Experts doubt anthrax attack was work of lone, rogue scientist

The Commercial Appeal & Washington Post ^ | 10/28/02 | Guy Gugliotta & Gary Matsumoto

[GailA]

Experts doubt anthrax attack was work of lone, rogue scientist

By Guy Gugliotta and Gary Matsumoto The Washington Post October 28, 2002

A significant number of scientists and biological warfare experts are expressing skepticism about the FBI's view that a single disgruntled American scientist prepared the spores and mailed the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people last year.

They say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual.

As a result, a consensus has emerged in recent months among experts familiar with the technology needed to turn anthrax spores into the deadly aerosol that was sent to Sens. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that some of the fundamental assumptions driving the FBI's investigation might be flawed.

"In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I'm one of them," said Richard Spertzel, chief biological inspector for the UN Special Commission between 1994 and 1998. "And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good."

Instead, suggested Spertzel and more than a dozen experts interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks, investigators might want to re-examine the possibility the anthrax attacks were sponsored by antoher country, or try to determine whether weaponized spores might have been stolen from some secret biodefense program or given to the attacker by an accomplice.

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[Shermy]

Bump.