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For nearly seven years, scientist Bruce E. Ivins and a small circle of fellow anthrax specialists at Fort Detrick's Army medical lab lived in a curious limbo: They served as occasional consultants for the FBI in the investigation of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, yet they were all potential suspects. Over lunch in the bacteriology division, nervous scientists would share stories about their latest unpleasant encounters with the FBI and ponder whether they should hire criminal defense lawyers, according to one of Ivins's former supervisors. In tactics that the researchers considered heavy-handed and often threatening, they were interviewed and polygraphed...

Army investigators on Friday blamed a one-star general who now works at Aberdeen Proving Ground and 11 other people for management failures they say contributed to the accidental shipment of live anthrax to labs around the globe over several years. Army investigators who reviewed Dugway Proving Ground in Utah wrote that Brig. Gen. William E. King IV perpetuated a "complacent atmosphere" when he commanded the lab at the installation. Workers at Dugway mistakenly shipped live anthrax to 194 other labs in the United States and overseas, including to Aberdeen Proving Ground and other sites in Maryland.

The Pentagon confirmed Wednesday that live anthrax was shipped from a lab in Utah to other states.

The Blaze reports Thursday that Dugway Proving Ground, an Army base about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, was locked down for several hours because a small amount of toxic nerve gas was unaccounted for. According to a statement released by the Army, less than a quarter teaspoon of deadly VX nerve agent went missing. VX, the most toxic nerve agent ever developed, is an odorless, colorless, tasteless liquid that can kill within 15 minutes of exposure, according to a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). The agent, first developed in 1952, has been designated a "weapon of mass destruction."...

I never give time frames, because you never know where you'll have sufficient evidence to go public with a prosecution, " Mueller said.

The U.S. military has begun testing massive high-tech dirigibles — designed to provide battlefield commanders with a bird's-eye view of cruise missiles or other threats — in the skies over the Utah desert. An unmanned 242-foot-long balloon was launched Wednesday morning about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. It stayed aloft for about three hours before it was pulled back down as planned, according to Paula Nicholson, a spokeswoman for Dugway Proving Ground. Vast tracts of military-owned desert were chosen for the testing because of their remoteness and resemblance to the mountainous, arid environment of Afghanistan, the military said...

Still No Suspect in 2001 Anthrax Attacks By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP)--The FBI's investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks has yet to produce a suspect but remains active after 28 months, focusing on trying to determine who could have had the expertise to engineer the deadly spores. FBI Director Robert Mueller is briefed each week on the progress of the investigation, dubbed ``Amerithrax'' by the bureau. The FBI considers the case one of the most complex in its 95-year history. ``It is active and ongoing,'' FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell said Tuesday. Anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed in the...

When the anthrax mailers penned the message, "YOU CAN NOT STOP US. WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX," the threat included a chilling nuance that remains largely unrecognized. "ARE YOU AFRAID?" asked the attackers. "Yes," should have been the answer, according to some biodefense experts, who think that the anthrax spores mailed to Senators Thomas Daschle (D-- SD) and Patrick Leahy (D--VT) in the fall of 2001 represented the state of the art in bioweapons refinement, revealing telltale clues about the source. This view is controversial, however, because others dispute the sophistication of the Senate powder, and a schism now exists among...

Toxic Tugs - Public Poisons by J.B. Stone - 04/17/02 What do Maryland, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Johnston Atoll, and the Marshall Islands have in common? BioChemical warfare tests were conducted in all of them behind a blinding haze of Cold War secrecy. And hardly a word of warning was ever issued, before during, or afterward the test conductors, subjects, or citizens living in surrounding areas. Marine jets and Army artillery sprayed "harmless simulants" and live biological and chemical agents on unsuspecting citizens for 15 years on land and sea during Operation Deseret. The randomly selected human test rats onboard ships...

Toxic Tugs - Public Poisons by J.B. Stone - 04/17/02 What do Maryland, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Johnston Atoll, and the Marshall Islands have in common? BioChemical warfare tests were conducted in all of them behind a blinding haze of Cold War secrecy. And hardly a word of warning was ever issued, before during, or afterward the test conductors, subjects, or citizens living in surrounding areas. Marine jets and Army artillery sprayed "harmless simulants" and live biological and chemical agents on unsuspecting citizens for 15 years on land and sea during Operation Deseret. The randomly selected human test rats onboard ships...