FBI investigators yesterday questioned a researcher who has publicized her theory that someone connected to a U.S. laboratory was responsible for the anthrax incidents on possible clues and leads into the investigation.  Meanwhile, participants at a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meeting yesterday criticized the immediate response to the first incidents.

Investigators asked Barbara Hatch Rosenberg of New York State University about clues to the identity of whoever may be behind the anthrax incidents (see GSN, Dec. 4).  “They wanted to know whether I had ideas about who did it,” Rosenberg said.  She said she told the FBI agents more detailed information on the ideas mentioned in a paper that she circulated.

In the paper, which Rosenberg posted on the Federation of American Scientists Web site, she said she believed the anthrax incidents were meant as a call to strengthen U.S. defenses against a biological weapons attack, and not to kill, according to the New York Times.

Click here to read Rosenberg’s paper.

Dugway Anthrax Developments

Investigators have cleared up questions concerning how much powdered anthrax the U.S. Army produced at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, the Times reported (see GSN, Dec. 13).  Dugway officials said the amount was only a few grams.  William Patrick, a former biological weapons scientist who aided the Dugway researchers, said, however, that about a pound of anthrax was produced.

Patrick said yesterday that he had intended to say “we could have produced a pound, not that we did.”  A pound was made of Bacillus subtilis, a harmless microbe used to simulate anthrax, Patrick said (William Broad, New York Times, Dec. 14).

It was still unclear as of yesterday how much the FBI knew about the powdered anthrax program at Dugway, according to the Washington Post.  One FBI source said the agency was surprised about the information.  Other senior law enforcement officials said, however, that the FBI knew about the program since soon after the tainted letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) was discovered.

Scientists and biological weapons experts said they were surprised at the news of the U.S. anthrax program at Dugway.  “The U.S. government should have been not only more forthcoming about this episode but perhaps more detailed in its annual [U.N.] declarations,” said Alan Zelicoff, of the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Elisa Harris, a former National Security Council official in charge of the U.S. policy on biological weapons, was one of several experts who said that congressional hearings on the issue might be in order, according to the Post.  

Harris said, however, that she hoped the U.S. Army would turn out to be responsible for the spores used.  “If it turns out that this material did in fact originate in the U.S. program, it's actually a terrific outcome because it means the primary actors we need to be focusing on are national programs and nation-states,” she said.

“In terms of the bioterror threat, the worst outcome would be that there is a biological Unabomber out there who was able to get vaccinated and get the material and the equipment to process it and then mail it out,” Harris said. “That would be a really scary scenario" (Rick Weiss, Washington Post, Dec. 14).

CDC Meeting Criticizes Responses

Participants at a CDC meeting yesterday discussed several criticisms of the U.S. response soon after the first anthrax incidents, according to reports. 

The CDC rule that the agency must be first asked into a location by a state government was a major block in the investigation, attendees said. The problem was that postal workers nationwide made up the largest group of victims.  “Everything that happens at the Postal Service is a national event,” said Postal Service Vice President Deborah Willhite.

“In retrospect, we were not prepared for the layers and levels of collaboration that would be needed,” said Julie Greenberg, acting deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases (M.A.J. McKenna, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dec. 14).

Participants at the CDC meeting also criticized the way information was disseminated, such as the use of political leaders who lacked information on medical issues, according to the New York Times.  The CDC had not considered how much funding it puts into communications efforts, “but it is critical,” Willhite said.  “We needed one person from the CDC” to speak at news conferences, she added.

As the number of anthrax cases grew, the nation lacked a voice that could have prevented confusion, said Florida Health Secretary John Agwunobi.  The information effort “was too local” and “it took too long to turn a single event in Palm Beach” into a national emergency, Agwunobi said.

Agwunobi and others criticized the vague language the CDC used when it announced anthrax test results, the Times reported.  “We are not going to use the words ‘preliminary’ or ‘presumptive’ anymore because they confused the situation,” Agwunobi said.  Instead, “we’ll use ‘positive or not positive,’ ‘result or no result.’”

The overall criticism of the CDC at yesterday’s meeting was light because it was open to the media, participants said.  They added they would use harsher comments during private discussions with CDC officials (Lawrence Altman, New York Times, Dec. 14).

Wanted Flyers Being Mailed

The FBI is expected to mail out “Wanted” flyers to New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents to help gather information and leads into the “Amerithrax” investigation, officials said.  The flyer might include pictures of the notes found inside tainted letters, the FBI’s profile on the potential suspect and a reminder of the $1.25 million reward being offered, FBI Agent Sandra Carroll said.

The FBI is expecting to begin mailing the flyers out this month,” Carroll said yesterday.  “The flyers will center around where the investigation originated from and go outward from there,” she said (Jake Wagman, Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 14).

Anthrax in Austria

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Austria yesterday discovered small amounts of anthrax spores there, according to officials.  Trace amounts of spores were found in a mailbag sent from Washington to the embassy on Oct. 23, Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Austrian military tested the mailbags and yesterday informed the embassy about the positive result.  None of the embassy staff has shown any signs of infection and all have been given preventive antibiotics while the mailroom is being decontaminated, the embassy said.

The anthrax spores posed no threat to the Austrian people, Gollia said (BBC.com, Dec. 13).

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