Some bioterrorism experts have said the FBI needs to narrow the scope of its anthrax attacks investigation, rather than expanding the search as it has done in recent weeks, Salon.com reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7).

In the past several weeks, the FBI has distributed thousands of flyers throughout central New Jersey — where the tainted letters were postmarked — in an effort to drum up new leads in the case (see GSN, Jan. 24).  The FBI also subpoenaed all anthrax-related documents from several universities and requested the e-mail addresses of the 40,000 members of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), according to Salon (see GSN, Jan. 30).

“As we understand, it’s not just microbiology needed to create the anthrax that was in the letters,” said an ASM spokesman.  “You need the microbiology skills to grow it, but to process it, you need a totally different set of skills.”

Based on what is known about the anthrax used in the attacks, the FBI should be able to significantly narrow down its list of suspects, other experts said.

“Given what’s been reported about the nature and quality of the anthrax material in the Daschle and Leahy letters, that the material itself almost certainly originated in the U.S. biological weapons program, they ought to be able to narrow the investigation to a fairly limited number of facilities,” said Elisa Harris, former director of nonproliferation issues at the National Security Council.

“That number is certainly less than 20,” she said.  “So I find it puzzling that the FBI has approached all 40,000 members of the American Society of Microbiologists.  I don’t understand why they seem to be casting the net so widely.”

The FBI said it is trying to conduct a thorough and complete investigation into the anthrax attacks.

“We are continuing to investigate the source of the anthrax, and who might be responsible for sending it,” an FBI spokesman said.  “That investigation is very thorough and very exhaustive and we have not ruled anything out.  We have pursued thousands of leads.”

Instead, the FBI might be intentionally stalling the investigation into the U.S. weapons laboratory connection, said Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a microbiologist at New York State University and the author of a paper for the Federation of American Scientists which outlines who she thinks is responsible (see GSN, Jan. 25).

“For more than three months now the FBI has known that the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks is American,” Rosenberg wrote in a letter to Salon.  “This conclusion must have been based on the perpetrator’s evident connection to the U.S. biodefense program.”

“This guy knows too much and knows things the U.S. isn’t very anxious to publicize,” Rosenberg said.  “Therefore, they don’t want to get too close.”

Other experts, however, have said it is unlikely there is a governmental conspiracy at work.  The real problem could be simple incompetence, they said.

“Barbara [Hatch Rosenberg] says the FBI’s been told to look for things, and they haven’t,” said Milton Leitenberg of the University of Maryland.  “I don’t know.  I think they the FBI are doing a half-assed job of it myself.  But maybe other people would have done as bad a job, who knows?” (Laura Rozen, Salon.com, Feb. 8).

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