A New Vulnerability: Terror By Mail

All that changed in October. The anthrax scare made Williams realize that the Postal Service was vulnerable to attacks well beyond anyone's imagination. Standing outside of D.C. General Hospital after being tested for anthrax in mid-October, Williams wondered what might happen next.

Sadly, no one in the Postal Service knows.

None of the many reports issued by terrorism experts and panels in recent years identified the Postal Service as a potential conduit for bioterrorism. Even the agency's own leaders were unaware that danger might lurk in their plants and mailbags.

"We have all kinds of emergency preparedness plans in place," says Chief Postal Inspector Kenneth Weaver. "They are geared towards major catastrophes. On bioterrorism, we've been working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force for a while, but I don't think anyone ever envisioned something like this."

It's not the first time the U.S. mail has been used as a weapon. As recently as the mid-1990s, convicted Unabomber Ted Kaczynski sent several explosive packages through the mail. Between 1999 and 2000, the Postal Inspection Service responded to 178 anthrax threats directed at abortion clinics, all of which turned out to be hoaxes.

Since October though, the Postal Service has been forced to rethink everything about its operations. In October, the agency started buying equipment to decontaminate mail, and began looking into technology to help inspectors better screen mail for hazardous substances. Most of the tests will be conducted on "open access" mail-letters dropped into mail boxes or through slots in post office lobbies. Other kinds of mail, such as utility bills, magazines and catalogs, are considered less likely to carry germs, since they are prepared in bulk by private companies and delivered directly to mail processing plants. However, the inspection service plans to visit many large mailers to help refine their security procedures, according to Weaver.

Congressional overseers and postal observers suggest that as the agency deploys the new technology, it also should look for ways to improve the entire mail processing system, making it more efficient as well as more secure. Some are urging the Postal Service to adopt low-tech solutions. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., suggested in October that the agency reduce the number of public mail boxes and require citizens to present identification before dropping mail off at post offices.

Taking that approach would be very expensive and would greatly restrict the public's access to the mail, countered Postmaster General John Potter. But Potter is well aware that his agency now has to worry about more than rain, sleet and snow.

"A vulnerability has been identified in our system," he told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in October. "We have to shore up our system. Even if we arrest the culprit, that doesn't preclude this from happening again."