[iwar] US Army staffer is anthrax suspect

From: televr (yangyun@metacrawler.com)
Date: 2002-02-24 20:45:21
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Subject: [iwar] US Army staffer is anthrax suspect
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Anthrax suspect worked in U.S. lab
Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
WashTimes
Published 2/24/2002

     The FBI's search for the person who mailed anthrax-laced letters
that killed five persons has focused on a former U.S. scientist who
worked at a government laboratory where he learned how to make a
weapons-grade strain of the deadly bacteria.
     Law enforcement authorities and leading biochemical experts
familiar with the FBI's five-month investigation said agents targeted
the unidentified scientist after extensive interviews with more than
300 persons associated with the government's anthrax program, although
no charges have yet been filed.
     The scientist was identified from a pool of about 50 researchers
known to have the technical ability to produce the sophisticated
weapons-grade anthrax strain found in the letters sent to Florida, New
York, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., the sources said.
     The FBI has known for more than three months that the person
responsible for sending the letters was a U.S. citizen and, according
to the sources, probably a former scientist connected to the
government's biodefense program.
     The government's chief suspect, the sources said, is believed to
have worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious
Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., which has maintained stores of
weapons-grade anthrax — commonly known as the Ames strain of Bacillus
anthracis.
     The sources said the former scientist is now employed as a
contractor in the Washington area.
     The unidentified scientist, according to the sources, was twice
fired from government jobs and, after the September 11 attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed more than 3,000
people, reportedly made a threat to use anthrax.
     He has been interviewed by FBI agents on several occasions,
according to the sources, and his house has been searched.
     The sources said that while numerous chemicals were located
inside the house, no anthrax was found.
     The FBI investigation, according to the sources, began to focus
on current and former U.S. scientists after the anthrax found in
letters sent to the Capitol Hill offices of Democratic Sens. Tom
Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont matched a
finely powdered strain of the bacteria held at Fort Detrick.
     Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a microbiologist at State University of
New York who heads the biological arms-control panel for the
Federation of American Scientists (FAS), said that the FBI has been
working on a "short list of suspects" for some time, and that agents
had narrowed the list to "a particular person ... a member of the
biochemical community."
     "It has taken a long time for the FBI to identify any suspects in
this case, and I don't know why, considering that the person
responsible for this comes from a very narrow list of people who have
the necessary skill to do what was done," she said. "But there is a
common suspect, and the FBI has questioned that person more than once."
     Mrs. Rosenberg said she and several colleagues have wondered
whether the FBI's failure to bring charges in the case is related to
government reluctance to publicly acknowledge its biochemical operation.
     "Is the FBI dragging its feet? I just don't know. And, if so, I
don't know why," she said.
     The FBI has consistently maintained that the anthrax
investigation is on track, and that thousands of leads have been
pursued by a task force of investigators under the direction of FBI
Assistant Director Van Harp, who heads the bureau's D.C. field office,
and Chief Postal Inspector Kenneth C. Weaver.
     Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Postal Service has identified any
potential suspects.
     In a letter last month to the 40,000 members of the American
Society for Microbiology, Mr. Harp said it was "very likely that one
or more of you know this individual."
     "A review of the information to date in this matter leads
investigators to believe that a single person is most likely
responsible for these mailings," he said. "This person is experienced
working in a laboratory. Based on his or her selection of the Ames
strain of Bacillus anthracis, one would expect this individual has or
had legitimate access to select biological agents at some time."
     In the letter, Mr. Harp also said the suspect had the technical
knowledge and expertise to produce a "highly refined and deadly
product," and that he or she may have "used off-hours in a laboratory
or may have even established an improvised or concealed facility
comprised of sufficient equipment to produce the anthrax."
     The anthrax found by investigators in the Daschle and Leahy
letters was described as "weaponized," meaning it consisted of fine
particles treated to eliminate static charge — preventing them from
clumping and allowing them to float in the air.
     According to the sources, an extraordinary concentration of
spores was identified in the anthrax tested in the letters and that
the purity of the bacteria was characteristic of that made at U.S.
laboratories. They said the tested anthrax was unmilled, also
characteristic of anthrax manufactured at U.S. laboratories.
     A sampling of anthrax from the Daschle letter, they said,
contained a form of silica used at U.S. laboratories. The sample did
not contain bentonite, which is used by foreign laboratories,
including Iraq, they said.
     The government has offered a $2.5 million reward for information
leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for sending
the letters.
     The five persons who died were Florida photography editor Robert
Stevens, 63; U.S. postal workers Thomas Lee Morris, 55, and Joseph P.
Curseen, 47, both of whom worked at the Brentwood facility in
Northeast; Kathy Nyugen, a 61-year-old female hospital stockroom
employee in New York; and Ottilie W. Lundgren, a 94-year-old woman
from Connecticut.
     All the deaths were traced to the Ames strain of the bacteria,
first isolated in Iowa and maintained by the U.S. Army since 1980 for
testing purposes.



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