FBI Raid On Berry Property
Dr Kenneth Berry
Person of Interest
Posted on 08/05/2005 9:14:03 AM PDT by Gene Vidocq
I-Team 10 has a follow up to the anthrax investigation that led agents to the southern tier a year ago. On August 5, 2004 FBI agents raided the home of a doctor in the town of Wellsville. Since then, Doctor Kenneth Berry has neither been charged, nor formally cleared.
The FBI never said, what, if anything they found from their search of Dr. Berry's home but the investigation apparently never yielded anything that implicated berry in any wrongdoing. Still, the publicity surrounding the raid has left him in legal limbo.
Dr. Berry’s home sits quietly on a hill in the southern tier town of Wellsville but a year ago, in dramatic fashion, it became the focal point of an intense federal investigation.
The FBI was looking for clues into the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed 5 people and sickened 17 others.
A year after the raid, the man at the center of the investigation, Dr. Kenneth Berry, has never been charged. He also has never been cleared of suspicion.
Reverend Dick Helms is an internet pastor and close friend of Berry. "It's outrageous that the FBI and the investigators have not publicly cleared him, although they have privately and verbally told him and his attorney that he is no longer under investigation. He has reason to be bitter. It shouldn't have happened. He has reason to be angry."
Kenneth Berry was a small town emergency room doctor with a big interest in the threat of bio-terrorism. He was director of the emergency room at Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville from 1996 to 2001. Colleagues, like ER Nurse Manager Joan Hand, say he spoke constantly of the importance of emergency response to a biological attack. She shared an office with Dr. Berry. "All of the staff was aware of his concerns and his interest. He was very interested in our ems system, anti-terrorism, and in particular the anthrax threat."
So much so that he started an organization called pre-empt designed to train medical professionals on how to respond to a biological attack.
Berry lectured on the threats of anthrax and spoke at conferences on domestic terrorism.
Ironically, it's his level of interest in the topic that probably drew investigators to his doorstep.
Dr. Berry knew a few months prior to the raid here at his house in Wellsville that he was under investigation by the FBI. In fact, he and some of his associates had been interviewed by investigators. But it was the very public search of his home that friends say began his professional and personal descent."
Images of agents in protective suits removing items from his home in full view of TV cameras angered the doctor. They also raided his parent's beach home in New Jersey where he was staying with his family as cameras captured footage from above.
"It didn't surprise him that they came to look through his home. They could have brought two or 3 agents and quietly done it," said Helms.
In his only interview since the raid, berry told the local Wellsville paper in March that he cooperated with the FBI and in return, the investigation has destroyed his life.
A dispute with his wife on the day of the raids led to assault charges and she has since filed for divorce. A fight has ensued over custody of their son.
Professionally, he lost his job at a Pittsburgh hospital where he commuted and claims his reputation is ruined.
"There's a lot of us that feel they didn't prove anything and what did they have to base their investigation on," said Hand.
The FBI tells I-Team 10 it will not comment on Berry or the case.
Did Berry fit a profile agents were looking for? Shortly after the anthrax mailings, he received patents related to bio-terrorism including one for a surveillance system that would detect an attack. His pre-empt website also flaunted credentials and powerful connections. He had reportedly bragged of having contacts in Washington that included former senator Sam Nunn and retired admiral William Crowe.
Reached at home by I-Team 10 the retired admiral said quote: "I have no knowledge whatsoever of Kenneth berry. No recollection of every meeting him."
Still, his longtime friend Pastor Helms says Berry is a pioneer in homeland security and is owed a major apology. “They have totally destroyed this man. Totally destroyed him. Without cause."
I-Team 10 contacted doctor berry by phone and he referred us to his attorney who would not say if the doctor plans to sue the federal government.
Dr. Berry still has his medical license, but is unable to find work as a doctor.
Pastor Helms says his friend is developing a small business and may at some point decide to write a book.
FBI Raid On Berry Property
Dr Kenneth Berry
Person of Interest
Ping.
ping
>>>>Images of agents in protective suits removing items from his home in full view of TV cameras angered the doctor. They also raided his parent's beach home in New Jersey where he was staying with his family as cameras captured footage from above.
Why wasn't NJ ever named as an axis of evil in GWB's SOTU?
Interestingly, that puts the investigation start date in the vicinity of September 18, 2001, the date of the first anthrax mailing.
Curious, no?
-A dispute with his wife on the day of the raids led to assault charges and she has since filed for divorce.-
What, did he smack her around a bit, or vice versa?
OK, what's an 'internet pastor'?
Who put the bug in the FBI's ear?
Internet Pastor Dave
I thought that was just 'Scary Cat Guy Who Lives Around the Corner'.
"You will remember the 1997 B'nai B'rith bacillus cereus incident was also of great interest to another subject of interest in the anthrax investigation.
Amazing the people who were on the DoD payroll as consultants to be protecting the country from bioterror have turned out to compose the small pool of suspects in the crime of killing Americans with anthrax.
Berry was a consultant on WMD to the Defense Department, and the FAA, and a part time pilot. But how did he ever presumably get access to anthrax?"
Posted by Laura at August 5, 2004 05:27 PM
"Accused scientist says letter links to anthrax mailers
The FBI won't release an anonymous letter, which in the days before the 2001 fatal anthrax mailings, accused an Egyptian-born scientist of plotting biowarfare against the United States, saying it would divulge secret sources in the continuing investigation.
In a July 7 note citing the sources, the FBI denied Ayaad Assaad, the letter's subject, access to the evidence. Mr. Assaad said he's convinced it is linked to a person or a group responsible for the anthrax mailings that killed five persons.
"They know damn well that this letter is connected to the anthrax sender," he said, adding that the FBI's refusal to provide a copy suggests "they're trying to protect whoever sent it."
He said he suspects it led investigators to the Army's biodefense lab at Fort Detrick.
Asked about the anonymous letter Friday, a spokeswoman at the FBI's Washington field office said it is "unrelated to the anthrax mailings."
However, that assertion hasn't stopped the bureau from withholding it for nearly two years from Mr. Assaad.
According to the July 7 note to him, in which the Justice Department denied his latest request for a copy of the letter, releasing it "could reasonably be expected to disclose the identities of confidential sources and information by such sources....."
By Guy Taylor THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Randall Flagg
Yo - Randy...is this really you? Kinda reminds one of TGS. Remember TGS, THE quintessential anthrax expert?
I feel so much safer now (eyeballs rolling up to the ceiling).
"The government is never going to arrest and charge anyone in this case,"
Perhaps - perhaps not. Why do you think not?
BTW - I've wodered why this "FBI" guy would want to know
who wrote the Quantico letter AFTER Assaad already spoke to the FBI about it. Any thoughts?
"On the night of March 12, Ayaad Assaad received a call
from a person representing himself as a Louisiana F.B.I.
agent. The caller demanded to know if Assaad had been told
who wrote the Quantico letter. To prove his credentials, the
caller rattled off personal information from as far back as
Assaad's Egyptian high school -- the Arabic name of which he
pronounced correctly. Assaad believes he recognized the
caller's source of information: he was likely reading from
Assaad's confidential SF-171, a U.S.-government employment
application form that had been on file at USAMRIID. "
Because I simply don't think the government really has any clue who actually did it, and we're closing in on four years now since the events took place.
Any law enforcement person will tell you that when that much time passes by, the odds of making a bust are remarkably slim. Look at how difficult it was to bust the Unabomber, who was a serial criminal who committed his acts over a period of almost 20 years. And if his brother hadn't turned him in, he might well have remained on the loose to this day.
Bump....
Brother Dave Kaczynski
As you must know, there is no statute of limitations on murder. Evil Genius or not, the Unabomber insisted upon having his Manifesto published for the world to see.
Mental illness or vanity or both finally did him in. His brother recognized certain peculiarities in the writing and the jig was up.
Wonder if the anthrax mailer has a brother?
An accomplice or two might be good enough, no?
Can they really trust one another still
... and for how long??
Not much else reminds one of TGS. He is 1 of a kind.
Except for his aliases of course.
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