Holt, union chiefs gather near site of Princeton mailbox where traces found
By: Courtney Gross
Five years after anthrax attacks were directed at mailboxes in Princeton and other communities across the nation, a new call for answers was issued here this week.
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12), with representatives of postal workers’ associations and unions from across the state, demanded a resumption of briefings on the investigation by the FBI.
The crimes, which remain unsolved, took the lives of five civilians, sickened others and brought postal services to a halt.
Gathered on a crowded Nassau Street sidewalk Tuesday afternoon, minutes away from a mailbox where traces of anthrax were found nearly five years ago, Rep. Holt called for briefings, confidential or not, by the FBI regarding the status of the anthrax investigation. These talks have been abandoned or ignored by the federal agency for months, the congressman said.
"For all we know the murderer is still at large," Rep. Holt said. "The longer it goes on, the more I wonder whether their unwillingness to brief us is because they are embarrassed about their slow progress and the failures so far of the investigation," he added.
Following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, letters laced with anthrax were sent to members of the media and Congress. Some of the letters were routed through the Postal Service’s mail processing center in Hamilton. The processing center was closed for more than three years, the congressman said, and $65 million was spent to decontaminate it.
The fallout from the anthrax attacks caused a temporary closure of Rep. Holt’s office in 2001, after traces of anthrax were found on equipment.
Less than a year later, the FBI found anthrax in a mail drop box on Nassau Street, similar to the box postal workers surrounded Tuesday.
Since these incidents, Rep. Holt said it seems little progress has been made in the case.
"Despite all of that we have been stonewalled," Rep. Holt said. "Congress deserves better and, of course, the people of New Jersey and of the country deserve better."
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the anthrax case is still active, and is being pursued by a number of federal agencies. Beyond that, he said, the FBI’s position on briefing members of Congress is in line with a letter sent by an FBI representative to Rep. Holt in September.
According to the letter, the investigation has spanned six continents, included 9,100 witness interviews, 67 searches and the issuance of 6,000 grand jury subpoenas. In the letter the FBI refuses to entertain congressional briefings after "sensitive information" appeared in media reports that was attributed to congressional sources.
Rep. Holt, who had been briefed on the anthrax investigation on three occasions from June 2002 through April 2003, said Tuesday that there was no evidence that there were congressional leaks on the anthrax case.
As residents strolled down Nassau Street and dropped letters or bills through the squeaky hatch of a blue U.S. Postal Service mailbox, Rep. Holt said he has called for several congressional oversight committees to hold hearings on the anthrax investigation. So far, he said, more than 30 of his congressional colleagues have solicited information from the FBI, but to no avail.
Les Cohen, president of the New Jersey branch of the National Association of Postal Supervisors, representing 1,500 postal employees in the state, called his colleagues heroes for challenging the fear that gripped the nation in 2001 and coming to work anyway.
"We are here simply for one reason for closure and justice for our brothers who died and for those who were sickened," Mr. Cohen said.
Other representatives called for protection for both postal workers and the general public. Robert Blum, vice president of Local 300 of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, said nothing is more important than safety.
"I’m looking back at 2001, I recall the worried look of fear in the workers’ eyes," Mr. Blum said. "Yet despite that fear, despite that worry, postal workers did their job of processing and delivering the mail to the general public."
To this day, said Martin Carey, vice president of the New Jersey Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, postal employees are frightened by the threat of anthrax. Mr. Carey said he is not optimistic the 2001 anthrax perpetrator will ever be brought to justice.
"Anthrax isn’t something you can sweep under the rug," Mr. Carey said. "As they handle the mail every day, it’s always in the back of their minds."

