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Anthrax Case Appears Cold at Fifth Anniversary
The fifth anniversary of the U.S. anthrax mailings that killed five people has arrived with no indication that the case will be resolved, prompting increasing criticism of the FBI’s handling of the investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 26). Bureau officials, who once spoke confidently about the case, are no longer offering briefings on the case for victims or lawmakers. The size of the agency’s task force has been halved. The latest head of the investigation is known for working on complicated “cold cases” at the international level. “Their public pronouncements about their confidence levels were obviously way off the mark all the way along,” said former South Dakota Democratic Senator Tom Daschle, whose office was targeted in the attacks. “It has sort of been the domestic version of “Clearly, the whole investigation has gone very cold,” Daschle added. “Because it has become so cold, they are all the more apprehensive about acknowledging that they do not have any real good evidence or leads.” The FBI said it ended the briefings to prevent leaks of important information to the press, the Times reported. “We have a substantial number of agents continuing to work on that case, and my expectation is that it will be solved and that the person or persons responsible will be brought to justice,” said FBI Director Robert Mueller. “Some cases take longer than others.” The FBI has likened this investigation to that of the Unabomber, which lasted for 17 years. The investigation has been sizable — involving 9,100 FBI interviews and 6,000 subpoenas — but seemingly marred by missteps, according to the Times. Investigators early on focused on biologist Stephen Hatfill, who had worked at the U.S. Army laboratory that studied the strain of anthrax used in the attacks. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft identified Hatfill as a “person of interest.” No charges have been filed against Hatfill, who has maintained his innocence and sued the Justice Department and FBI for defamation. “In how many investigations does the attorney general personally go out there and start talking about persons of interest? It should never happen,” said former federal prosecutor Stephen Freccero, who prosecuted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. “That was a huge mistake. It was appalling. All the basic rules of a covert investigation were violated.” The investigation has not identified other clear suspects in the last few years, said one former law enforcement official. The belief initially that only experts using high-technology equipment could have produced the type of anthrax used in the attacks might also have created a narrow grouping of suspects, the Times reported. The spores have since been determined not to have been produced from an unusual strain or to have been “weaponized” (see GSN, Sept. 25). “The way they were thinking was that it had to be a scientist at one of these … laboratories,” the former official said. “Now, all of a sudden, you have people who may be hobbyists or … chemists who think that can do this stuff and might have done this stuff” (Schmitt/Meyer, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3). Meanwhile, the New York Times yesterday sustained another setback in its defense against a defamation lawsuit filed by Hatfill. A federal judge ruled in support of a
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