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Anthrax I: Ridge Points to Domestic Terrorist in Mailings By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire U.S. authorities continue to suspect a domestic source of the deadly anthrax mailings since Sept. 11, U.S. Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday. “I think initially there were some of us, and I plead guilty to this, who thought it was more than a mere coincidence shortly after Sept. 11 and was thinking more in terms of foreign sources,” Ridge said during an interview on “PBS’s NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.” “But I think a lot of the information and a lot of the things they've been able to detect from the investigation and follow-up leads they're looking more inward to a domestic source,” he said. Ridge’s comments come amid a public debate over whether information released by the government so far indicates the person or persons may have been connected to a U.S. government laboratory. A prominent proponent of that view, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg of New York State University, has argued all available information is consistent with the idea. Other experts have criticized Rosenberg’s conclusions, asserting a foreign power, probably Iraq, was ultimately behind the attacks. Richard Spertzel, former head of the U.N. biological arms inspectors in Iraq, has argued the attacks required some sort of government support for the production of the sophisticated anthrax powder (see GSN, Dec. 6). Rosenberg, who claims government sources for some of her information, continues to assert her conclusions. In new analysis, released Monday, she lists 15 laboratories she writes are reported in open literature to have obtained the Ames strain found in the letters, which she says may have originated from Fort Detrick in Maryland. Click here to see analysis. “Of these, probably only about four in the U.S. might possibly have the capability for weaponizing anthrax,” she writes, citing military and contractor laboratories: Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (Ft. Detrick, Md.); Dugway Proving Ground (Utah); Naval Research Medical Center and associated military labs (Maryland); and Battelle Memorial Institute (Ohio; plus laboratories in many other locations). Critics say the Ames strains stored at various labs could have been transferred to others in the United States and abroad, ultimately ending up in the hands of the perpetrator. The Baltimore Sun, however, citing “U.S. sources” reported Wednesday the mailed anthrax was genetically identical to a type used at Dugway (see GSN, Dec. 12). Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-N.D.), whose office received one of the anthrax letters, said last week the perpetrator was probably someone with a military background (see GSN, Dec. 10). Ridge said hundreds of FBI, state and local law enforcement personnel continue to pursue some leads, in what he called a “very sophisticated and complex investigation.” He added, “I feel pretty confident that we'll get the individual or individuals.” Click here to read Ridge interview.
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