Anthrax Linked To Lab
According to one source who has been briefed on the investigation, Ivins was one of fewer than a dozen people with access to the particular supply of anthrax they now believe was used in the 2001 attacks. In the seven years since the attacks, technology has improved and, sources say, investigators are now able to tie the anthrax bacteria to the Department of Defense lab in Maryland where the scientist worked.
Investigators now believe the anthrax used in the attacks was actually a mixture of spores with slight genetic variations, which gives it a specific signature and, more important, links it almost exclusively to the lab where Ivins worked.
One source familiar with the case against Ivins says the FBI has amassed an exhaustive report of times Ivins entered and left the lab in the days and weeks before the deadly letters were sent. The source says the logs show Ivins using the lab where the anthrax was present at times that could be viewed as suspicious, including late at night when he was there alone.
Ivins also had access to a sophisticated freeze-dryer, which could have been used to turn the wet bacteria into a dry form. Ivins' co-worker Jeff Adamovicz says he remembers the unit, called a lyopholizer, in the hallway and says it was used to dry protein samples for vaccine work. Adamovicz said the dryer was signed out to Ivins. Adamovicz remembers FBI agents testing the dryer, but they never hauled it away, a sign that it most likely came up clean. An additional piece of equipment would also have been required to mill the dried spores into a powdered form.
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