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FBI Anthrax Probe Still Open
Five years after anthrax attacks killed five people in the U.S., the FBI now believes the lethal powder sent to the Senate was far less sophisticated than originally thought.
The finding casts doubt on the previously held belief that the anthrax attacks were carried out by a government scientist or someone with access to a U.S. biodefense lab, and greatly widens the pool of possible suspects, the Washington Post reports.
"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,” according to the Post.
"In addition, the strain of anthrax used in the attacks has turned out to be more common than was initially believed.” That strain of anthrax, at first linked to biological weapons made by the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, has now been found to appear in labs around the world, including nations of the former Soviet Union.
As a result, the FBI’s focus is being expanded to include an almost endless list of possible suspects in countries around the globe.
Story Continues Below But the FBI has 17 agents and 10 postal inspectors working on the case, and the agency had conducted more than 9,000 interviews and issued 6,000 subpoenas in the investigation.
"There is confidence the case will be solved,” Joseph Persichini Jr., acting assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, told the Post.
He added: "While not well known to the public, the scientific advances gained from this investigation are unprecedented and have greatly strengthened the government's ability to prepare for – and prevent – biological attacks in the future."
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Inside Cover Stories
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