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http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_10157273

Fairfield resident recalls time at Fort Detrick; worked with suspected anthrax terrorist

Ten years have passed since Fairfield resident Luann Battersby crossed paths as a coworker with a man the government said was the lone person responsible for deadly anthrax attacks, but Battersby said she never would have suspected him.

Battersby worked for eight years as a microbiologist for the government at Fort Detrick in Frederick County, Md., in the same department as Bruce Ivins, the Army scientist who committed suicide last month amid an FBI investigation. The Justice Department said Wednesday Ivins was the “only person responsible” for anthrax attacks that killed five people in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The FBI spoke to Battersby in 2001 about the situation, she said, and the incident involved a polygraph. The field agents she dealt with were “reasonable,” Battersby said.

“They knew I wasn’t a reasonable suspect,” she said. “But then again, I wouldn’t have suspected Bruce (Ivins) to be a reasonable suspect.”

....Senate Sergeant at Arms Terence Gainer attended Wednesday’s briefing for the victims’ families and said FBI agents told the group there was no evidence anyone else was involved in the attacks.

Battersby described Ivins as “more bottled up,” which she said was not unusual for a scientist. He was weird, she said, but “not any weirder than a typical scientist.”

“He was not the weirdest by far I worked with down there,” Battersby said.

Battersby would be surprised at anyone committing suicide, she said, but she never saw Ivins as a “strong person.”

“I would say he was milquetoast,” Battersby said. “The fact that he was a terrorist doesn’t really square with my opinion with who he was.”

...”I’m amazed at all this,” Battersby said. “I assume there’s evidence and that it’s true, but I certainly never would have suspected (Ivins).”

Battersby and Ivins worked in the same division but in different parts of the Fort Detrick complex: Battersby in bacteriology, doing work with immunology, and Ivins in biocontainment. Their similar employment meant Battersby and Ivins endured the same dreary Friday-afternoon meetings, Battersby said. She knew Ivins a little professionally, seeing him in the lab from time to time, but did not know much about his personal life.

“I thought he was completely harmless, if you ask me,” Battersby said of Ivins. “Maybe I didn’t know him that well.”

...”Seven years is a long time to do DNA fingerprinting to figure this out,” Battersby said. “It seems like an awful long time.”

...”Any competent microbiologist can grow up a culture of anthrax,” she said. “It’s not tough. Weaponizing it is a different issue.”

Battersby said she was amazed the person behind the anthrax attacks was someone who worked there. Instead, she said, she thought it was someone who had traveled to the United States. And while there were foreigners working at Fort Detrick, she said, she does not remember any working for the anthrax program.

...While civilians like Battersby work at Fort Detrick, the site has military management, she said. And some people, such as those who want to advance their careers, have stayed quiet about their experience there, according to Battersby.

But the few people not worried about talking about their experience with the government should talk, she said.

“It’s painful to me on a whole bunch of levels,” Battersby said. “I feel like I should tell my story because I know I can.”