Last Updated

31 Jan 2003

Source: Washington Post, March 24, 2002.

Officials Continue to Doubt Hijackers' Link to Anthrax

Fla. Doctor Says He Treated One for Skin Form of Disease

By Steve Fainaru, Washington Post Staff Writer

NEW YORK, March 23 -- Despite a Florida doctor's conclusion that he treated one of the Sept. 11 hijackers for cutaneous anthrax, authorities remain doubtful that the hijackers were responsible for a deadly wave of anthrax-laced letters mailed shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Christos Tsonas, an emergency room physician at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, has told investigators that one of the hijackers, Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi, received treatment last June for a dark lesion on his leg. Tsonas did not initially believe the infection was anthrax, but he changed his diagnosis after investigators discovered medication the doctor had prescribed in Al Haznawi's belongings.

The case was first reported today by the New York Times. A recent memo prepared by experts from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies agreed with Tsonas that anthrax was the "most probable" cause of the lesion and noted that the conclusion "raises the possibility" that the hijackers were behind the anthrax attacks.

However, a law enforcement source who has been involved in the anthrax investigation said today that investigators were not putting much stock in that linkage. The source said that investigators have known for months about the possibility that Al Haznawi may have been treated for anthrax but said it was still unclear what type of lesion he had on his leg.

The Times reported that Tsonas told investigators of his conclusion last October. Since then, federal officials have said publicly that they believe the person who spread the anthrax spores, which killed four people in October and one in November, is a domestic terrorist who sought to use the Sept. 11 attacks as a cover.

Tsonas could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for Holy Cross Hospital, Maria Soldani, released a statement saying the hospital was cooperating with authorities but, at their request, would not discuss the matter.

Tsonas said that Al Haznawi arrived in the Holy Cross emergency room last June with a man believed to have been Ziad Samir Jarrah, according to the Times. Both men are suspected of participating in the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers on the plane fought back.

Al Haznawi told the doctor that he had developed the one-inch lesion after banging his leg on a suitcase two months earlier. At the time, anthrax was regarded as an obscure, rarely seen disease that had caused only a few deaths. Tsonas treated the infection, prescribed an antibiotic and forgot about the 10-minute visit until he was approached months later by investigators.

Tsonas examined his own notes and determined that the lesion had probably been caused by anthrax.

Staff writer Susan Schmidt contributed to this report.