Anthrax Probe in Md. / FBI agents search apt. of former U.S. expert

New York Daily News ^ | 6/26/02 | HELEN KENNEDY

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON

FBI agents working the stalled anthrax investigation spent hours searching the Maryland home of a former government bioweapons expert yesterday.

They cautioned that the man was not a suspect and said he consented to the search to eliminate himself from suspicion.

"He is part of a larger group of scientists who, because of their expertise and access, are of interest to us," a law enforcement official said.

The quality of the deadly anthrax spores, which were sent through the mail in October and killed five people, points toward someone from the government's secret bioweapons program, experts said.

Starting at 10 a.m., a dozen agents scoured the apartment in a three-story complex adjacent to Fort Detrick, headquarters of the bioweapons program.

The scientist had worked at Fort Detrick within the past few years, officials said.

ABC News identified him as Steven Hatfield.

In the early evening, the agents were seen carrying numerous black garbage bags from the building and loading them into a panel truck.

An analysis of the powder mailed in October showed it was made within two years of the attack. That suggested the perpetrator was an expert with access to sophisticated lab equipment.

The search came as the Internet buzzed with new allegations.

SUNY-Purchase Prof. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, who leads the Federation of American Scientists' working group on biological weapons, has said for months the suspect must be someone within the small biodefense community.

One Suspect

In an article published online this week, Rosenberg said the prime suspect is a scientist formerly involved in secret anthrax work whose job was to game out bioterror scenarios.

She did not name the suspect, but said he is part of "a clique that includes high-level former USAMRIID scientists and high-level former FBI officials." USAMRIID is the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

The article, which suggested the possibility of a coverup, appeared on redflagsweekly.com.

It was not known whether her suspect is the man whose apartment was searched.

Rosenberg said her suspect had a career setback late last summer that "left him angry and depressed."

[Ordinary_American]

From the Baltimore Sun:

He was interviewed by FBI agents and given a polygraph test early this year, which he passed...

Hatfill has worked in recent years for the McLean, Va., office of Science Applications International Corp., a large defense contractor. But the government lifted his security clearance in July 2001, according to SAIC officials.

After waiting to see whether the clearance would be restored, SAIC dismissed Hatfill in March, the officials said.

In 1997, Hatfill told a Washington Times columnist it would not be hard to mount a biological attack. "Dr. Hatfill, who is familiar with such things, showed me how to culture bacteria with supplies that can be bought at Safeway," wrote columnist Fred Reed.

The next year Hatfill, then at the National Institutes of Health, was photographed for Insight magazine demonstrating "how a determined terrorist could cook up a batch of plague in his or her own kitchen, using common household ingredients and protective equipment from the supermarket."

[angkor]

http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=213831

National Institutes of Health researcher Steven Hatfill demonstrates how a determined terrorist could cook up a batch of plague in his or her own kitchen using common household ingredients and protective equipment from the supermarket.

A homemade broth culture, based on recipes published by Louis Pasteur in the late 1800s, could be incubated in an ordinary electric oven set at a low temperature. An Army surplus gas mask, garbage bags, duct tape and dishwashing gloves complete the chemical chef's fashion ensemble. Household bleach decontaminates working surfaces.

For this photo opportunity, Hatfill left out the secret ingredient - namely the plague bacteria - which an enterprising terrorist could collect from a prairie-dog habitat in the American Southwest, where it is endemic. Hatfill "weaponizes" the batch by pouring it into a hiker's water bag attached to a homemade sprayer. In one scenario, a terrorist in a wheelchair, highly inoculated with antibiotics, could conceal the device under a tracksuit and wheel through a crowded area, spraying as he or she went.">National Institutes of Health researcher Steven Hatfill demonstrates how a determined terrorist could cook up a batch of plague in his or her own kitchen using common household ingredients and protective equipment from the supermarket.

A homemade broth culture, based on recipes published by Louis Pasteur in the late 1800s, could be incubated in an ordinary electric oven set at a low temperature. An Army surplus gas mask, garbage bags, duct tape and dishwashing gloves complete the chemical chef's fashion ensemble. Household bleach decontaminates working surfaces.

For this photo opportunity, Hatfill left out the secret ingredient - namely the plague bacteria - which an enterprising terrorist could collect from a prairie-dog habitat in the American Southwest, where it is endemic. Hatfill "weaponizes" the batch by pouring it into a hiker's water bag attached to a homemade sprayer. In one scenario, a terrorist in a wheelchair, highly inoculated with antibiotics, could conceal the device under a tracksuit and wheel through a crowded area, spraying as he or she went.