President of National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 300. “Rush Holt was there five and a half years ago and he is still with us now. His request for a Congressional briefing and oversight hearings is fair and reasonable.”
On September 27, 2006, Rep. Holt requested that the FBI brief Congress on the status of the investigation, and was denied. A second request on October 2, 2006 also received a perfunctory and dismissive reply. A December 11 request by thirty-two bipartisan members of the House and Senate that Attorney General Gonzales “direct the FBI to provide Congress with a comprehensive briefing on the status of the five year-old anthrax investigation” was also denied. Holt is currently working to schedule Congressional oversight hearings on the matter.
Despite conducting an investigation that FBI openly acknowledges is “one of the most complex in the history of law enforcement” with 17 full-time investigators and 10 postal inspectors who have conducted 9,100 interviews, 67 searches, and issued 6,000 grand jury subpoenas, the FBI seems to believe that they are outside the scope of Congressional oversight.
“The FBI’s refusal to brief Members of Congress raises serious concerns about the status of this investigation and whether it is a true priority of the FBI, which appears to be no closer to solving this act of bioterrorism than they were five years ago,” said Holt.
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