Five Years Later, Anthrax Questions Swirl Anew at FBI

Newhouse ^ | October 13, 2006 | Kevin Coughlin

[Shermy]

Nobody has been arrested for the anthrax mailings of 2001, but many people have paid for the crime.

Five died and at least 17 others got sick.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been frustrated. Careers have crumbled. Taxpayers have gotten socked for billions of dollars to shore up bioterror defenses that some experts say still fall short.

Now, an analysis from the FBI itself, buried in a microbiology journal, is raising more questions about the investigation.

In the August issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, FBI scientist Douglas Beecher sought to set the record straight. Anthrax spores mailed to politicians and journalists in September and October 2001, Beecher wrote, were not prepared using advanced techniques and additives to make them more lethal, contrary to "a widely circulated misconception."

The notion the anthrax spores were "weaponized" had fueled conjecture that only a government insider could have carried out the operation.

Beecher's article suggested a much wider universe of potential suspects -- who showed they could kill without highly refined spores.

"A clever high school student" could make such a preparation, according to Ronald Atlas, former president of the American Society for Microbiology and co-director of the Center for Health Hazards Preparedness at the University of Louisville.

The Beecher paper has left Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., wondering if the killings, which further shook a nation already reeling from the Sept. 11 terror attacks, will ever be solved. He blames the FBI for "botching" the case.

Agents spun their wheels chasing a small circle of weapons experts, Holt said.

In the anthrax attacks, Steven Hatfill, a virologist who had worked for the government, landed in the cross-hairs. Labeled a "person of interest" by officials but never charged, the scientist claims the public probe has made him unemployable. He is suing the government and media outlets.

Kenneth Berry's career also unraveled after the FBI searched a Dover Township, N.J., summer home he was visiting in 2004. Berry was a doctor from upstate New York who started an organization for training emergency workers to deal with biochemical attacks. He never was charged, either.

Holt also chides authorities for taking nearly a year to discover anthrax traces in a mailbox near Princeton University. That mailbox, where letters laced with anthrax bacteria may have begun their journey in 2001, is on a route that feeds the Hamilton Township postal center where anthrax letters were processed.

In a letter to Holt, FBI Assistant Director Eleni Kalisch declined to give a closed-door briefing to the House Intelligence Committee. Kalisch claimed sensitive information was leaked from classified briefings more than three years ago, and described the anthrax case as a criminal matter not subject to the committee's oversight.

Some cases take time to crack, Kalisch wrote. Seventeen FBI agents and 10 postal inspectors remain on the "Amerithrax" beat. The FBI said the anthrax investigation has spanned six continents and generated more than 9,100 interviews, 67 searches and 6,000 subpoenas.

Early on, the FBI hoped that analysis of the spores would point to the lab that prepared them. But Beecher's article underscores difficulties of such microscopic sleuthing. Particle sizes, for instance, may not yield as many clues as some expected.

Over time, after being handled and exposed to different conditions, particles "may not resemble the initial product," Beecher wrote.

Yet the FBI is confident, and has forged scientific ties and advances to help prevent future biological attacks, said Joseph Persichini Jr., acting assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, on the FBI's Web site.

Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University microbiologist, still thinks the anthrax attacks were an inside job because they used a virulent form of the Ames strain of Bacillus anthracis, which only a few biodefense- or intelligence-related labs were thought to possess.

"Whoever did it is an insider," said Ayaad Assaad, a toxicologist with the Environmental Protection Agency, who formerly worked at an Army biodefense center at Fort Detrick, Md. "It started with anthrax. Now it's ricin, and God knows what's coming."

Ed Lake has tracked the case closely, self-publishing a book, "Analyzing the Anthrax Attacks, The First Three Years" and moderating a Web site. Lake is convinced the FBI knows the perpetrator but lacks evidence to prosecute. He believes the killer is a scientist from central New Jersey who wanted America to gird for an al-Qaida bioterror attack in the wake of Sept. 11.

"So he sent a warning to the media, saying this is next, there's a biological attack coming next, and be prepared: Take penicillin," said Lake, referring to hand-printed letters, bearing New Jersey postmarks, sent to NBC and the New York Post.

Leon Harris retired last year from the Hamilton Township postal center. He too suspects the bad guys are home-grown and will be caught.

"I don't care if it takes 10 years," the Air Force veteran said. "They're going to find them."

Ernesto Blanco agreed. He survived inhalational anthrax that killed his friend Bob Stevens, a colleague at a tabloid in Florida, five years ago this month. Blanco, now 79, returned to his mailroom job at American Media Inc. in 2002.

"I am positive they will catch them," Blanco said. "I have faith in what they are doing."

TIMELINE

Key dates in the 5-year-old investigation of the anthrax attacks:

2001:

Sept. 18: Postal facility in Hamilton Township, N.J., processes anthrax-laced letters to NBC News in New York and the New York Post.

Oct. 5: Bob Stevens, photo editor at Florida tabloid the Sun dies from inhalational anthrax.

Oct. 9: Hamilton Township facility processes anthrax letters to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy. Both letters have return address of fictitious "Greendale School" in Franklin Park, N.J.

Oct. 16: U.S. Senate closes; employees are tested for exposure to anthrax microbes.

Oct. 17: The House shuts down.

Oct. 18: Hamilton Township facility is closed.

Oct. 21: Washington postal worker Thomas Morris Jr. dies from anthrax.

Oct. 22: Washington postal worker Joseph Curseen dies from anthrax.

Oct. 31: Kathy Nguyen, who worked in a New York City hospital supply room, dies from anthrax.

Nov. 21: Ottilie Lundgren, 94, of Oxford, Conn., dies from anthrax. Authorities suspect her mail was contaminated by other mail.

[snip - more at link]

[jpl]

For anyone to believe the J-Lo letter contained anthrax, they must totally ignore the FACTS.

Did you happen to be paying attention to the news several days ago when the Yankees pitcher crashed his airplane into the building?

I know this may seem like a ridiculous question from out of the blue, but bear with me here for a moment, I'm asking for a serious reason.

[EdLake]

Incredible, you cite the CDC article as your authority that the JLo letter didn't contain anthrax, and yet that article concludes it DID contain anthrax!

I looked at ALL the evidence. The evidence doesn't support the CDC's "conclusions".

It appears that the CDC is simply reporting on testimony without actually evaluating what was said. They had lots of testimony about the J-Lo letter. But that doesn't mean it contained anthrax. It just means a lot more people remembered that letter than the actual anthrax letter.

It appears to be another false bureaucratic assumption, just like AFIP's false assumption that detecting silicon and oxygen in the attack anthrax meant the powder had been "weaponized" with silica.

If conclusions are NOT supported by the facts, I look for a different explanation which IS supported by the facts. I don't blindly accept any bureaucrat's word about anything.

Ed

[Battle Axe]

Yeah, I know there wasn't room in that building for printing presses, but the perps didn't know that.

[EdLake]

Did you happen to be paying attention to the news several days ago when the Yankees pitcher crashed his airplane into the building?

It was the lead news story for days. How could anyone not know about it?

Ed

[TrebleRebel]

Oh yeah, I forgot. You know more than a team of CDC scientists, a team of scientists from AFIP, Detrick, you know more than John Parker, Ari Fleischer.
You know that, in spite of the FBI Lab's demonstrated track record of wrongdoing, with scientists admitting under oath they had published false results, that THIS time they didn't.

[TrebleRebel]

"I don't blindly accept any bureaucrat's word about anything."

Except an FBI lab scientist who publishes a paper with a bogus reference for his assertion, and doesn't provide a shred of evidence. That, you do accept, naturally.

[EdLake]

You know more than a team of CDC scientists, a team of scientists from AFIP, Detrick, you know more than John Parker, Ari Fleischer.

I don't know that the CDC still believes (or ever believed) the J-Lo letter contained anthrax. I just know the facts say that letter did NOT contain anthrax.

General Parker realized that USAMRIID had made a mistake in viewing chemical-saturated anthrax under the TEM, and he corrected that mistake as best he could in his briefings on October 31. He also made it very clear that there were a lot of things about the powder that still weren't fully understood at that time.

Like everyone else, Ari Fleischer may have made false assumptions in the early days of the investigation, but when he wrote his book "Taking The Heat" years later, he made it clear that AFIP only detected silicon and oxygen. He doesn't say anything in his book about there being silica in the anthrax. He wrote,

I dug deep into the story. I spoke not only to officials at the NSC but to researchers themselves at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology [AFIP]. They told me the Daschle anthrax contained silicon and oxygen but not aluminum.

Ed

[EdLake]

"I don't blindly accept any bureaucrat's word about anything."

Except an FBI lab scientist who publishes a paper with a bogus reference for his assertion, and doesn't provide a shred of evidence. That, you do accept, naturally.

What he said is supported by the facts. I didn't just accept what he wrote. What he wrote confirmed what I wrote in March 2005 in my book. And what I wrote in my book is what the FACTS indicate.

Ed

[TrebleRebel]

Oh, I see, so your authority is your own book. Gee, it must be true then if you wrote it in your book.

[jpl]

The reason I ask is because if you were following the news story closely while it was breaking, you know that the initial news reports were extremely convoluted and jumbled, with much of the information being dead wrong. The reason why is because some of the eyewitnesses reported seeing a small airplane, whil others reported seeing a helicopter. Some reported seeing the plane doing "acrobatics", while others claimed seeing the opposite.

My point is that you want to be very careful about claiming that people's recollections about what they did, where they were, what they saw, and what they said are indisputable, rock-solid FACTS. This is particularly true when you're talking about an event that happened days or weeks ago. People are very often wrong in their recollections, even when they're honestly sure that they're right. This can be true even if they're recalling something that happened mere minutes before in a stressful situation.

[EdLake]

Oh, I see, so your authority is your own book. Gee, it must be true then if you wrote it in your book.

My book explains in detail how I came to my conclusions. It shows all the FACTS, what the facts indicated, and how the FACTS support my analysis.

I note you do not discuss facts. You only discuss your beliefs and attack anyone who does not believe as you believe.

You should look at the facts sometime. They can be very interesting -- even if they do not support your beliefs.

Ed

[EdLake]

My point is that you want to be very careful about claiming that people's recollections about what they did, where they were, what they saw, and what they said are indisputable, rock-solid FACTS. This is particularly true when you're talking about an event that happened days or weeks ago. People are very often wrong in their recollections, even when they're honestly sure that they're right. This can be true even if they're recalling something that happened mere minutes before in a stressful situation.

And that is MY point exactly. That is why I do not accept the common belief that the J-Lo letter contained anthrax. It simply isn't supported by the FACTS.

I also explain in detail in Chapter 15 of my book how people at Ft. Detrick were very excited and making mistakes during the early days of the investigation. I show how the FACTS indicate what is really true, versus what was believed to be true back then. Chapter 15 of my book is titled "To Err Is Human" and can be read by clicking HERE.

Ed

[TrebleRebel]

"I show how the FACTS indicate what is really true, versus what was believed to be true back then."

Except, of course, that AFIP published their Newsletter stating that silica was a key aerosolizing component ONE FULL YEAR AFTER the attacks. Plenty of time for hundreds of hours of data analysis by SEM/EDX experts such as Florabel Mullick, Frank Johnson, Marie Jenkins and Victor Kalasinsky to have studied the results from the single most important sample for analysis that had ever entered their lab.

Frank Johnson died last year. His obituary was published in another AFIP newsletter. One of the highlights of his long career is listed as his findings of additives in the Daschle anthrax. That was written in 2005.
http://www.afip.org/images/public/FALL05Letter.pdf
....and in 2001 he helped identify specific components of the anthrax found in the letter sent to Senator Thomas Daschle.

[muawiyah]

Yes, they may have thought they'd get universal coverage, but more importantly is the "symbolic value". They thought they were attacking America's premiere newspaper!

And how right they were (doggone it).

[muawiyah]

Yes, they may have thought they'd get universal coverage, but more importantly is the "symbolic value". They thought they were attacking America's premiere newspaper!

And how right they were (doggone it).

[muawiyah]

The terrorists didn't know that Ed. We kept some thing ssecret from them ~ like where they print National Enquirer.

[EdLake]

Except, of course, that AFIP published their Newsletter stating that silica was a key aerosolizing component ONE FULL YEAR AFTER the attacks. Plenty of time for hundreds of hours of data analysis by SEM/EDX experts such as Florabel Mullick, Frank Johnson, Marie Jenkins and Victor Kalasinsky to have studied the results from the single most important sample for analysis that had ever entered their lab.

The FACTS say that Tom Geisbert took a prepared sample of the Daschle anthrax to AFIP on the morning of October 25, 2001. By noon they had the results. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Tom Geisbert didn't take the sample with him when he returned to USAMRIID. It would make no sense for him to leave the sample there. There just wasn't enough material to give away samples to people who didn't need it. He only went to AFIP because USAMRIID didn't have an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (EDX), so he had to use theirs.

AFIP didn't have more than a few hours to do the examination with the EDX. And they could easily have still believed their assumptions a year later, since they were clearly "out of the loop".

If you have FACTS which say otherwise, let's see them.

Johnson's obit says:

in 2001 he helped identify specific components of the anthrax found in the letter sent to Senator Thomas Daschle.

The "components" (plural) he helped identify were silicon and oxygen.

If you have any FACTS to support your beliefs, let's see them. Stating your beliefs over and over doesn't turn them into facts.

Ed

[EdLake]

They thought they were attacking America's premiere newspaper!

I find it extremely difficult to accept or take seriously anything said by someone who evidently believes he can read the minds of Islamic terrorists and believes they didn't know the difference between a supermarket tabloid and The New York Times.

Some beliefs are just beyond ridiculous.

Ed

[TrebleRebel]

"If you have any FACTS to support your beliefs, let's see them."
Sure:



When US Army investigators at Ft Detrick, Md, examined anthrax found in a letter sent to Sen. Thomas Daschle last fall, they discovered that the highly refined spores floated in the air, making them much easier for potential victims to inhale. What made this anthrax so easily aerosolized? A series of sophisticated tests revealed some clues, but the presence of another unidentifiable substance left the investigation incomplete. That’s when Ft Detrick contacted AFIP’s Department of Environmental and Toxicologic Pathology for assistance.

"Ft Detrick sought our assistance to determine the specific components of the anthrax found in the Daschle letter," said Florabel G. Mullick, MD, ScD, SES, AFIP Principal Deputy Director and department chair. AFIP experts utilized an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (an instrument used to detect the presence of otherwise-unseen chemicals through characteristic wavelengths of X-ray light) to confirm the previously unidentifiable substance as silica. "This was a key component," Mullick said. "Silica prevents the anthrax from aggregating, making it easier to aerosolize.

[Southack]

"The "components" (plural) he helped identify were silicon and oxygen."

Silicon (Si) and Oxygen (O2), when seen together, are known as Silica (i.e. Silicon dioxide).