Posted on 07/20/2004 7:51:05 PM PDT by Shermy
July 20, 2004 — FBI agents returned to search the U.S. Army's biological weapons labs at Fort Detrick, Md., as part of a last-ditch effort by the bureau to make a case in the 2001 anthrax attacks, federal officials tell ABC News.
The FBI has set a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline for its agents to build a case that will stand up in court, officials said.
After matching the anthrax used in the deadly attacks with anthrax at the Army facility, investigators now hope to further narrow the hunt among the hundreds of researchers who have worked at the Fort Detrick labs, sources tell ABC News.
The labs at Fort Detrick were once the workplace of former government weapons scientist Dr. Steven Hatfill, who has been called a "person of interest" in the case.
Hatfill has repeatedly and strongly denied any involvement.
According to federal officials, the FBI has essentially taken over the so-called "hot zone suites," where work with infectious substances is conducted.
A team of more than 20 agents have been at the base since last Friday, focused on labs in two buildings, officials told ABC News.
"[They're] trying to see if there are any spores in the environment, spores that might have been released while somebody was theoretically making anthrax," said Jerry Hauer, an expert on biological and chemical terrorism and director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Close to Making a Case?
Almost three years have lapsed since letters containing anthrax were sent to the U.S. Senate and several news organizations. As a result, five people died and 17 others were poisoned.
Scientists say anthrax spores could survive for as long as 50 years and that this week's search holds the possibility of producing new evidence.
No one has ever been charged in the case.
But a former federal official says Hatfill remains the focus of the investigation.
"I think they're very close to making a case but as they say, that last five yards is often the most difficult to get," said Hauer, who is an ABC News consultant.
Earlier this year, Hatfill sued the government for targeting him, but a federal judge put the case on hold until Oct. l, after officials said the case was at a critical juncture.
That date now serves as the deadline for the FBI to make a case against Hatfill or get off his back.
Ping.
Doesn't make a lot of sense.
Ping.
Doesn't make a lot of sense because we didn't have the milling capability used in the Anthrax attack. But, if you browse at Kay's Iraqi WMD report, they were into the refined milling big time. It stood out like a sore thumb.
You mean why would the Feds would decide the Anthrax case is over by October, on the basis of a court date in a civil law suit?
It does make sense.
Feds have decided to call the case unprosecutable despite their best efforts. Hatfill is the fall guy, as evidenced by the latest dog and pony show at Ft. Detrick. They've invested to much in Project Hatfill to say they were wrong and mislead. They will leak innuendo about Hatfill. Remember, back in 2002 they also floated the "it's him, we can't prove it" theory. Looks like it will be repeated.
BTW, the timing is perfect. The announcement will be lost amidst the noise of the presidential campaign.
Depends how much Senator Daschle and Leahy want to push it.
Or this story could be just chaff, trying to scare Hatfill into some small money settlement and agreement to shut up forever about it.
Yeah, "matching". What does that mean? Just "strain" If they had the real DNA proof linking to Detrick, they'd be screaming it from the montaintops.
According to federal officials, the FBI has essentially taken over the so-called "hot zone suites," where work with infectious substances is conducted.
Just part of the show, folks. Did the same thing two years ago, and maybe moer than once before.
"[They're] trying to see if there are any spores in the environment, spores that might have been released while somebody was theoretically making anthrax," said Jerry Hauer, an expert on biological and chemical terrorism and director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Making anthrax." Weasel words. Dumbed down science in preparation for a "final conclusion" that's plausible for most of the public.
BTW, maybe they do know the germs came from that fort, at least some time in the past.
Much of the last two years has been devoted to developing (as none had ever really been done before), and then performing, incredibly detailed DNA tests on the Anthrax to narrow it to a specific lab of origin.
I suspect the tests actually did narrow it to Ft. Detrick and hence that's why the closing off of labs now.
And while the target may not necessarily be Hatfill, I think the desire for an air-tight case may be that the suspect or suspects are non-ethnic, non-Muslim Americans; take an average jury, and if the defendant is either middle-eastern or muslim or foreign, and I think they win a circumstantial case easily; but to get a conviction, with an average jury, of a guy who isn't, and I think it will have to be a massive, airtight case.
There's vast amounts of nonsense out there regarding the technical aspects of the anthrax attacks, much of it by people who really don't know what they're talking about, and the number of people who do is really very, very tiny.
There's nothing about any of the anthrax that the United States or someone at a lab here "doesn't have the capability" for.
Maybe. But earlier articles, even recent ones, mentioned testing germs from here and overseas.
This story is too simple. If the tests actually narrowed it down to only Detrick, I believe they would trumpet the finding loudly. Would help insinuate Hatfill to the more knowledgeable followers of the - inculding the outspoken scientist critics.
Oh, he's the target, I would guess. They might file some lame case against him to save face - and gain leverage on Hatfill's $$$ claims.
They would have to build an air tight case because it is implausible on several counts unless there is solid factual evidence they have not leaked as to motive, opportunity, and capability.
Jerry Hauer is either a.) a government shill or b.) very gullible.
Like I've been saying all along, it's almost like the FBI has one or more people in charge of this investigation who are doing anything they can to maintain a coverup.
They've even managed to "get to" the 9/11 Commission which didn't examine the anthrax attack at all!
As Scott Shane points out, the Feds don't even need to plant evidence to indict Hatfill. They're bound to find a few spores that match - since this LAB WAS USED TO STUDY THE FRIGGIN' STUFF AFTER THE FACT!!
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.anthrax21jul21,1,7905877.story
Closing of lab marks renewed intensity in anthrax probe
'01 case evidence may be goal of Fort Detrick work
By Scott Shane
Sun National Staff
July 21, 2004
FBI anthrax investigators have closed some high-security laboratory suites at the Army's biodefense research center at Fort Detrick, apparently searching for scientific evidence as the third anniversary of the unsolved case approaches.
The temporary shutdown of much-needed lab space at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases marks a notable return of investigators to the Frederick facility where numerous employees were questioned by the FBI in the early months of the investigation. In recent months, FBI agents have seized medical records and computer hard drives from the institute, causing friction with Fort Detrick officials, according to a source in contact with the Army institute's scientists.
Neither the FBI nor the Army would describe the work being done since the labs were closed Friday. But a law enforcement official and a scientist said it has not produced a major breakthrough in the case.
Debra Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, said agents would be at the labs "for a few more days."
Investigators have shut off access to bacteriology labs in the main USAMRIID building and an adjoining building where anthrax research is done or has been done, according to the source. Only caretakers responsible for feeding research animals are being permitted to enter, the source said.
Outside scientists said the agents might be hunting for stray spores of anthrax that match the genetic and chemical signature of the anthrax mailed in September and October 2001. The FBI has said in court papers that it has engaged 19 labs to study the spores in order to trace them back to a particular facility.
Investigators have found that the mailed anthrax consists of a combination of two different samples that form slightly different patterns when the bacteria are grown in the lab, The Sun reported this month. Scientists can use this peculiarity in combination with the genetic fingerprint of the anthrax, isotopes in the water used to grow it and the properties of chemical additives to try to match the powder to its source.
Henry L. Niman, a Pittsburgh molecular biologist who has followed the anthrax case closely, noted that spores of anthrax can survive for centuries in soil, and that spores might linger in a laboratory for years after research was performed there.
"My guess is they'd be vacuuming in all the corners, hoping to find spores that match," Niman said. "If they can show it came from a certain lab, then they can see who had access to that lab."
A possible complication if a match is found at USAMRIID is that its laboratories were used extensively after the anthrax mailings to study the envelopes and their contents. So if matching spores are found, it might be difficult to prove whether they were there before the mailings or spilled during a subsequent examination of the evidence.
Sounding an alarm?
The anthrax letters, which investigators believe were put in a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., were postmarked Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, 2001. They were addressed to two Democratic U.S. senators, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, and to media organizations.
The anthrax killed five people, including two Washington, D.C., postal workers, and sickened at least 17 others, leading to the shutdown of numerous government buildings.
Because the accompanying notes included militant Islamist rhetoric and were mailed in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, investigators at first pursued the possibility that al-Qaida might be responsible.
But the notes also warned that the letters contained anthrax and urged recipients to take antibiotics, which investigators believe points to an American more intent on sounding an alarm about bioterrorism than killing large numbers of people.
Since late 2001, the investigation has appeared to focus chiefly on American biodefense laboratories, including USAMRIID, which first identified the Ames strain of anthrax used in the letters and was its main distributor.
Hatfill suit on hold
A biowarfare expert who worked at USAMRIID from 1997 to 1999, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, was followed for months in 2002 and 2003 by FBI surveillance teams. FBI investigators went to great lengths in their scrutiny of Hatfill, repeatedly searching his former apartment near Fort Detrick, bringing in bloodhounds in an attempt to trace a scent from the letters to him, and draining a pond near Frederick in search of discarded anthrax-making equipment. But since late last year, agents have rarely been seen tailing Hatfill, his acquaintances say.
Last August, Hatfill sued the FBI and Justice Department, alleging that they had wrongly targeted him as the anthrax mailer. The lawsuit has been put on hold until at least October, after the FBI told the judge that it might interfere with the investigation.
This month, Hatfill filed a second lawsuit against the New York Times and one of its columnists, Nicholas D. Kristof, claiming Kristof's columns implied he was the perpetrator.
What makes this so hilarious and absurd is that it's been a known fact for a long time that Hatfill has an ironclad alibi for the entire time period of at least one of the two mailings.
Shane's great.
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