Unions Press FBI to Brief Congress on Anthrax Investigation

The APWU, along with the other postal unions and management associations, has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to grant congressional requests for a briefing by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on its inquiry into the 2001 anthrax attacks.

The attacks killed five people, including two postal employees — APWU members Thomas L. Morris Jr. and Joseph P. Curseen Jr. Seventeen others were sickened, including several postal workers.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) requested FBI briefings in the fall of 2006, but their requests were denied. Rep. Holt’s district includes facilities where anthrax contamination was found.

In December, a bipartisan group of 32 representatives and senators asked Gonzales to “direct the FBI to provide Congress with a comprehensive briefing on the status of the five year-old investigation.” That request was denied as well.

In a March 19, 2007, letter to Gonzales, APWU President William Burrus and the leaders of the six other postal organizations urged Gonzales to take “prompt and favorable action upon pending congressional requests for a briefing on the Bureau’s investigative efforts into the anthrax attacks.”

The union and association presidents observed that they have worked closely with the Postal Service to better protect the postal system since the attacks, but noted, “Our interests in the underlying anthrax attacks, however, extend well beyond the prevention of bioterrorism.”

“We deeply want to assure that justice is satisfied through the prosecution of those who were responsible for the anthrax attacks.”

Commenting on the letter, Burrus said, “Two APWU members made the ultimate sacrifice as a result of the anthrax attacks, and all postal employees lived and worked in fear during that terrible time. On their behalf, we demand justice.”

In addition to Burrus, the letter was signed by William H. Young, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers; Ted Keating, President of the National Association of Postal Supervisors; Dale Goff, President of the National Association of the Postmasters of the U.S; Charles F. Mapa, President of the National League of Postmasters; John F. Hegarty, President of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union; and Donnie Pitts, President of the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association.