Investigators focus on domestic culprit

Authorities probing the wave of anthrax poisonings have turned in recent days to New Jersey universities and private laboratories, looking for clues to bolster the theory that a single person or group with ties to the region -- and not overseas terrorists -- may be responsible for the deadly letters.

FBI agents have contacted the facilities to ask specifically about missing equipment and employees who have been fired or who left under questionable circumstances, several companies confirmed.

"It appears that it is a domestic person or group; that is the prevailing thought," a ranking law enforcement source said.

A second senior official agreed that the idea of a home-based terrorist has emerged as a key operative theory, but cautioned the probe is filled with fast-moving developments that could shift the investigation at any point. "People are pursuing everything," the official said.

Investigators are pursuing the thesis that the anthrax terrorist is homegrown because of what they call "negative evidence": they simply have not found any proof linking the attacks to the Sept. 11 hijackings or to any foreign-sponsored groups such as al Qaeda.

"There is a lack of any substantive leads, or any clear-cut calling cards pointing to any organization," one Justice Department official explained.

At the same time, a preliminary analysis of the tainted letters by FBI specialists suggests a profile similar to that of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, the reclusive anti-technology mathematician whose deadly mail bombs killed three people and wounded 23 others over two decades, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

FBI experts in handwriting and behavioral analysis suspect the anthrax-laced letters were composed by an educated person of foreign descent, but someone who has spent much time in the United States and become proficient in English, law enforcement sources say.

The officials note that the date written on the letter addressed to Sen. Tom Daschle -- "09-11-01" -- is a more common style in the United States than in Europe or the Middle East, where Sept. 11 would be rendered as "11-09-01."

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll confirmed that investigators are questioning individuals at universities, schools, pharmacies, veterinary services and other locations that may have had contact with anthrax. Carroll said the solitary suspect is "certainly one theory" being actively considered, but called it "premature" to draw one conclusion.

Seventeen people have contracted inhaled or cutaneous anthrax since early October, including four who have died of the more severe inhaled form of the disease. Five of the confirmed cases are in New Jersey, and officials are awaiting tests that could confirm a sixth in the state.

Agents have called or visited many of the state's drug makers, asking about missing equipment or materials and employees who may have been fired or left under questionable circumstances.

"Most, if not all, of the companies in the industry have been meeting with the FBI of late," said Paul Fitzhenry, a spokesman for Peapack-based Pharmacia Co.

Others who confirmed visits included Schering-Plough Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Aventis Pharmaceuticals. Representatives from the companies said agents asked them not to discuss the details of their conversations.

"We have cooperated with the agency's request for information," said Aventis spokeswoman Lori Kraut, who said the Bridgewater- based company turned over information about employees who had been fired.

Among the schools visited or called by investigators in the last two weeks were Princeton University, Rider University, Montclair State University and the College of New Jersey. All said they neither work with anthrax or have the equipment to do so, according to officials.

Rider University has neither the materials or equipment to handle anthrax, but biology professor Jonathan Yavelow said he was still quizzed about who had access to the school's labs.

"They asked me if we had a process to sign in and sign out," he said. "We didn't. We're just a small university with a few research grants."

Montclair State University's biology department chairwoman, Bonnie Lustigman, got the call from the FBI in the last week, "and they definitely knew what questions to ask.

"They wanted to know what cultures we had, what medium we had, what security measures were in place," said Lustigman.

The domestic terrorist theory has been receiving wider attention in recent days and sparked debate among experts not affiliated with the investigation. Robert Ressler, a former supervisor of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, believes agents should be looking for a home-grown bioterrorist.

"It is probably a person working in some lab somewhere," said Ressler. "And the hostility, the mental dysfunction, was present, but the triggering event (on Sept. 11) is what I think caused the person to do this."

But U.S. Air Force Col. (Ret.) Randall Larsen, an instructor and specialist on homeland security at the National War College, said such a plot would require expertise in engineering, microbiology and aerosol physics.

"I do not believe that a single individual -- I don't care how smart he is, Ted Kaczynski or whatever -- can make a sophisticated biological weapon," Larsen said. "It takes a team of people."

Agents also continue to review surveillance tapes of post offices around Trenton, where anthrax- tainted letters passed on their way to the New York Post, NBC News and Daschle's office in Washington.

Tony Esposito, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in New Jersey, said investigators have substantially narrowed down the target area from the 46 post offices and 650 collection boxes identified in the early days of the probe. But Esposito would not specify how narrow the focus has become.

A 61-year-old hospital worker in New York on Wednesday became the fourth person in a month to die from anthrax inhalation, following two Washington, D.C., postal workers and a Florida newspaper editor. Seven others have been diagnosed with the deadly form of the disease.

An additional seven postal workers and media employees have contracted cutaneous anthrax, the less severe condition caused after skin contact with spores. Officials are awaiting test results on others suspected to have it, and specialists have detected spores in dozens of buildings, from the Supreme Court to media outlets to the mail processing centers.

But agents are puzzled that they have not discovered any new anthrax-laced letters. Some believe that suggests the culprit may have lived in Trenton area but has been scared off by the army of federal agents now combing the area.

"If there were more letters, there would be more people sick," one investigator said.

Others say the relatively low number of deaths and tainted letters make it less likely the poisonings were part of a widespread terrorist biological attack. Still, as one source noted, the few letters that have been identified have succeeded in instilling panic and fear among the populace.

"We're dealing with a very intelligent mind," the source said. "It could be a case of 'death by a thousand cuts.'"

Staff writers Edward Silverman and John Mooney and the Scripps- Howard News Service contributed to this report.

Well, I'm somewhat surprised by this article. They didn't call Ted Kaczynski a "Left-Wing Extremist" in here but they didn't even mention right wing extremists or militia members.

There are many, many, many foreign nationals working in chemical and pharmaceutical labs in New Jersey.

This article is dreck. There are only two questions: who made this stuff and who delivered it? To answer those questions we need to know if the stuff was milled and if it was coated. If the answers to those questions are yes, then it goes a ways to answering who made the stuff. Find out who made it, and you'll find out if the makers are using it themselves or if they sold it/gave it to someone else.

We have a sufficient number of dysfunctional home-grown loonies to provide at least a couple capable of doing this.
All it would take to push one over the edge would be to lose an election or suddenly find himself living in Harlem in his wife's shadow.

It's fortunate that Bill Clinton isn't capable of the required science...

but I don't know about Gore....

We've seen many other times the misleading claim made in this article: "The officials note that the date written on the letter addressed to Sen. Tom Daschle -- '09-11-01' -- is a more common style in the United States than in Europe or the Middle East, where Sept. 11 would be rendered as '11-09-01.'"

It is simply not true that an American would typically write 09-11-01; look at the way the date is written, not just the order of the numbers. All the Americans I know would write 9/11/01. An American wouldn't normally write a 0 in front of the 9; and normally we'd see slashes between the numbers, not dashes.

It appears that the U.S. is grasping at straws to make this appear to be domestic until we're ready to go to war with Iraq at a time of our own choosing.

Is this how it works? Well then, I believe the "negative evidence" trail indicates that Hillary Clinton penned the Daschle letter, Julia Roberts stuck it in the envelope & Dan Rather licked the stamp.

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