The anthrax used in the bioterror attack on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office was significantly more sophisticated and dangerous than that sent in an earlier assault on a news media office, two government officials said Thursday.
New tests performed on anthrax spores sent to Daschle's office reveal that even though they were the same strain as spores mailed to the New York Post'the so-called \Ames"" strain commonly used for vaccine development and research'they were purer, finer and more easily dispersed in the air.
The spores had not, however, been genetically altered to resist antibiotics, a technique developed by some nations to render anthrax spores a more formidable biological weapon.
Senators who received a briefing from intelligence officials Thursday said those officials had warned them away from media reports suggesting that the spores could have come from only three countries: Russia, Iraq or the United States.
""They said that's premature, and that's not accurate,"" said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Fifteen vials of an unknown substance'including two that fermented into salmonella'were sent to the Harlem office of former President Clinton earlier this month, officials disclosed Thursday.
A Secret Service spokesperson said the shipment has no connection to the anthrax scares, that Clinton did not handle the package containing the vials and that no one has gotten sick from the materials.
""This has nothing to do with the other mailings"" that have spread anthrax in New York, New Jersey, Washington and Florida, said Jim Mackin, a Secret Service spokesperson.
