Amid speculation that Bush administration officials might have been dissatisfied with his response to the recent anthrax incidents, Jeffrey Koplan, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, yesterday announced he would leave the CDC at the end of March.

“Key things have been accomplished that I was keen on seeing done,” Koplan said.  “It seemed a good time for me professionally and personally to move on.”

Koplan said his decision to resign was “my choice, period.”

Koplan’s resignation is “a loss for the Department of Health and Human Services and our country,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson (McKenna/Eversley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 22).

Health officials and bioterrorism experts yesterday said Thompson and other Bush administration officials had not been happy with Koplan because, in part, he had not placed enough emphasis on bioterrorism (see GSN, Feb. 5).

Koplan, however, denied that the CDC did not make bioterrorism a priority.

“That’s ridiculous,” Koplan said.  “Whoever gave you that information is either ignorant or malevolent.  We have always asked for more money and support than we’ve received from any source.  Bioterrorism has been a priority area from the moment I arrived at CDC.”

Koplan and the CDC’s initial handling of the anthrax attacks might also have played a factor in his resignation, according to the New York Times.

Health officials said the CDC did not quickly realize that the anthrax mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) posed a risk to Washington-area postal workers.  State and local officials have complained that it was almost impossible to contact Koplan or his staff during the first days of the attack.

In his resignation announcement, Koplan said he and the CDC had responded “swiftly and effectively to the nation’s first major bioterrorism event” (Robert Pear, New York Times, Feb. 22).

FBI Might Be Questioning Potential Suspects

In the “Amerithrax” investigation, a team of FBI agents visited the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., late last month to ask employees specific questions about people who appeared to be possible suspects in the anthrax attacks, several USAMRIID employees told the Baltimore Sun (see GSN, Feb. 20).

USAMRIID researchers have been in regular contact with FBI officials about the anthrax used in last fall’s attacks, according to the Sun.  Over the past several weeks, however, agents have questioned scientists at the facility about former employees who might have a connection to the attacks, the Sun reported today.

In the recent questioning, agents asked USAMRIID employees about various researchers, including a former scientist who came back to the facility a few years ago and removed discarded biological safety cabinets, which had been used to store dangerous pathogens, the Sun reported.  The scientist has knowledge about how to weaponize anthrax and has been inoculated against the disease, according to sources.

The former USAMRIID scientist told the Sun that the FBI had questioned him, but he considered it to be part of a routine effort to eliminate potential suspects who have the needed knowledge.  The scientist said he had removed three biosafety cabinets, but he did so with U.S. Army permission for a classified Defense Department project.

“I think they had a profile,” the scientist said.  “They had a bunch of people on their list.  They have to rule people out. … I certainly didn’t appreciate getting called in.  No one likes that.  I’m one of the good guys” (Scott Shane, Baltimore Sun, Feb. 22).

First Anthrax Hoax Ends in Acquittal

Meanwhile, the first trial of a person charged with committing an anthrax hoax ended Wednesday with an acquittal, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, Jan. 14).

It took a jury three hours to find Kinley Gregg of Maine not guilty of mailing a threatening communication.  The charge could have resulted in five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Gregg did not testify during the trial, but has admitted she did mail a letter that contained table salt to a friend after the real anthrax attacks occurred.

“I specifically chose salt because it was granular, and I thought it would be impossible to mistake it for anything else, certainly nothing that would hang in the air and get into someone’s lungs,” Gregg said yesterday during a telephone interview.  “It was very spur of the moment.”

Gregg’s lawyers said that because the letter, which leaked salt onto a postal worker at a New Hampshire postal office, contained no threat, Gregg could not be convicted under the federal statue.  The jury ultimately agreed with Gregg’s defense, according to the Post.

“What the prosecution really wanted to hammer home was that the people in the United States (Postal Service) would consider it a threat,” said juror Brian Rafferty.  “But the person who handled the letter didn’t freak out and they never evacuated the post office.  And even as of yesterday, the substance hadn’t been tested.”

Gregg’s acquittal called into doubt the U.S. Justice Department’s claim that it will vigorously prosecute all anthrax hoaxes, said legal experts.

“It does show why the government should be careful in not necessarily prosecuting every case that comes in the door,” said Michael Sang, professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.  “It shows that juries are not inclined to just convict someone willy-nilly.”

To date, fifty-seven people have been charged with state and federal crimes for allegedly committing bioterrorism hoaxes, according to Justice Department records.  Six people have pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing (Cheryl Thompson, Washington Post, Feb. 22).

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