[CPEO-MEF] BIODEFENSE: Another look at the anthrax investigation

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Newly released files cloud FBI's anthrax finding

By STEPHEN ENGELBERG, GREG GORDON, JIM GILMORE AND MIKE WISER
ProPublica, McClatchy Newspapers and PBS' Frontline
Kansas City Star
October 11, 2011

In early 2002, federal agents who were hunting the anthrax killer  
were trying to winnow a suspect list that numbered in the hundreds.  
They knew only that they were looking for someone with access to the  
rare Ames strain of anthrax used in research labs around the world.  
Profilers said the perpetrator probably was an American with "an  
agenda."

The powder-laced letters, which killed five people, contained no  
fingerprints, hair or human DNA but they did offer one solid  
microscopic clue: The lethal spores in the powder were dotted with  
genetically distinct variants known as morphs.

So agents set out on an arduous task: Collect samples from Ames  
anthrax cultures around the world, sort through them and find one  
with morphs that matched the attack powder. Then they'd have a line  
on where the murder weapon was made and, perhaps, the identity of the  
killer.

Bruce Ivins, an Army scientist at Fort Detrick, Md., had a good idea  
where the inquiry was headed. In the months after the attacks, he'd  
schooled federal agents in the intricacies of anthrax, explaining how  
the telltale morphs can arise from one generation to the next.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/11/3199774/newly-released-files- 
cloud-fbis.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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