Official: Clinic Threats From Ky

Saturday, February 20, 1999; 6:40 a.m. EST

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- At least 14 letters claiming to include anthrax and mailed to abortion and Planned
Parenthood centers across the nation this week were postmarked in Lexington, a postal inspector said.

Initial tests show that the threats received Thursday and Friday were hoaxes, similar to the anthrax warnings
sent to clinics in Louisville and other U.S. cities in October.

Doug Ostwalt, who heads the Louisville postal inspection office and is a member of a federal task force
investigating the letters, said authorities believe all the threats are connected.

The Lexington-postmarked letters containing explicit threats were reported at abortion clinics or Planned
Parenthood centers Thursday in Milwaukee; Cincinnati; Washington, D.C.; Manchester, N.H.; Rapid City,
S.D.; Asheville, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; and Sioux Falls, S.D., Ostwalt said.

Other letters was received Friday in Birmingham, Ala., Des Moines, Iowa; and several cities in Vermont,
Ostwalt said in today's Lexington Herald-Leader.

Anthrax mostly affects farm animals, but its germs, when inhaled by humans, can cause flu-like symptoms and
can lead to death if not treated early enough with antibiotics.

Phony anthrax threats have been very common in recent months, including the October incidents affecting
abortion clinics in four states. It is a federal felony to send an anthrax threat, even if it is a hoax.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno has created a national task force to prosecute and prevent threats against
other abortion providers.