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This weeks Biological Weapons stories for Thursday, August 15, 2002.
Anthrax: FBI Focuses on Former U.S. Army Biologist, Officials SayThe FBI is focusing on Steven Hatfill — the former U.S. Army biologist who has become the public focus of the investigation into last fall’s anthrax attacks — more than on any other “people of interest” in the case, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 14). Hatfill’s is the only photograph that investigators have shown to people who work in a Princeton, N.J., area around a mailbox that tested positive for anthrax. Additionally, Hatfill’s apartment has been the only one searched with a criminal warrant in the course of the “Amerithrax” investigation, a U.S. official close to the case said. Hatfill’s personal friend and spokesman Patrick Clawson said the FBI either needs to reveal what basis it has for its interest in Hatfill or publicly clear him of any involvement in the attacks. “The only thing the FBI has said is that he has a very colorful background, yet they are destroying this man’s reputation,” Clawson said (see GSN, Aug. 13). “Normally, when you’re doing a photo canvassing you have photos of more than one person because you want to eliminate false identifications. The fact that the FBI is using only one photo makes the entire process suspect” (Christopher Newton, Associated Press/Chicago Tribune, Aug. 15). Investigators believe that the anthrax-tainted letters used in last fall’s attacks were mailed from Princeton, according to the New York Daily News (see GSN, Aug. 12). Hatfill has never been to Princeton, Clawson said. “I just spoke to him, and he categorically denies that he’s ever been in Princeton,” Clawson said. “He couldn’t find it on a map, and he doesn’t even know where it is in New Jersey.” The FBI, however, should know where Hatfill was when the anthrax letters were sent because Hatfill gave the bureau his diary and calendar months ago, Clawson said. He added that there also are no similarities between Hatfill’s handwriting and the handwriting on the envelopes and letters sent in the attacks (Fenner/Kennedy, New York Daily News, Aug. 15). Little Evidence Law enforcement sources have said that some senior FBI officials have been encouraged by information gathered on Hatfill after months of little progress in the anthrax investigation, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, Aug. 5). Some investigators and Justice Department officials, however, said they still do not believe that Hatfill carried out the attacks (see GSN, Aug. 12). So far, no physical evidence has been discovered that can link Hatfill to the attacks, and interviews with him have given investigators little information, sources said. No grand jury has begun hearing available evidence in the case, according to people close to the investigation (Susan Schmidt, Washington Post, Aug. 15). For further information, see: CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)
Israeli Response: Emergency Service Stocks Protection SuitsThe Israeli Home Front Command has delivered 500 biological protection suits to Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency response service, Ma’ariv reported last week (see GSN, Aug. 7). Israeli rescue teams have begun learning how to use them, Magen David Adom Director Avi Zohar said (Dan Even, Ma’ariv, Aug. 7).
Iraq: U.S. Satellite Records Possible Weapons ActivitiesU.S. intelligence agencies detected signs of increased activity at an Iraqi factory last week, raising concerns Iraq is advancing its biological weapons program, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Aug. 13). A U.S. spy satellite photographed 60 trucks at a known biological weapons facility near the Iraqi city of Taji outside of Baghdad, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The facility, which was once known as the Taji Single Cell Protein Plant, was bombed during the Gulf War. Such a large convoy of trucks would appear to be unusual, according to Kelly Motz, a specialist on Iraq’s WMD programs. “Most of what Iraq is doing in the biological weapons area is either underground or in small mobile vehicles,” Motz said. “They could be moving equipment into a site that was renovated.” “They’re moving stuff in or out,” an official familiar with the report said. There is limited information available on the current status of Iraq’s biological weapons program, the official said. Other recent U.S. intelligence reports have indicated that Iraq is continuing to develop its biological weapons program, including the use of mobile vans with biological weapons, according to the Times (see GSN, Aug. 9). The country also appears to be developing railroad cars that could be used to transport biological weapons, according to U.S. intelligence officials. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last month that Iraq has begun using mobile biological laboratories to develop weapons agents. “They’re buying dual-use capability,” Rumsfeld said. “A biological laboratory can be on wheels in a trailer and make a lot of bad stuff, and it’s movable, and it looks like most any other trailer” (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Aug. 14).
Anthrax: Investigators Seek Biologist-Mailbox ConnectionInvestigators searched for a connection yesterday between a former U.S. Army biologist and a Princeton, N.J., mailbox that has tested positive for anthrax, NorthJersey.com reported today (see GSN, Aug. 13). Investigators visited local businesses near where the mailbox had been located and showed employees a color picture of Steven Hatfill, who has recently become the public focus of the FBI’s inquiry into last fall’s anthrax attacks. The photograph of Hatfill looked “vaguely familiar only because he’s like a generic white guy,” fabric store owner Rachel Herr said. Megan Tepper, an employee at a gift store, said that she does not remember ever having seen Hatfill near the tainted mailbox. “I’ve seen him in the newspaper,” Tepper said. “I’d love to say that I did see him on the street here, but I didn’t. Obviously, they are looking for some sort of connection between the two.” One woman, a receptionist at the Glenmede Trust Co., said she has seen the man in the investigators’ photograph, NorthJersey.com reported. “I just saw him in passing,” she said. “There are lots of people around here who’ve seen this guy” (Ruderman/Koren, NorthJersey.com, Aug. 14). FBI agents Monday also visited a Princeton municipal office building called Borough Hall and searched city files including traffic tickets, according to the Trenton Times. “They went into our computer and checked the names of several people,” said Administrator Robert Bruschi. “I’m not exactly sure what they were looking for, or if the tickets they were checking for were recent or not” (Trenton Times/NJ.com, Aug. 13). Mailbox Safe New Jersey officials have said the anthrax-tainted mailbox has been removed and poses no threat to the public (see GSN, Aug. 12). Employees at nearby businesses, however, said they wonder why it took so long to determine that the mailbox is contaminated, according to the New York Times. “I’ve been sending things to my mother, my mother-in-law, my business associates,” said Ross Woolley, an architect with Woolley and Morris. “And they’re just getting around to testing this mailbox?” Woolley no longer trusts the U.S. Postal Service, he said. “They can write in the paper there’s no problem all they want,” he said. The chance that mail became contaminated when it was sent through the mailbox is “vanishingly small,” said Clifton Lacy, commissioner of the New Jersey Health and Senior Services Department. “I think the most important take-home message from this is that since October of 2001, there have been no new cases of anthrax in humans in New Jersey,” Lacy said (Iver Peterson, New York Times, Aug. 14). Hatfill Manuscript Meanwhile, a 1998 unfinished novel co-authored by Hatfill details a terrorist attack in Washington with biological weapons, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Aug. 12). The novel differs in several ways from last fall’s attacks. The 198-page manuscript, titled Emergence, describes a biological weapons attack against the White House and Congress that kills hundreds of people, according to AP. The attackers use a type of bacteria called Yersinia pestis to cause bubonic plague, not anthrax, AP reported, and they do not attack through mailings. A copy of the unpublished manuscript has been on file at the U.S. Copyright Office, according to AP. FBI investigators found another copy of the manuscript stored on Hatfill’s computer, which was seized during a search of his apartment. A law enforcement official called the manuscript an “interesting coincidence at this point” (Ted Bridis, Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, Aug. 14). For further information, see: GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001) CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Plague
U.S. Response: Scientists Complying With Pathogen Security MeasuresU.S. research institutions are working to meet a Sept. 10 deadline for notifying the United States whether they have materials that could be used to develop biological weapons, the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, June 12). The new rules on “select agents,” signed into law in June, require 190,000 research facilities, scientists and manufacturers to notify the United States whether they possess any of 36 pathogens that could be used to manufacture or modify biological weapons. Furthermore, the list of select agents is slated to soon add 24 livestock pathogens and possibly other plant pathogens to be named by the U.S. Agriculture Department, according to the Times. Under the new rules, only those researchers with a “legitimate need” will have access to the select agents. Students or scientists from countries known to sponsor terrorism, as well as people with felony or drug convictions or a history of mental illness, will be barred from having access, the Times reported. Several research facilities are planning to build new high-security laboratories or to increase security in existing laboratories, according to the Times. Although some major institutions have completed their declarations, others are having trouble meeting the Sept. 10 deadline, said Ron Atlas, president of the American Society for Microbiology. The rules require even those institutions that do not work with the select agents to complete an inventory for a declaration to officials, the Times reported. Research institutions also must meet an Oct. 8 deadline for notifying officials about agricultural pathogens that previously have never been subjected to oversight. The new rules might limit scientists’ ability to conduct and publish their research, some scientists and administrators have said (see GSN, Jan. 14). “This has the potential for changing the definition of science, the way people do science and even what we mean when we say science,” Atlas said. While the new rules may change the way scientific research is conducted, a debate between national security concerns and scientific research is healthy, said John Marburger, science adviser to President George W. Bush and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “We are going to have to pay attention to this issue,” he said. “We can’t assume that our past behavior is the right behavior for the kind of world in which the terrorism that we saw on Sept. 11 is possible.” Most microbiology research will not be affected by the new rules, which focus on research that could be applied to weapons of mass destruction, Marburger said. Some scientists, however, have said the new rules will not be able to prevent the proliferation of pathogens that could be used as weapons. Many of the pathogens that are being placed under tighter security, such as Ebola, are easily available in countries that experience outbreaks, they said (Diana Jean Schemo, New York Times, Aug. 13). For further information, see: CDC List of Bioterrorism Agents
Smallpox: Israeli Expert Resigns Over Mass Vaccination DecisionA biological weapons expert with the Israeli Health Ministry has resigned over the ministry’s refusal to vaccinate the entire Israeli population against smallpox, Ha’aretz reported today (see GSN, Aug. 6). Aryeh Eldad, who headed a team advising the ministry on epidemiological control, sent his resignation to Health Ministry Director General Boaz Lev in an e-mail message Sunday. Eldad wrote that he “sees no point to the team continuing its work since the ministry does not attach importance to its decisions.” The ministry has held no serious discussions on the team’s recommendation for mass vaccination, he said. Eldad’s opinion in favor of mass vaccination is “a minority” one and officials are still discussing the issue, Lev said. Ministry officials said Eldad’s resignation was not a surprise. The move will probably force a mass vaccination campaign since the resignation will cause panic, the officials said (Haim Shadmi, Ha’aretz, Aug. 14). The ministry is capable of vaccinating the entire Israeli population against smallpox within a few days if necessary, Health Minister Nissim Dahan said today (see GSN, Aug. 5). Officials have begun preparations so that they could immediately start vaccinations if a threat were to arise, he said. There are no warnings, however, that a mass vaccination campaign is needed, Dahan said. “Following Sept. 11, we have prepared ourselves for any scenario, including that of smallpox,” Dahan said. “The Health Ministry is making every effort to complete the inventories of all the medications needed to vaccinate the population. The moment that we receive such an order, the population of the state of Israel can be vaccinated within a few days” (Haim Shadmi, Ha’aretz, Aug. 14). For further information, see: Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Smallpox
Anthrax: FBI Denies Smearing Former U.S. Army BiologistThe FBI said yesterday that investigators have not used leaks to media in an attempt to smear the reputation of Steven Hatfill, the former U.S. Army biologist who has become the public focus of the bureau’s investigation into last fall’s anthrax attacks (see GSN, Aug. 12). FBI agents did not give Hatfill’s name to the media or alert them in advance of two searches of his Frederick, Md., apartment, said bureau spokesman Chris Murray. “We’re not aware of any FBI employee who has named a ‘suspect’ in the anthrax deaths investigation,” Murray said. “The FBI does not alert the news media to the service of search warrants.” The FBI will, however, investigate some of the claims of misconduct that Hatfill made during a press conference Sunday, Murray said. “Credible allegations concerning the mishandling of evidence will be investigated thoroughly,” he said. So far, no physical evidence has been found to connect Hatfill to last fall’s attacks, according to the Baltimore Sun. Because of this, some outside experts have said they support Hatfill’s claims that the FBI has targeted him unfairly. “He’s being railroaded,” said Richard Spertzel, head of U.N. biological weapons inspections in Iraq from 1995 to 1998. “I’m afraid they’re creating another Richard Jewell,” he said, referring to the man who was wrongly implicated with planting a bomb at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. The FBI’s attempts to determine the presence of anthrax at Hatfill’s apartment so long after the attacks were a waste of time, Spertzel said (see GSN, June 26). “There were plenty of two-legged guinea pigs in that apartment complex,” he said. “If the anthrax had been made there, his neighbors would be dead.” Some of the questions about Hatfill’s possible role in the anthrax attacks come from his public interest in anthrax, the Sun reported. For example, while Hatfill said Sunday that his research at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., had focused on viral diseases, his resume says he has a “working knowledge” of biological weapons production, including bacterial agents, according to the Sun. According to the Associated Press, Hatfill copyrighted a novel in 1998, co-authored by Roger Akers, which describes an anthrax attack on Congress, the Sun reported. Hatfill’s friends have said that his public interest in anthrax only shows how dedicated he is to the field of biological weapons defense. “The Steve Hatfill I’ve known for years is a very charming, charismatic, sensitive and funny guy,” said Patrick Clawson, a former CNN reporter who has known Hatfill for six years. “He’s not a sociopath who’d go out and kill people” (Scott Shane, Baltimore Sun, Aug. 15). Investigation Stalls Meanwhile, U.S. scientists have said it is no surprise that the FBI’s “Amerithrax” investigation has become stalled, because there is a lack of physical evidence, the Associated Press reported today. Too much time has elapsed since the attacks, and any scientist knowledgeable enough to conduct them would have destroyed any remaining evidence, they said. For example, the person responsible could have used household bleach to destroy any lingering traces of anthrax, according to Philip Hanna, a microbiologist at the University of Michigan Medical School. “Chances of finding something get more and more remote,” he said. A knowledgeable scientist could also have found an isolated location to create the anthrax powder used in last fall’s attacks, scientists said. “My best technical guess is that somebody could have grown a gram or so with equipment that fit on the top of your desk,” said Jay Davis, former director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Ted Bridis, Associated Press/Boston Globe, Aug. 13). Commentators Weigh in The Washington Post today cautioned against focusing too extensively on Hatfill as the person responsible for the anthrax attacks. “At the moment, the public evidence against Mr. Hatfill is far from compelling,” the Post said in an editorial. “The bureau needs to be exceedingly careful to avoid further stigmatizing someone whom prosecutors are not prepared to charge.” The FBI’s focus on Hatfill has been appropriate because of his knowledge and expertise with biological weapons as well as the inaccuracies he apparently included in his resume and the fact that he fits the FBI profile in the case, the Post said (see GSN, Aug. 8). Those facts alone, however, do not make Hatfill guilty, and they do not mean the FBI should neglect investigating other potential suspects, the paper said (see GSN, July 8). “Until more evidence is in hand, both the bureau and the public should refrain from drawing firm conclusions about Mr. Hatfill and should not rule out other suspects, foreign or domestic,” the Post said (Washington Post, Aug. 13). New York Times commentator Nicholas Kristof publicly identified Hatfill today as “Mr. Z” — the name Kristof has given Hatfill in past columns on the anthrax investigation (see GSN, July 12). Kristof also said the FBI focus has been justified. He said Hatfill has failed three successive polygraph tests this year. While the FBI initially delayed its investigation into the anthrax attacks, the bureau now is examining a series of hoax letters sent in 1997 and 1999 that are similar to the letters used in the attacks, he said. The FBI is also looking into an anthrax hoax letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) from London last November, when Hatfill was known to be in the United Kingdom, Kristof said. The FBI’s public focus on Hatfill has revealed that the U.S. biological defense research program needs to be more careful, Kristof said, noting the apparent falsehoods on Hatfill’s resume. There are also questions as to why someone with ties to the former white governments of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa could be allowed to work in a U.S. biological research facility handling pathogens such as Ebola, Kristof said. “With a new wave of funding for smallpox and anthrax research, we must be doubly careful that the spread of pathogens to new labs solves problems rather than creates them,” Kristof said (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, Aug. 13). New Jersey Mailbox Tests Positive In New Jersey yesterday, Governor James McGreevey said that laboratory tests conducted on a public mailbox taken from Princeton, N.J. have come back positive for anthrax (see GSN, Aug. 12). The mailbox has been removed and there is no threat to the public, he said. Out of 561 mailboxes that have been tested for anthrax, the Princeton box is the only one to test positive so far, McGreevey said. Investigators still plan to test 39 more mailboxes, the New York Daily News reported (New York Daily News, Aug. 13). Investigators have tested mailboxes in 10 counties in New Jersey, two Pennsylvania counties and three counties in Delaware, McGreevey said (Iver Peterson, New York Times, Aug. 13). Hatfill-Mailbox Connection? An FBI agent has confirmed that investigators have begun questioning people in Princeton who are in the neighborhood of the mailbox, according to the Newark Star-Ledger. “They will be [questioning] for quite a while,” said FBI agent Bill Evanina. Four people who work near the Princeton intersection where the mailbox was located have said that investigators asked them specifically about Hatfill. A U.S. postal inspector showed them a photograph of Hatfill and asked if they could remember seeing him near the mailbox, the workers said. No one could remember seeing him, they said (Schwaneberg/Martin, Newark Star-Ledger, Aug. 13). For further information, see: CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)
Anthrax I: Former U.S. Army Biologist Asserts InnocenceBy Mike Nartker “I am a loyal American and I love my country. I had nothing to do with the anthrax letters, and it is terribly wrong for anyone to contend or think otherwise,” Hatfill said in his first public statement on the subject. He spoke outside the office of his civil attorney Victor Glasberg. Hatfill said he has never worked with anthrax and that his research expertise has centered on viral diseases such as Ebola. Saying that he understands that his background at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., makes him a “person of interest” to the FBI, Hatfill reiterated that he is cooperating with the bureau’s “Amerithrax” investigation. Hatfill even voluntarily agreed to an initial FBI search of his Frederick, Md., apartment to detect the presence of anthrax, he said (see GSN, June 26). The request had “surprised” him because the last time that he had received a booster shot of anthrax vaccine was in 1999, he added. “Since December 2000 I was — and have remained — as susceptible to anthrax infection as any of you,” Hatfill said. “So I was surprised at the notion that I might have brought anthrax to my home, and would even have been amused were it not for the fact that the matter was so serious.” Hatfill and Glasberg criticized the FBI for going too far in its investigation. They accused the bureau of allowing its searches to become “media events” and of leaking information to reporters (see GSN, Aug. 2). “I ... object to an investigation characterized, as this one has been, by outrageous official statements and calculated leaks to the media leading to a feeding frenzy operating to my great prejudice,” Hatfill said. One example of such leaks, according to Glasberg, was a recent announcement by ABC News that it had obtained a copy of a bioterrorism-related manuscript on which Hatfill had been working. ABC News could not have obtained the manuscript from any source other than the FBI, which had seized Hatfill’s computer where it had been stored, Glasberg said. Glasberg is preparing to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Justice Department concerning the leaks, he said. “I think ‘no comment’ is better than innuendo, and I don’t think they should speculate,” Glasberg said. For their part, media writers have chosen to focus too much on events from Hatfill’s past, which are irrelevant to the FBI’s investigation, Hatfill said. “I especially object to having my character assassinated by reference to events from my past which bear no relationship to the question of who the anthrax killer is,” he said. Recent media analyses have examined Hatfill’s activities in southern Africa in the late 1970s and 1980s and have questioned claims he made on a resume concerning his education and military background. Glasberg refused to answer any questions concerning Hatfill’s past. “No more than any of you, I do not claim to have lived a perfect life. Like yourselves, there are things I would do or say differently than I did 10, 20 or more years ago,” Hatfill said. “Anyone’s life and work [can be] picked apart for every wrinkle, failed memory or inconsistency. Mine can. So can yours. Does any of that get us the anthrax killer?” During his statement, Hatfill singled out Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a biologist at State University of New York who has often publicized her views on the anthrax investigation. Although Rosenberg has never specifically named Hatfill, she has developed a profile of the person who she believes is responsible for the attacks, and the profile is similar to Hatfill’s. It has also been reported that she discussed Hatfill’s potential involvement in the attacks with FBI agents and Senate staff members in June. “I don’t know Dr. Rosenberg. I have never met her ... To my knowledge she is ignorant of my work and background except in the broadest of terms,” Hatfill said. “I am at a loss to explain her reported hostility and accusations. I don’t know this woman at all.” Hatfill said that while he understands the need to make sure he had no involvement in the anthrax attacks, that does not give the FBI and the media the right to ruin his reputation. Since coming under investigation, Hatfill has been dismissed from a position at Science Applications International Corp. and has been put on paid administrative leave from a position at Louisiana State University, where he had planned to teach bioterrorism response classes to emergency personnel (see GSN, Aug. 5). “If I am a ‘subject of interest,’ I also am a human being. I have a life,” Hatfill said. “I acknowledge the right of the authorities and the press to satisfy themselves whether I am the anthrax mailer. This does not, however, give them the right to smear me and gratuitously to make a wasteland of my life in the process.”
Anthrax II: Investigators Seize Possible Spore-Tainted MailboxInvestigators believe that some of the letters used in last year’s anthrax attacks might have been mailed from a Princeton, N.J., mailbox that has been taken for further testing, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see related GSN story, today). The mailbox, located in Princeton’s commercial district, tested positive for anthrax spores last week, the Journal reported. The positive result was the first time that initial tests from “hundreds” of mailboxes indicated that anthrax might be present, officials said. “We know there can be false positives, so we are being very careful about this,” an FBI investigator said. Officials have known that four of the anthrax-tainted letters were sent from central New Jersey and processed by the Hamilton Township postal facility (see GSN, Feb. 8). The location of the mailbox used to send the letters is important because it gives investigators a place that they can use to link potential suspects, according to the Journal. The investigation has been complicated, however, because there are several research facilities in central New Jersey whose employees might have produced something such as anthrax, FBI agents said yesterday (Gary Fields, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 12). For further information, see: CDC Frequently Asked Questions on Anthrax GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)
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