- MIAMI (Reuters) - Supermarket
tabloid publisher American Media, Inc., stunned by the death of an employee
and the exposure of two others to the rare and deadly disease anthrax,
was the victim of bioterrorism attack, its chief executive said on
Thursday.
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- But David Pecker, who also serves as chairman of the
closely held Florida company that publishes the National Enquirer and other
racy tabloids, said he did not know whether to believe that Middle East
militants, domestic terror groups or a lone criminal were to blame.
-
- "I believe that it's a bioterrorism event because
I know that anthrax got into our building and somebody had to put it there.
I don't believe in coincidences," he told Reuters.
-
- Anthrax is a bacterial disease spread by spores and
generally
confined to cattle, sheep, horses, goats and pigs. It is considered a
possible
biological warfare agent.
-
- "I don't know how anybody could call it other than
bioterrorism. But it might not be the (Osama) bin Laden group," he
said, referring to the prime suspect in the Sept 11. airborne assaults
on New York and Washington.
-
- The FBI has declared the probe at the AMI building a
criminal investigation but has said there is no evidence linking the case
to terrorism.
-
- Pecker said he based his belief on the nature of the
attack rather than any specific knowledge about the FBI criminal
investigation
into the death of photo editor Robert Stevens, 63, and the confirmed
exposure
to anthrax of two other American Media employees.
-
- Pecker said the tabloids were accustomed to receiving
threatening letters and had a bomb scare shortly after the Sept. 11
attacks,
but he did not know of any specific reason anyone would launch a bioterror
assault on his company.
-
- "We have no lawsuits going on right now. We had
no disgruntled employees or former employees. We had no enemy list as far
as I know," he said.
-
- American Media's 300 employees and several hundred other
people, including workers' relatives and visitors to the building, are
still awaiting the results of tests to determine if they have been exposed
to anthrax, Pecker said.
-
- "Everybody is fearful and everybody is on
edge,"
he said.
-
- He said the company may never reoccupy its three-story
headquarters building in Boca Raton, Florida, sealed by the FBI and the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. American Media's 300
employees
have scattered to other locations in Delray Beach and Miami or to their
own homes.
-
- "I think the criminal investigation is going to
go on for a long period of time," Pecker said. "I would only
ask them (employees) to go back when I go back to work there and I would
never ask them to go back if they are uncomfortable."
-
- The company's stable of tabloid weeklies, including the
Enquirer, Globe, Sun, Weekly World News and others, sell 5 million copies
a week but suffered a drop in circulation as the headquarters became the
focus of the anthrax investigation.
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- The company issued a statement saying the papers were
not printed at the Boca Raton facility and assuring readers that health
officials said anthrax could not be transmitted through paper and
ink.
-
- "I've seen my sales, which were down 18 percent
on Tuesday, are now down 10 percent. So the message is going out...that
anthrax cannot be communicated (that way)," he said. "People
are buying our papers."
-
- A publicist for the company said the third worker exposed
to the disease, a 35-year-old woman, was being treated with antibiotics
and had returned to work.
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