By Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001; 4:52 a.m. EST

WASHINGTON –– Postal inspectors and FBI agents have begun the tedious process of sorting through thousands of pieces of mail by hand, seeking clues in the anthrax terror investigation.

It will be a long process, Inspector Dan Mihalko said. They have to go through it piece by piece, looking "for possible additional mail that may have contained anthrax."

Some 68 tons of government mail was quarantined after an anthrax-laced letter turned up Oct. 15 in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

That mail was trucked to Ohio and sanitized using electron-beam equipment that has been used to sterilize surgical equipment.

The first truckload of mail returned to Washington on Tuesday and was sent to a warehouse, where inspectors began to comb through it to see if there were any other contaminated or suspicious letters.

Mihalko said inspectors are looking "for possible additional mail that may have contained anthrax."

That anthrax would have been neutralized by the electron sterilization, he said, but the any such letters would still provide valuable evidence.

This is something that can't be done by machines, Mihalko said, people have to look at each item one at a time.

It's against the law for officials to open mail without a warrant, but Mihalko said that if inspectors find any mail they consider suspicious they have two choices.

They could contact the addressee and ask for permission to open the item because it is suspicious "and more than likely they would say 'go to it,'" he said.

Or they could get a search warrant, he said, which would probably be done for evidence purposes.

Once the inspections are done, he said, there's no reason the mail can't be returned to the Capitol for delivery.

The post office is buying equipment to sanitize mail and Daschle suggested Wednesday that "all mail should be irradiated from here on out. The quicker we can acquire equipment to do that, the better."

The first of the machines is expected to arrive in November and initial plans are for the machines to sanitize mail for government agencies, since that seems to be a likely target. It also will test so- called "open access" mail, items dropped into mail boxes on the street or through slots in post office lobbies.

Mail from large mailers, such as utility bills, magazines and catalogs is considered less likely to carry a disease threat.

Postmaster General John E. Potter was asked how he can be sure that no more contaminated mail is entering the mail system.

"That's a dilemma we all have right now. We are working to identify targeted mail and keep it out of the mail system," he said.

Many businesses that use mailing systems that commonly leave a residual powder on mail items are voluntarily reviewing these procedures to reduce concerns about false anthrax alarms, the postal service said.

–––

On the Net:

U.S. Postal Service: http://www.usps.gov