Sandia National Laboratories Demonstrated That Anthrax letters Contained Non-Weaponized Form

Sandia's material characterization analysts (from left to right) Joseph Michael, Paul Kotula, and manager Ray Goehner (photo by Randy Montoya).

"Sandia’s work demonstrated to the FBI that the form of bacillus anthracis contained in those letters was not a weaponized form, a form of the bacteria prepared to disperse more readily. The possibility of a weaponized form was of great concern to investigators, says Joseph Michael, the principal investigator for the project. This information was crucial in ruling out state-sponsored terrorism."--Sandia National Laboratories (8-21-08)

On Tuesday, September 16, 2008, the Director of the FBI Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary Committee and there was some discussion of the Amerithrax (anthrax) investigation. [Scroll down to relevant commentary at Anthraxinvestigation.com]

Some politicians, scientists, and writers were critical of the FBI investigation because of confusion about the issue of "weaponized" anthrax, or anthrax coated with silica. In the days after the anthrax attack, three top scientists claimed the anthrax was weaponized.

These scientists were William C. Patrick III, Richard Spertzel, and Al Zelicoff; but did these scientists actually see the silica coating on the spores?

A 2003 (revised 2004) article by a blogger named Ed Lake points out that the anthrax could contain silica without being weaponized. Mr. Lake's article "Were the anthrax spores coated with silica or not?" seems to be making some points that dovetail with the evidence that scientists at Sandia who helped the FBI are now revealing.

Richard Spertzel wrote a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal (8-5-08) that claimed that the FBI's suspect Bruce Ivins could not have perpetrated the anthrax attack:

Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001.

But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.

I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.

Let's start with the anthrax in the letters to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it. Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute.

Information released by the FBI over the past seven years indicates a product of exceptional quality. The product contained essentially pure spores. The particle size was 1.5 to 3 microns in diameter. There are several methods used to produce anthrax that small. But most of them require milling the spores to a size small enough that it can be inhaled into the lower reaches of the lungs. In this case, however, the anthrax spores were not milled.

What's more, they were also tailored to make them potentially more dangerous. According to a FBI news release from November 2001, the particles were coated by a "product not seen previously to be used in this fashion before." Apparently, the spores were coated with a polyglass which tightly bound hydrophilic silica to each particle. That's what was briefed (according to one of my former weapons inspectors at the United Nations Special Commission) by the FBI to the German Foreign Ministry at the time.

Another FBI leak indicated that each particle was given a weak electric charge, thereby causing the particles to repel each other at the molecular level. This made it easier for the spores to float in the air, and increased their retention in the lungs.

In short, the potential lethality of anthrax in this case far exceeds that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program. In meetings held on the cleanup of the anthrax spores in Washington, the product was described by an official at the Department of Homeland Security as "according to the Russian recipes" -- apparently referring to the use of the weak electric charge. [See full text]

Dr. Zelikow's comments in the WSJ (8-5-08) suggest that he never examined the anthrax himself.

The Los Angeles Times (9-17-08) now reports that a scientist named Peter B. Jahrling, who assisted the federal investigation of the 2001 anthrax mailings, said on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, that "he erred seven years ago when he told top Bush administration officials that material he examined probably had been altered to make it more deadly."

The Los Angeles Times (9-17-08) reports:

"I believe I made an honest mistake," Jahrling said in response to questions e-mailed to him for this article, adding that he had been "overly impressed" by what he thought he saw under the microscope.

"I should never have ventured into this area," said Jahrling, who is a virologist, referring to his analysis of the anthrax, which is a bacterium. Jahrling's initial analysis -- and his briefing of officials at the White House -- was first detailed in a 2002 book by bestselling author Richard Preston.

Although Jahrling was careful in 2001 not to implicate Iraq or any other regime in the mailings, others used his analysis to allege that the silicon perhaps linked the letters to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Inhaled anthrax can kill at a rate of 80% to 90% unless patients are treated quickly with an antibiotic.

Jahrling's comments Tuesday came soon after a congressional hearing at which FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III announced that he was arranging for an outside review of scientific findings that helped the bureau conclude that another scientist at Ft. Detrick, Bruce E. Ivins, perpetrated the deadly mailings. The review is to be overseen by the National Academy of Sciences, Mueller said.

FBI scientists and outside experts hired by the bureau to analyze the anthrax recovered from the mailings announced Aug. 18 that although they had found silicon, it occurred within the spores naturally and was not added.

In challenging those experts, one journalist reminded them that Jahrling, among other scientists, had concluded otherwise.

Some critics of the FBI investigation have asserted that Ivins lacked the skills to have "weaponized" the anthrax with any additive that enhanced its virulence.

At Tuesday's hearing [9-16-08], a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), pressed Mueller anew about how the silicon got into the spores.

After being informed of the events at the hearing, Jahrling renounced his earlier analysis.

"In retrospect," Jahrling said, "I believe I was mistaken and defer to the experts."

...In 2001, Jahrling briefed a roomful of officials at the White House, including Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, Mueller and Tom Ridge, President Bush's secretary of Homeland Security.

The next day, the Washington Post published a front-page article headlined "Additive Made Spores Deadlier" [10-25-01; reprinted here] that reported:

"The presence of the high-grade additive was confirmed for the first time yesterday by a government source familiar with the ongoing studies, which are being conducted by scientists" at Ft. Detrick.

The article said that the United States, the former Soviet Union and Iraq were "the only three nations known to have developed the kind of additives that enable anthrax spores to remain suspended in the air, making them more easily inhaled" and more deadly.

At the time, Jahrling was employed as the senior civilian scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, within Ft. Detrick. [See full text]

The debate over whether the anthrax was weaponized or not is a few years old, but the Sandia scientists who cooperated with the FBI and studied the anthrax have not been able to reveal their research until now.

Sandia National Laboratories (8-21-08) and Scientific American (9-19-08) are publishing stories about Sandia's participation in the FBI's Amerithrax investigation.

The Sandia press release explains:

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Here is Sandia's 8-21-08 press release about their secret research for the FBI:

FBI unveils science of anthrax investigation

Sandia's work demonstrated anthrax letters contained non-weaponized form

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —They have worked for almost seven years in secret.

Most people did not know that the work in Ray Goehner’s materials characterization department at Sandia National Laboratories was contributing important information to the FBI’s investigation of letters containing bacillus anthracis, the spores that cause the disease anthrax. The spores were mailed in the fall of 2001 to several news media offices and to two U.S. senators. Five people were killed.

Sandia’s work demonstrated to the FBI that the form of bacillus anthracis contained in those letters was not a weaponized form, a form of the bacteria prepared to disperse more readily. The possibility of a weaponized form was of great concern to investigators, says Joseph Michael, the principal investigator for the project. This information was crucial in ruling out state-sponsored terrorism.

In fall of 2001, the FBI considered how to best investigate the anthrax letters. The agency convened two blue ribbon exploratory panels, and Sandia’s name came up during both panels for its expertise in electron and ion microscopies and microanalysis over the range of length scales from millimeters down to nanometers. The first spore material from the letters arrived at Sandia in February of 2002.

Sandia faced some uncertainty in working on this type of investigation. Researchers signed nondisclosure agreements and agreed to make themselves available to government agencies on short notice when called to give information.

Joseph Michael, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) lab owner Paul Kotula, and a team of roughly a dozen others examined more than 200 samples in those six and a half years. The samples analyzed at Sandia were confirmed to be non-viable prior to arriving at the labs. They received samples from the letter delivered to the New York Post, to former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The samples looked different, in part because of how the samples were prepared, which made examination initially difficult.

When bacillus anthracis spores are weaponized, the spores are coated with silica nanoparticles that look almost like lint under the microscope. The “lint” makes the particles “bouncier” and less likely to clump and fall to the ground. That makes the spores more respirable and able to do more damage, says Michael. Weaponization of the spores would be an indicator of state sponsored terrorism.

“Initially, scanning electron microscopy [SEM] conducted at another laboratory, showed high silicon and oxygen signals that led them to conclude that the spores were a weaponized form, says Kotula. “The possible misinterpretation of the SEM results arose because microanalysis in the SEM is not a surface-sensitive tool,” says Kotula. “Because a spore body can be 1.5 to 2 microns wide by 1 micron long, a SEM cannot localize the elemental signal from whole spore bodies.”

Using more sensitive transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Kotula and Michael’s research indicated that the silica in the spore samples was not added artificially, but was incorporated as a natural part of the spore formation process. “The spores we examined,” Kotula says, “lacked that fuzzy outer coating that would indicate that they’d been weaponized.”

Sandia’s work was the first to actually link the spore material in the New York Post, the Daschle and the Leahy letters. The elemental signatures and the locations of these signatures, while not indicating intentional weaponization, did show that the spores were indistinguishable and therefore likely came from the same source. That conclusion was corroborated a few years later by the DNA studies.

The materials characterization lab serves as a materials analysis resource for a diverse collection of projects. The lab plays an important role in stockpile surveillance, supporting Sandia’s nuclear weapons mission.

Michael was recently released from his nondisclosure agreement and flown to Washington, D.C., to participate in press conferences at FBI Headquarters along with several members of research teams who’d been asked to examine other aspects of the anthrax case.

The FBI was pleased with Sandia’s work, says Michael.

In an interesting article, Scientific American (9-19-08) reiterated that the use of a different type of instrument allowed the Sandia scientists to see that the anthrax was not coated on the outside with silica:

Using highly sensitive transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), the researchers came to a startling realization: The silicon had grown organically inside the Bacillus anthracis samples, nothing had been added to weaponize the spores. "The silicon was not on the outside of the spore," says [Joseph] Michael, who headed up Sandia's investigation, "but rather incorporated on the inside."

It was this key information that helped the FBI to rule out the likelihood that a terrorist organization was behind the anthrax mailings and prompted the agency to turn its attention to U.S. government labs as the possible source of the anthrax. This move eventually led the agency to conclude that Bruce Ivins, a scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), a federal biodefense research laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., who initially assisted with the investigation, was the culprit. Ivins, 62, two months ago committed suicide as prosecutors prepared to charge him in connection with the mailings.

...Early in the investigation, the FBI appeared to endorse the view that only a sophisticated lab could have produced the material used in the Senate attack, investigative journalist Gary Matsumoto wrote in the November 2003 issue of Science. In fact, in May 2002 16 scientists and physicians working for the government published a paper in JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association, describing the Senate anthrax powder as "weapons-grade" and exceptional: "high spore concentration, uniform particle size, low electrostatic charge, treated to reduce clumping."

In addition, the August/October 2002 newsletter from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), a research organization that the government often turns to for help analyzing potentially pathological substances, reported that a mass spectrometry analysis found silica—a staple in professionally engineered germ warfare powders for decades—in the powder sent to Sen. Daschle. The silica was believed to be there to prevent the anthrax spores from aggregating and make it easier for them to disperse into the air, according to Matsumoto, who added that any such weaponized form of anthrax is "more than 500 times more lethal than untreated spores."

Finding the Right Technology

By the time the Sandia researchers began their work in February 2002, "we had heard just like everyone else that the spores had been weaponized," says Michael, who had proposed a study of the elemental composition of any materials found growing outside the spores.

The first step was to find the silicon. Michael was aware that FBI researchers had analyzed the samples with both scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which scans surfaces with a high-energy beam of electrons, and with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), which analyzes x-rays emitted by a substance after it is hit with charged electrons. But at that point, no one had studied them with a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), which transmits a focused beam of electrons through a small part of a specimen to form an image and could provide compositional information by examining the spores a few nanometers (one nanometer is 40 millionths of an inch) at a time, a higher resolution than SEM could provide, Michael says.

This enabled Sandia researchers to not only detect the presence of a foreign substance such as silica, but also to determine its location on or inside the spore. "In the FBI's mind, it was important not only that trace amount of elements were present, but also…[to determine]…where those elements were located in the sample through microanalysis," says Paul Kotula, a Sandia material scientist who studied the samples with Michael.

The researchers could find no way that the silica could be placed inside the spore without leaving a residue on the spore's outermost layer. (They found none.) Instead, the researchers determined that the silica formed inside the spore naturally. After only a month examining the anthrax samples in March 2002, Michael and his team were convinced, contrary to other reports, that the anthrax used in the attacks had not been weaponized.

...In the end, it was at Sandia where scientists cracked the mystery behind the mailings. The problem was, says Michael, that he had to keep mum on his findings—which might have calmed a jittery nation still reeling from the 9/11 terror attack—until the FBI wrapped up its investigation. "That's been one of the really frustrating things for Paul [Kotula] and me," Michael says. "We knew the answers but couldn't tell anyone." [See full text and links to other articles about the anthrax mailings.]

Was the Fort Detrick Scientist Bruce Ivins the Anthrax Killer?

"[A]ccording to [unnamed] FBI investigators Dr. Ivins had a history of alcohol abuse, and an interest in pornography and was obsessed with university Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority houses."---News-Medical.net (8-5-08)

Sources at American Media [AMI] said the FBI has asked company employees about any “enemies” the company or its papers might have. Given the content of the weekly tabloids, “that list would go on forever,” joked one employee. Alarmed workers say they are urgently trying to recall receiving suspicious or unusual letters and packages. Several are focusing on a letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez” --similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. The letter, per routine, was taken in by the joint mailroom of the company.---Newsweek (10-8-01) [A different account about what happened at AMI was posted by Ed Lake on 8-4-08]

I posted an earlier article about the alleged anthrax killer here, but the media is now reporting that some journalists and scientists are skeptical about reports that the Fort Detrick scientist Bruce E. Ivins was responsible for the 2001 anthrax letters that killed 5 and sickened 17.

So far, the FBI and Justice department have not confirmed all these off-the-record leaks to reporters by unnamed sources. Officially, the DOJ has only said this.

According to WJLA (Monday/8-4-08):

The Federal Bureau of Investigation hopes to close out the anthrax killer case Monday after the suicide of Bruce Ivins, a newly identified suspect, bringing an end to the nearly seven-year investigation, sources tell ABC 7/NewsChannel 8. The official closure may not come until overnight or Tuesday morning, said the sources...

The reported evidence against Ivins, a former Army scientist at Fort Detrick, includes a Post Office box he reportedly rented under an assumed name, his alleged extensive use of laboratory equipment after hours, and anthrax spores found in his office that were linked through DNA matching to the spores sent through the mail...

FBI agents had been trailing Ivins and had seized his personal computers. Last week, the FBI seized two computers from the Frederick Public Library that Ivins allegedly used after his were taken.

The Associated Press also reported on Monday that the former Army scientist had a long obsessions with a New Jersey sorrority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, that was located fewer than 100 yards from the postal boxes where the anthrax-laced letters were mailed to media organizations and lawmakers in September and October of 2001.

U.S. officials told the AP e-mails or other documents detail Ivins' long-standing fixation on the sorority. His former therapist has said Ivins plotted revenge against those who have slighted him, particularly women. There is nothing to indicate, however, he was focused on any one sorority member or other Princeton student, the officials said.

One hole in the investigators' case has been their inability to place Ivins in Princeton when the letters were mailed. Had Ivins not killed himself last week, authorities would have argued he could have made the seven-hour round trip journey to Princeton after work, the AP reported Monday.

Questions are now being raised about the integrity of Ivins' therapist Jean Duley who has depicted Ivins as a "mad scientist."

Duley stated in court that Ivins was a sociopath who had fantasized about killing people even before the 2001 anthrax attacks, and Duley reportedly sought to have Ivins committed to a high-security mental health facility.

WJLA (8-4-08) reports:

Some reporters have...raised questions about Jean Duley, the social worker who was granted a restraining order against Ivins.

According to court records, Duley has two recent arrests for driving under the influence. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to reckless driving and the DUI charge was dropped. In 2007 she pleaded guilty to a DUI charge. In 1992, she was charged with battery against her then-husband, William Duley. Prosecutors dropped the charges, and the case was not adjudicated. She was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia with intent in use in 1993. The charges were later dropped.

More questions were raised Wednesday about Jean Duley in the WSJ (8-6-08):

In testimony offered in a Maryland district court, Ms. Duley said Dr. Ivins, a Fort Detrick, Md., scientist, had a years-long history of "homicidal threats, actions, plans," among other assertions. Her testimony was an important element in early coverage of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe of Dr. Ivins, whom the FBI was considering charging with five murders in the 2001 anthrax case...

Dr. Ivins killed himself days after police forcibly removed him from the Fort Detrick campus, in response to a call from Ms. Duley, who deemed him a danger to himself and others, according to her testimony.

...Ms. Duley's police record dates back to 1992. That year, her husband filed battery charges against her, and she filed the same charges against him. Both sets of charges were dropped, and the couple began divorce proceedings shortly thereafter.

The following year, Ms. Duley was cited for possible possession of drug paraphernalia in a case that was dismissed. In 1995, she was charged with speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. She pleaded guilty to the speeding charge; the DUI charge was dismissed.

In 1999, she was cited for driving on the wrong side of the road in a case that was dismissed. In 2003, she pleaded guilty and was fined $110 for speeding that caused an accident.

In April 2006, she was stopped by state police for reckless driving and driving under the influence of alcohol. She pleaded guilty to the reckless-driving charge in October of that year, and was fined $580. The DUI charge was dismissed. Shortly before Christmas in 2007, she was detained by Frederick city police for driving under the influence. She pleaded guilty in traffic court in April of this year and was put on two years' supervised probation, with a suspended fine of $500.

Ms. Duley's work with prescription-drug abusers at Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick was detailed in the local paper in June. Friday, as details of her involvement in the Ivins case emerged, a receptionist at the center would say only that Ms. Duley was no longer working there. [Full text]

Richard Spertzel, the head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom from 1994-99, and a member of the Iraq Survey Group, has written an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal (8-5-08) titled "Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit." His article appears on Tuesday, August 5, 2008, the very day that WJLA says that the FBI may officially close its case:

[D]espite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.

I believe this is another mistake in the investigation...

The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.

Mr. Spertzel's article is based on his understanding of anthrax research at Fort Detrich, which may not be accurate, and on old press releases from the FBI.

On the other hand, the Minneapolis Star Tribune (8-4-08) is reporting a story originally in the Washington Post:

[Ivins] borrowed freeze-drying equipment from a bioweapons lab that fall that allows scientists to quickly convert wet germ cultures into dry spores, according to sources briefed on the case.

Ivins' possession of the drying equipment could help investigators explain how he may have been able to send letters containing dry, deadly anthrax spores to U.S. senators and news organizations, causing five deaths.

The device was not commonly used by researchers at the Army's sprawling biodefense complex at Fort Detrick, Md., where Ivins worked as a scientist, employees said. Instead, sources said, Ivins had to go through a formal process to check out the equipment, creating a record on which authorities are now relying...

Multiple U.S. officials told the Associated Press that Ivins was obsessed with Kappa Kappa Gamma, going back to his own college days at the University of Cincinnati when he apparently was rebuffed by a woman in the sorority. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Four tainted letters postmarked in Princeton, N.J., were dropped in a mailbox near the Princeton University sorority's offices. Still, authorities acknowledge they cannot place Ivins in Princeton the day they were mailed...

Scientific analysis helped researchers pinpoint the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases as the likely source of the anthrax, which was the Ames strain of the bacteria used in various projects at Fort Detrick.

Eventually, through more elaborate DNA testing of the powder and tissue cultures from the victims, they determined that the anthrax probably came from supplies made by Ivins, to which about 10 other people had access.

Researchers at the lab usually work with anthrax in a liquid form, so use of the drying equipment was infrequent. The equipment could have processed a few small batches of anthrax liquid in less than a day, said one scientist familiar with Ivins' lab.

Many of the key documents that would have supported the prosecution of Ivins could be unveiled later this week after Justice Department and FBI officials meet with families of the anthrax victims. [Full text]

News-Medical.net (8-5-08) reports:

The FBI says 'microbial forensics', the use of biochemical clues, was employed to track the anthrax back to its source.

However working out just who was responsible for the anthrax letters would have also relied on more traditional investigative methods and would have included interviewing colleagues and family members, searching houses and cars, carrying out surveillance and making assessments of individuals personalities.

The suspicion is that most of the evidence is possibly in the main circumstantial as apparently at least 10 scientists had regular access to the laboratory and its anthrax stock not counting visitors from other institutions.

It has also been reported that workers at laboratories in Ohio and New Mexico received anthrax samples from the same flask at the Army laboratory.

Sometime in 2006 Dr. Ivins appears to have come under intense surveillance and every aspect of his life and work were examined; but it is only since his suicide last week, that FBI officials have revealed they were about to charge him with sending the anthrax letters, which killed five people.

Dr. Ivins was a respected microbiologist with 30 years of experience at the United States Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, reports say he was popular in his neighborhood, a Red Cross volunteer and an amateur juggler and musician who played at his church.

But according to FBI investigators Dr. Ivins had a history of alcohol abuse, and an interest in pornography and was obsessed with university Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority houses. [Full text]

The connection to pornography is interesting because the suspected anthrax letter sent to the Boca Raton tabloid organization AMI [American Media Inc.] reportedly was a weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez. Unlike the recovered anthrax letters, this letter didn't suggest that the powder it contained was dangerous. [Update-see Ed Lake's 8-4-08 article about what happened at AMI.]

The suspicious letter to AMI was reportedly sent about a week before the 9-11 attacks. It seems that the object of this letter was to murder someone, not scare them. Perhaps AMI was targeted because it was connected with pornography. AMI publishes six supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, Globe and Weekly World News.

AMI employees passed the letter around because it was so strange. I recall reading that the man who died on 10-4-01, Robert Stevens, a photo editor at the Sun, put the Jennifer Lopez letter up close to his face because he had poor vision. AMI employees recalled that the envelope had some powder in it and a star of David. Unfortunately, the AMI employees didn't realize this powder was something dangerous, so they had a good laugh at the weird love letter, and threw it away.

UCLA has an archive of articles about the anthrax death of Robert Stevens.

Newsweek (10-8-01) reported:

[A] letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez” --similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. The letter, per routine, was taken in by the joint mailroom of the company.

The Washington Post (1-27-02) reported:

[A]fter Bob Stevens had died, several AMI employees would remember the letter, addressed to actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, that emitted a puff of white powder when Stevens ripped it open. That is when they believe he inhaled the anthrax spores that killed him.

I hope that the FBI has tracked down the full truth about the anthrax killer/s and that we will soon hear the story directly and officially from the FBI instead of just leaks from "sources."

The "mad scientist" Bruce Ivins reportedly had a secret addiction to pornography and a lot of anger at women. If he sent anthrax to Jennifer Lopez, I wonder if other people may have been murdered with anthrax but their rare illness was misdiagnosed.

Reuters (8-5-08) reports:

[T]he FBI is preparing to release its evidence on the researcher, who killed himself before he could be charged, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday.

The evidence could be released as early as Wednesday [8-6-08] and includes anthrax spores found in the office of Bruce Ivins that were linked through DNA matching to the spores sent through the mail, the officials said.

They said the evidence also included e-mails sent by Ivins that implicate him in the anthrax attacks, the worst biological weapon attack on U.S. soil.

The FBI plans to brief victims and their families on the latest developments, most likely on Wednesday. Court documents detailing the evidence against Ivins also would be unsealed, probably the same day.

Law enforcement officials have expressed confidence in their belief that Ivins acted alone and said they plan to close the investigation soon -- meaning there are no more suspects. But some scientists have questioned whether Ivins could have done it by himself...

Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to say whether the anthrax investigation had been closed by the Justice Department.

"The department has a legal and a moral obligation to make official statements first to the victims and their families and then to the public," Mukasey said in Boston, adding that he hoped it would happen on Wednesday [8-6-08].

Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg's Anthrax Conspiracy Theory

"[A]rticles I found on the Internet indicated [Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg] believed that the anthrax mailings were some kind of sinister plot involving a 'rogue scientist' and masterminded by the Bush Administration to undermine the BTWC in order to cover up America's secret and illegal biological weapons programs."--Ed Lake [Analyzing the Anthrax Attacks Home]

When the FBI revealed in August 2008 that the late Dr. Bruce Ivins was their suspect in the anthrax mailings, some people were suspicious and unhappy. The paranoid Maoist MIM grumbled as he quoted what the deceitful sociopathic anthrax murderer Bruce Ivins told his friends (A.P. 8-6-08):

Another case seemed rushed along just in time for elections. “Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.

Even today, the disreputable conspiracy theorist and 9-11 Truther Sander Hicks continues to malign Dr. Steven Hatfill with fabricated anthrax canards, although a letter dated 11-4-02 that the Justice Department sent to to Senator Charles Grassley explains:

When the FBI conducted a consensual search of Dr. Hatfill's apartment on June 25, 2002, in Frederick, Maryland, the mainstream media immediately interpreted this search as confirmation of all the speculation that had been previously circulating about Dr. Hatfill. The FBI was asked whether Dr. Hatfill was a suspect in the case and when an arrest was anticipated. It was under these circumstances that unnamed sources at the FBI first described Steven Hatfill as one of many "persons of interest". ... The phrase was never used by the FBI or the Department of Justice to draw media attention to Dr. Hatfill. On the contrary, the phrase was used to deflect media scrutiny from Dr. Hatfill and to explain that he was just one of many scientists who had been inteviewed by the FBI and who were cooperating with the anthrax investigation.

The retired computer scientist and researcher Ed Lake explains in a post titled "Steven J. Hatfill And The Clueless Media" why he thinks that the FBI Amerithrax investigation initially focused so much attention on the Army scientist Dr. Steven Hatfill.

According to Mr. Lake, Dr. Hatfill was targeted by a scientist named Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg because he was a strong opponent of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention:

[Dr. Hatfill] is an outspoken opponent to the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC). He publicly demonstrated the ease with which biological weapons could be created. He was actively convincing people that terrorists were the biggest threat - not secret government projects run by the CIA.

According to Mr. Lake, Dr. Rosenberg, a founder and Director of the Federation of American Scientists Chemical and Biological Weapons Program, was a strong supporter of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC) who believed that the U.S. government was secretly and illegally making weaponized anthrax. Of course, as I observed in my first post on the anthrax mailings, the anthrax that was mailed in fall of 2001 was not weaponized at all.

According to Mr. Lake's post "Steven J. Hatfill And The Clueless Media" (6-10-03), Dr. Rosenberg believed:

[S]omeone from an illicit U.S. bioweapons program obtained anthrax from that program and sent it through the mail to undermine the position of those in favor of the BTWC.

Mr. Lake also has an interesting post titled "Barbara Hatch Rosenberg's 'Political Campaign'" (7-30-03). Mr. Lake begins his article by observing:

From the very beginning I viewed Barbara Hatch Rosenberg as just another crackpot conspiracy theorist. All the tell-tale signs were there. When she first made headlines in the anthrax case in November 2001 by making a speech at the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC) in Geneva, the articles I found on the Internet indicated she believed that the anthrax mailings were some kind of sinister plot involving a "rogue scientist" and masterminded by the Bush Administration to undermine the BTWC in order to cover up America's secret and illegal biological weapons programs. Those are the types of accusations found in most conspiracy theories.

Another early critic of Dr. Rosenberg is David Tell, who voiced skepticism of Dr. Rosenberg's science and her "crackpot" conspiracy theories in an article he published in The Weekly Standard (4-29-02):

[T]his veteran molecular biologist's sensational pronouncements betray a surprisingly uncertain grasp of contemporary genetic research and clinical protocols concerning Bacillus anthracis. And a surprisingly limited familiarity with anthrax-related military and civil-defense projects around the world. And a surprisingly unscientific, even Oliver Stone-scale, incaution about the "facts" at her disposal. Rosenberg claims the FBI has known the anthrax mailer's precise identity for months already, but has deliberately avoided arresting him--indeed, may never arrest him--because he "knows too much" that the United States "isn't very anxious to publicize." Specifically, according to an account the hazel-eyed professor offered on BBC Two's flagship "Newsnight" telecast March 14, the suspect is a former federal bioweapons scientist now doing contract work for the CIA.

Mr. Lake published a book titled Analyzing The Anthrax Attacks (2005). I wonder if he will publish a second book when the National Research Council scientists finish their extensive review of the science behind the Amerithrax investigation.

9-11 Truther Sander Hicks Calls FBI Anthrax Forensics "Junk Science"

9-11 "Truther" Sander Hicks being removed by the police from private property in Loveland, Colorado---Denver Post (11-10-07)

9-11 "Truther" Sander Hicks, who befriended a convicted car-bomber and a convicted child pornographer, is such an idiot. The 9-11 Truther's latest crackpot conspiracy theory revolves around the 2001 anthrax mailings.

On Youtube (Part One, September 2, 2009), Hicks accuses an early FBI "person of interest" in the anthrax mailings, scientist Steven Hatfill, of being "clearly a fascist" who deliberately exterminated black people in Africa by infecting them with anthrax. Hicks characterizes the FBI science used to uncover the anthrax mailer as "pseudo-science," "junk science" and "joke science."

Hicks's mendacious anti-American canards about the "genocidal" Steven Hatfill and the "pseudoscientists" of the FBI are reminiscent of Medieval rumors about "well poisonings" or Stalinist propaganda about "doctors' plots."

How can Hicks claim that the FBI forensic microbiology is "junk science" without having read the scientists' peer-reviewed research? Has he read any of the scientific papers that the scientists who worked on the Amerithrax Investigation have published? Last I heard (August 2008), many of the papers were still being peer-reviewed and had not been published. What are the titles of these "junk science" papers Sander Hicks has evaluated? Who are the "joke" scientists?

According to Dr. Vahid Majidi, the Assistant Director responsible for the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (8-18-08):

[T]he science used in [the Amerithrax] case is highly validated and well accepted throughout the scientific community. The novelty is in the application of these techniques for forensic microbiology...[A] large cadre of non-Bureau scientists...helped us chart and navigate our scientific path through this unprecedented case. In the near future, after we work through each non-disclosure agreement and privacy issues, we will release the names of those key individuals who tirelessly worked with us on the 2001 bacillus anthracis mailings.

It seems to me that the "joke" is on Sander Hicks, whose sobriquet in New York City is the "Java Jackass," not the "forensic microbiologist." On the other hand, according to the his FBI biography:

Dr. Majidi earned his BS degree in chemistry from Eastern Michigan University and his PhD degree from Wayne State University. After his graduate work, he spent two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Texas ( Austin).

Dr. Majidi has published many articles in peer reviewed scientific journals, and he has served on editorial boards for several international journals.

According to Dr. Majidi, many of the scientists' articles about their Amerithrax research were still undergoing peer-review in August 2008 and had not yet been published.

Perhaps more of the scientists' papers have been published by now, but certainly Hicks does not identify the "joke" scientists or take issue with any specific instances of "junk science" in their scholarly, peer-reviewed papers. [As they are published, these scientific papers will probably be reviewed by Ed Lake, who has a blog called "Analyzing the Anthrax Attacks."]

Hicks's crackpot "science" sounds a lot like ex-professor Ward Churchill's fabricated anti-American canard that the U.S. Army deliberately infected the Mandan with smallpox or the now-acknowledged KGB canard that the U.S. Army made AIDS to kill black people.

Steven Hatfill won a huge financial settlement against the government because it became known that he was a "person of interest" during the anthrax investigation. He also sued several newspapers. Hatfill evidently didn't like being accused of deliberately infecting people with anthrax.

In his 2005 Truther book The Big Wedding, Sander cited the now-convicted con-artist and child pornographer Delmart Vreeland as evidence for his "Truther" conspiracy theory. Vreeland tried to "beat the rap" for his crimes by claiming that he was really a Navy whistleblower who was framed on fabricated criminal charges because he exposed 9-11 as an inside job. These days, Sander Hicks is claiming that "science" and the "spy" Vreeland prove that the Bush administration was complicit in 9-11.

Hicks is even claiming expertise in the cutting-edge FBI forensic science developed during the course of the Amerithrax Investigation. Here is a post about the review by the National Research Council of the so-called "joke" FBI forensic science developed during the course of the anthrax investigation. The National Research Council is one of the divisions of the National Academies. Unlike Hicks, the academicians who are reviewing the FBI forensics have not termed the FBI forensics "junk science."

What does the "java Jackass" know about anthrax? Probably not very much. In a narcissistic semi-autobiographical 2003 play Hicks authored, a character claims that cops shoot anthrax tear gas at demonstrators. Another character responds with an absurd bit of crackpot "science":

Anthrax reproduces so fast in your lungs, it creates a foam, you’re gone within a half hour.

It sounds to me like someone must have injected some of that anthrax directly into Sander Hicks's brain!

According to the Center for Disease Control:

[The initial symptoms of inhalation anthrax] may resemble a common cold – sore throat, mild fever, muscle aches and malaise. After several days, the symptoms may progress to severe breathing problems and shock. Inhalation anthrax is usually fatal.

Lethal Anthrax Was Less Sophisticated Than the Media Erroneously Reported! (But the FBI Says They Knew the Score!)

"[A] widely circulated misconception is that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military weapon production. This idea is usually the basis for implying that the powders were inordinately dangerous compared to spores alone (3, 6, 12; J. Kelly, Washington Times, 21 October 2003; G. Gugliotta and G. Matsumoto, The Washington Post, 28 October 2002). The persistent credence given to this impression fosters erroneous preconceptions, which may misguide research and preparedness efforts and generally detract from the magnitude of hazards posed by simple spore preparations."---Dr. Douglas Beecher of the FBI in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (August 2006).

The FBI's investigation of the anthrax attack is getting extremely interesting.

On September 25, 2006, the Washington Post reported:

"Five years after the anthrax attacks that killed five people, the FBI is now convinced that the lethal powder sent to the Senate was far less sophisticated than originally believed, widening the pool of possible suspects in a frustratingly slow investigation....

What was initially described as a near-military-grade biological weapon was ultimately found to have had a more ordinary pedigree, containing no additives and no signs of special processing to make the anthrax bacteria more deadly, law enforcement officials confirmed. In addition, the strain of anthrax used in the attacks has turned out to be more common than was initially believed, the officials said.

As a result, after a very public focus on government scientists as the likely source of the attacks, the FBI is today casting a far wider net, as investigators face the daunting prospect of an almost endless list of possible suspects in scores of countries around the globe."

But on September 28, 2006, the A.P published an FBI rejoinder in an article titled, "FBI denies it misunderstood the quality of anthrax used in 2001 attacks in U.S."

According to this article:

"The FBI and its partners in this investigation have never been under any misconceptions about the character of the anthrax used in the attacks," Assistant FBI Director Eleni P. Kalisch wrote...On the contrary, since the earliest months of this investigation, we have consulted with the world's foremost scientific experts on anthrax and relevant bio-forensic sciences, both inside and outside the FBI. While there may have been erroneous media reports about the character of the 2001 anthrax, the FBI's investigation has never been guided by such reports."

A scientific journal called Applied and Environmental Microbiology contains an article by Dr. Douglas Beecher, a scientist at the FBI, that explains the FBI's thinking: "Forensic Application of Microbiological Culture Analysis to Identify Mail Intentionally Contaminated with Bacillus anthracis spores."

According to the 9-28-06 A.P. article, Beecher writes that there was "'a widely circulated misconception' that the anthrax spores were made using additives and sophisticated engineering akin to military weapons production."

If true, the FBI decided, for reasons best known only to themselves, not to clear up the misconception.

A blogger who has tracked the anthrax story has obtained a full copy of this report.

I am not familiar with all the blogger's theories or conclusions about the anthrax attack, but he has many news articles about the anthrax attack linked at his site. His homepage is http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/

U.S. Media Claims that Suspected Anthrax Killer Bruce E. Ivins Has Killed Himself

Fort Detrich Anthrax Researcher Bruce E. Ivins (April 22, 1946-July 29, 2008)

"As far back as the year 2000, [Ivins] has actually attempted to murder several other people, [including] through poisoning...He is a revenge killer, when he feels that he's been slighted . . . especially towards women. He plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killings"---Jean Duley

"The Justice Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) today announced that there have been significant developments in the investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings, which killed five individuals and injured 17 others. In particular, we are able to confirm that substantial progress has been made in the investigation by bringing to bear new and sophisticated scientific tools.

We are unable to provide additional information at this time...We anticipate being able to provide additional details in the near future."--Department of Justice Press Release (8-1-08)

The media is reporting that a brilliant but sociopathic "mad scientist" named Bruce E. Ivins, who researched anthrax and developed vaccines at Fort Detrick Maryland, is suspected by the FBI of sending the 2001 anthrax letters that killed 5 people and made 17 sick. The story was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, but the FBI isn't talking.

Ivins reportedly killed himself by overdosing on Tylenol with codeine because he was about to be charged with the 2001 anthrax attacks. Although some scientists who worked with Ivins don't believe that he was capable of this crime, The Washington Post (8-3-08) reports that his therapist testified in court that Ivins was "homicidal and obsessed with the notion of revenge."

According to The Washington Post:

The records also suggest that a Frederick social worker, Jean Duley, passed on her concerns to the FBI after receiving death threats from Ivins.

Duley became so worried that she petitioned a local judge for a protective order against Ivins. According to an audio recording of the hearing, she said she had seen Ivins as a therapist for six months, and thought he had tried to kill people in the past.

"As far back as the year 2000, [Ivins] has actually attempted to murder several other people, [including] through poisoning," she said "He is a revenge killer, when he feels that he's been slighted . . . especially towards women. He plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killings," she told a judge.

She described a July 9 group therapy session in which Ivins allegedly talked of mass murder.

"He was extremely agitated, out of control," she said. Ivins told the group he had bought a gun, and proceeded to lay out a "long and detailed homicidal plan," she said.

"Because he was about to be indicted on capital murder charges, he was going to go out in a blaze of glory; that he was going to take everybody out with him," she said.

One of the people who rushed to comment for the BBC on the latest developments in the anthrax case is the former CBS anchor Dan Rather. One of his employees opened a letter intended for Mr. Rather that was infected with anthrax.

According to Mr. Rather, the FBI mishandled the anthrax investigation and was too slow to find the killer.

Of course, Dan Rather is not exactly the world's authority on how to investigate the case that the FBI calls Amerithrax since he used unsubstantiated and probably fabricated documents on 60 Minutes that embarrassed George W. Bush shortly before the 2004 Presidential election.

It will be interesting to see what the DOJ, FBI, and Postal Inspection Service say in the days to come. As of today, these agencies didn't confirm the media reports about Bruce Ivins, but the FBI did post this 8-1-08 DOJ press release:

[T]here have been significant developments in the investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings, which killed five individuals and injured 17 others. In particular, we are able to confirm that substantial progress has been made in the investigation by bringing to bear new and sophisticated scientific tools.

Probably the DOJ is referring to a new technology mentioned in an AP (8-3-08) article:

DNA taken from the bodies of people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks helped lead investigators to Bruce Ivins, who oversaw the highly specific type of germ in an Army lab, a government scientist said Sunday...

The new genome technology used to track down Ivins was either not available or too expensive to use often until about three years ago.

Samples of cells taken from the bodies — and perhaps specifically from Bob Stevens, a 63-year-old tabloid photo editor in Boca Raton, Fla. — looked at the type of Ames strain anthrax that killed them.

Researchers then looked at DNA strands of the Ames strains and noted very subtle differences within them, the scientist said. Investigators then matched the strain found in the victims' bodies to Ivins, who oversaw the Ft. Detrick labs that used it in research, the scientist said.

Ivins' Wikipedia has links to his research.

Amerithrax: Case Closed

Joseph Persichini (center), Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, with U.S. Attorney Jeff Taylor (left), District of Columbia, and Chief Postal Inspector Alexander Lazaroff of the U.S. Postal Service, explains recent developments in the government's Amerithrax case.

In early 2005, newly-developed scientific tests made it possible for the FBI to establish that the anthrax spores that killed five people and sickened 17 in the days following the 9-11 attacks were unique to Fort Detrick.

Still, long before 2005, the public learned from news accounts that the FBI believed that "Amerithrax" was a case of domestic terrorism because the media reported that the FBI's initial suspect was a former Fort Detrick scientist named Dr. Steven Hatfill.

Even in November 2001, FBI linguistic and behavioral analysis suggested that this crime was the work of a scientist with psychological problems and not the work of a terrorist organization such as Al Qaeda. The FBI experts apparently did not take the letters in the anthrax mailings at face value.

The Salt Lake Tribune (8-7-08) writes that Dr. Ivins "deliberately misled officers early in the investigation when they relied on him to prepare samples of the suspected anthrax in his custody."

Why did Dr. Ivins send the anthrax letters? According to the FBI, Dr. Ivins had a mental illness and a history of making threats. He may also have been worried about the future of his research program.

My Fox D.C. (8-7-08) reports:

In documents released Wednesday, prosecutors suggested several possible motives...from concern that the vaccine program Ivins worked in was in trouble to his dislike of Catholic senators who favor abortion rights.

The FBI has consolidated documentation about their Amerithrax investigation here. The newly released court affidavits as well as older information are all here.

The FBI post states:

Because of Ivins’ death, the government will not be able to present its case in court. But according to Assistant Director in Charge Joseph Persichini, FBI Washington Field Office, “Bruce Ivins was responsible for the death, sickness, and fear brought to our country by the 2001 anthrax mailings.”

...[During the investigation] a brand new science was developed that ultimately led to the big break in the case.

That science—creating a DNA equivalent of a fingerprint—allowed investigators to pinpoint the origins of the anthrax. The FBI Laboratory, in conjunction with the best experts in the scientific community, developed four highly sensitive and specific tests to detect the unique qualities of the anthrax used in the 2001 attacks. This took several years to accomplish, but in early 2005 the groundbreaking research successfully identified where the anthrax used in the mailings had come from.

Another key piece of evidence was provided when investigators were able to identify a limited geographic area where the anthrax envelopes were purchased based on a forensic investigation that revealed printing defects in certain batches of envelopes.

In 2006, speaking about the investigation, Persichini said investigators were frustrated that no arrests had been made, but that “no one in the FBI has, for a moment, stopped thinking about the innocent victims of these attacks...The FBI's commitment to solving this case is undiminished."

Today, Persichini was able to tell the American public that a chapter on one of the most heinous crimes committed against the citizens of the United States has been closed. [See the entire site]

I feel pretty certain that the FBI has finally solved this difficult case.

Some scientists, journalists, and politicians are calling for a Congressional investigation since Ivins' suicide has prevented the case from going to trial.

Note: a man named Ed Lake has kept a blog called Anthrax Investigation that contains analysis and news articles about the 2001 anthrax attack.

"Amerithrax" Documents to Be Unsealed Today

Pictures of the "Amerithrax" letters in the possession of the FBI

"[T]he bureau, for its efforts, owes an apology to no one. This is the most complex investigation the bureau has ever had."--Michael Mason, FBI

UPDATE: FBI "Amerithrax" documents released by DOJ

The public and the families of the anthrax victims are all waiting to hear what the FBI has to say about developments in the "Amerithrax" case. So far, the FBI has only posted a press release (8-1-08) from the Department of Justice, but the Amerithrax documents are expected to be released today.

According to the Wall Street Journal (8-6-08):

A federal prosecutor arrived at a U.S. courthouse as the Justice Department begins the process of unsealing documents in the investigation of the 2001 anthrax mailings.

Documents weren't expected to be made available until midday Wednesday, once the government has finished briefing family members of the anthrax victims on their contents and on various elements of the nearly seven-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Director Robert Mueller was presiding at the briefing.

The Associated Press reported that the FBI was ready to end its probe.

The FBI is basing a central part of its case against Bruce Ivins on anthrax spores found on a laboratory flask to which the scientist had access, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Information on the flask and other evidence, including emails, shipping records and surveillance, is expected to be made public Wednesday after a briefing for the families of the five people killed and the 17 injured by a series of anthrax-laced letters sent in September 2001. The FBI's case was assembled through a combination of scientific methods investigators say weren't available at the time of the attacks, and through detective work by a new team.

...At least seven anthrax-laced letters were sent in September 2001 to lawmakers and the media from a mailbox near Princeton University in New Jersey. The attacks stoked fears of a new wave of terrorism weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The flask evidence came from work last year that mapped the genetic makeup of anthrax found in the victims, according to one person familiar with the investigation. Those findings showed that the anthrax was a combination of two strains. One originated at Dugway Proving Ground, the only lab in the country known to have processed the powdery Ames anthrax strain like that found in the letter to then-Sen. Tom Daschle. The other came from a third lab.

Records show when those strains were grown, when they shipped and where they went. The two strains intersected at one place: the bacteriology division of the lab at Fort Detrick, where Dr. Ivins worked. Agents discovered that the strains arrived months after the 1999 departure of Steven Hatfill, the scientist who had been the prime focus of the bureau's efforts.

The DNA exams of the anthrax from the letters were "a perfect match," said one federal law-enforcement official familiar with the investigation. The official added, however, it was unclear how many others at Fort Detrick had access to the flask. The FBI tested multiple samples from other labs and apparently didn't find another match, according to a law-enforcement official and a scientist involved in the investigation.

Justice Department and FBI officials are bracing for the possibility of a skeptical reception from scientists and amateur analysts poised to compete with the official version of events.

...Michael Mason, former assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office during a portion of the investigation and later a senior official at FBI headquarters, says despite criticism, "the bureau, for its efforts, owes an apology to no one. This is the most complex investigation the bureau has ever had."

The FBI appointed two veteran agents to take over leadership of the case in 2006. Vincent Lisi, a supervisory agent, and Edward Montooth, an inspector in the case, helped lead a team that re-examined all the evidence.

By late 2006, it was clear the investigation was homing in on Dr. Ivins, said Jeffrey Adamovicz, who took over as chief of Dr. Ivins's division in 2003. The FBI began searches and seizures in the lab, usually but not always at night. Dr. Adamovicz didn't know what was searched because the FBI would turn off the security cameras while they were there.

The FBI took samples of anthrax from Dr. Ivins's freezer relating to old experiments, Dr. Adamovicz said. Agents returned a few months later and took a different set of samples contained in a "beaker or large vial," Dr. Adamovicz recalled. It isn't clear whether this is the flask the FBI is focused on. Later, the FBI took Dr. Ivins's computer. Dr. Adamovicz said the scientist was very upset, adding, "He mentioned a couple times maybe they were trying to set him up."