The Anthrax Investigation

**American Patriot** · March 9th, 2007, 19:31

Tables Turned In Anthrax Investigation

"Person Of Interest" Files Lawsuit Against FBI

March 9, 2007

Dr. Steven Hatfill in 2002. (REUTERS)

Quote

"I believe ... they wanted the public to believe that they ... were making great progress in this case."

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa

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(CBS) They followed him. They brought bloodhounds into his home. The attorney general identified him to the world as a "person of interest" in the first major bioterrorism attack in the nation's history.

But five years after letters sent through the U.S. mail containing anthrax killed five and injured 17, the FBI has yet to charge Dr. Steven Hatfill. In 2003, he sued the government.

The resulting depositions of FBI personnel and law enforcement records obtained by 60 Minutes provide an inside look into one of the FBI's biggest investigations ever and raise the possibility that the bureau may have a cold case on its hands.

Correspondent Lesley Stahl's report, which contains revelations from those depositions, will be broadcast this Sunday, March 11, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Hatfill, a scientist who worked at an Army laboratory where the strain of anthrax used in the attacks was stored, is the only "person of interest" named publicly in the case. He has maintained his innocence all along.

Hatfill is suing the government for destroying his reputation by, among other things, naming him "a person of interest." According to depositions taken for Hatfill's suit and obtained by 60 Minutes, the FBI official who oversaw the investigation says the bureau was looking at many more people.

"There were … 20 to 30 other people who were also likewise identified as 'persons of interest' in the investigation,' " the FBI's Richard Lambert says under oath.

60 Minutes has learned that today at least a dozen of those other people still have not been eliminated as so-called "persons of interest."

Hatfill charges in his suit that the FBI leaked information about him that was distorted and damaging. After the deadly mailings, evidence-sniffing bloodhounds reportedly "went crazy" at Hatfill's apartment, according to a Newsweek story.

60 Minutes has learned that the bloodhounds reacted similarly at the home and office of another scientist, too. And two of the dogs have been wrong on a number of occasions, including a serial rape case in which a man in California was arrested and jailed, based largely on the evidence from the dogs. He was ultimately exonerated with DNA evidence.

To quell the leaks, FBI Director Robert Mueller instituted a tactic known as "stovepiping," whereby the various squads assigned to the case stopped sharing information with one another.

In his deposition, the FBI's Lambert said he opposed Mueller's order because barring investigators from exchanging information "… would inhibit our ability to 'connect the dots' in a case of this magnitude …" just as it had leading up to 9/11.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, agrees that stovepiping undercut the investigation. He also charges that the FBI used the leaks to cover a lack of progress in the case.

"I believe … they wanted the public to believe that they … were making great progress in this case," he tells Stahl. "It's just turning out to be a cold case."

60 Minutes has also learned that the FBI's biggest hope to crack the case turned out to be a dead end created by one of its own investigators.

Early on in its investigation, the bureau was able to lift trace amounts of DNA from one of the envelopes used in the attacks. Agents hoped this forensic evidence would hold the key to solving the crime. But the amount of DNA recovered was so minute the bureau decided not to test it, fearing that doing so would use up the sample without yielding results.

The FBI then improved its DNA-testing technology so it could accurately test the microscopic sample. They then discovered that the DNA belonged to one of its own investigators who had contaminated the envelope.

Produced By Rich Bonin
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n2552906.shtml

**American Patriot** · March 9th, 2007, 19:33

http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/

**American Patriot** · April 18th, 2011, 19:20

Genetic Mutations Were Key Clue in Anthrax Mailings Case

Monday, April 18, 2011

Abnormal bacteria colonies presented scientists the clue they needed to decipher the genetic "fingerprint" of the anthrax spores used in the 2001 mailings, the Washington Post reported on Saturday (see GSN, March 9).
Researchers working at a private facility in Rockville, Md., achieved a scientific breakthrough in decoding the genetic blueprint of the anthrax samples by sequencing abnormal markers that were discovered by technicians at a military laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md.
The FBI last year closed the case on the 2001 attacks, standing by the earlier declaration that Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins was the sole perpetrator. Ivins committed suicide in July 2008 before facing any charges. Some U.S. lawmakers and others have continued to question the finding that Ivins was responsible for the deaths of five people.
When federal investigators first opened their probe into the anthrax attacks, they had no physical fingerprints or other genetic materials to help track down the culprit. Their primary evidence was the actual anthrax contained in the letters.
Working at Fort Detrick, Army laboratory technician Terry Abshire in the days following the incidents discovered something highly unusual in the bacteria samples she was growing from the mailed spores. In one culture dish, Abshire observed a bacterial colony with physical characteristics significantly different than other cultures grown from the spores. She realized the abnormal colony offered a clue in decoding the genetic blueprint of the lethal bacteria.
"It took somebody with a lot of experience with anthrax to recognize that," FBI microbiologist Jason Bannan said of Abshire.
While Abshire informed her bosses of her find, "it took a while before anybody had any interest in it," she said. "There was so much going on."
When additional abnormalities appeared in other cultures grown from the spores, Army scientists concluded that the anthrax used in the attacks was a combination of spores with disparate points of origin.
The FBI brought the Rockville-based Institute for Genomic Research into the investigation because of its leading work in the 1990s on genetic code deciphering techniques.
"It immediately occurred to me that we could sequence it and decode its genome," said Steven Salzberg, who formerly worked at the institute.
Once the Rockville scientists received the abnormal anthrax samples from the FBI in 2002, they began to decode them in the hopes of finding the genetic emblems of the spores used in the mailings.
"We sequenced the genome of those colonies that were very different," then-team head Jacques Ravel said.
The Institute for Genomic Research scientists ultimately focused on four abnormalities for further investigation, "and the combination of those four together -- the idea was that it would form a unique signature," according to Ravel.
Though the Rockville scientists had decoded the four abnormalities by fall 2003, it still took years for the FBI to conclude the case.
"We knew it was helping them, but we didn't know exactly how," Salzberg said. "They wouldn't tell us."
Researchers at the FBI screened in excess of 1,000 anthrax strains for matches to the abnormalities. They ultimately came up with eight matches, all of which originated from a flask stored at Ivins' laboratory at Fort Detrick.
No later than 2007, federal investigators had determined that "Dr. Ivins, alone, mailed the anthrax letters."
That conclusion is disputed by some who point to a continued lack of firm evidence tying Ivins directly to the crime or anything that would rule out the possibility of other actors' involvement (Daniel de Vise, Washington Post, April 16).