A year later, anthrax culprit still at large

In October 2001, less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, another act of terrorism hit the United States. The weapon was anthrax, which ultimately killed five people along the East Coast, infected 13 and scared thousands into stockpiling antibiotics, buying gas masks and taking other defensive measures.

Now, on the first anniversary of the anthrax attacks, the FBI's "Amerithrax" investigation has yet to determine who is responsible. The incidents have, however, galvanized U.S. biological defense researchers and public health officials to better prepare responses to any future incidents.

The first reports of the anthrax attacks came Oct. 3, 2001, when Robert Stevens, a photo editor for American Media Inc. in Florida was diagnosed with the inhalational form of the disease. When Stevens died two days later, he became the first U.S. fatality from anthrax since 1976. Ultimately, a second AMI employee, Ernesto Blanco, became infected, and six other AMI employees tested positive for exposure.

The source of the anthrax in the AMI building has not yet been found. FBI agents armed with new investigative techniques re-entered AMI headquarters Sept. 3 to try to recover the source-probably a letter or package mailed to the building-but they have released no details about what they found.

The first anthrax victim outside of Florida-an NBC News employee who contracted anthrax on her skin-was reported Oct. 12, 2001. That day, investigators tested a suspicious letter sent to NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw that was later linked to the attacks. Two employees at other New York media organizations and a 7-month-old boy who visited the offices of ABC News contracted skin anthrax as a result of the attacks.

In New Jersey, five postal workers contracted anthrax-two inhalation cases and three skin infections. Investigators have speculated that tainted letters processed in New Jersey mail-handling centers caused these cases.

Anthrax arrived in Washington Oct. 15 with the opening of a tainted letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. The "Daschle letter" ultimately caused officials to close the Hart Senate Office building, where Daschle's offices are located, until Jan. 23, 2002. While no member of Congress or congressional staff member became infected, four Washington postal workers contracted inhalation anthrax and two died-Thomas Morris and Joseph Curseen. An employee at a U.S. State Department mail center also contracted inhalation anthrax.

On Oct. 31, New York City hospital worker Kathy Nguyen died from inhalation anthrax. Investigators have been unable to find anthrax spores in any locations, such as her home or where she worked, that Nguyen was known to frequent. Analysts have speculated that she might have contracted the disease through cross-contaminated mail-mail that passed through the same sorting machines as the tainted letters.

The anthrax attacks continued into November, with the discovery Nov. 17 of an unopened tainted letter mailed to Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. On Nov. 21, the fifth and final death related to the anthrax attacks occurred-the death of Ottilie Lundgren of Oxford, Conn. Investigators have speculated that Lundgren also died through contact with cross-contaminated mail.

CDC Analysis

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has divided the anthrax cases into two clusters based on exposure to two different sets of tainted mailings, according to a CDC report released this month. One cluster originated from two letters mailed Sept. 18 to NBC Nightly News and the New York Post. The other cluster surrounds two letters mailed Oct. 9 to Daschle and Leahy. All four of those letters were mailed from Trenton, N.J.

Patients in the first cluster of cases were more likely to have developed skin anthrax and to have been exposed at media organizations rather than postal facilities, according to the report. Patients in the second cluster were more likely to have developed inhalation anthrax and to have been exposed at postal facilities that handled the tainted letters mailed to Daschle and Leahy, the report says.

According to the report, a difference in the consistency of the anthrax spores in the Sept. 18 mailings versus the Oct. 9 mailings might account for the increased number of inhalation cases in the second cluster. The media employees generally suffered fewer effects than did the postal employees who worked along the paths of the Daschle and Leahy letters, it says. The report also says that "substantial" death and illness might have resulted among Senate staff members exposed to the Daschle letter if health officials had not distributed preventive antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin.

"Amerithrax" Investigation

The FBI's investigation into the anthrax attacks has not yet revealed the person, or people, behind them. It is difficult to gather evidence in this kind of case, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a biologist at State University of New York who has often publicized her views on the anthrax investigation, told Global Security Newswire. She added that she is unsure whether the FBI would move to arrest someone in the absence of final, conclusive evidence.

In January, Rosenberg released a possible profile of the person responsible for the attacks. According to the profile, the person behind the attacks is probably a middle-aged U.S. resident who worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md., has experience in working with dangerous pathogens such as anthrax and has been questioned by the FBI, among other characteristics.

Throughout the Amerithrax investigation, the FBI has questioned and administered polygraph tests to several U.S. biological defense researchers. The investigation seems to have focused on many of the traits listed in Rosenberg's profile.

Some observers have speculated that the anthrax incidents were linked to the Sept. 11 attacks, which were perpetrated by non-U.S. citizens. Newsweek reported in July, however, that several FBI agents had begun to believe a U.S. scientist is responsible. Genetic testing has determined that the anthrax spores included in the Daschle and Leahy letters are the same strain as samples at USAMRIID.

Even though the FBI has gathered a large amount of information during its investigation, the longer the case goes on, the less likely the person responsible will be found, said Charles Pena, a senior defense policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank.

The Strange Case of Steven Hatfill

In the course of the FBI's investigation, only one name has been publicized: Steven Hatfill, a former Army biologist who has become a "person of interest" in the case. Newspapers reported June 25 that the FBI had conducted what became the first search of Hatfill's Frederick, Md., apartment. The FBI later searched the apartment two more times and searched the apartment of Hatfill's girlfriend and a storage unit he rented.

It was later reported that Hatfill had commissioned a study in 1999 examining a possible anthrax attack similar to those carried out last fall. Suspicions were also raised when it was learned that Hatfill had apparently listed several false qualifications in his resume, including his educational history and military service.

During an Aug. 11 press conference, Hatfill publicly declared his innocence, saying he had nothing to do with the anthrax attacks.

"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.

Analysts are unsure what role, if any, Hatfill might have played in the anthrax attacks. Rosenberg, whose profile Hatfill matches in many respects, said the FBI must have had something they were looking for by the time of the third search of Hatfill's apartment. She has never publicly named Hatfill, however, and last week she said it is "unfortunate" that his name was made public.

It would be fair to label the FBI's interest in Hatfill as "overzealous," Pena said. Investigators might have concentrated on Hatfill because he was an easy lead, but not necessarily a good one, he added.

The fact that the FBI continues to publicly focus its investigation on Hatfill might be an indication that it is under pressure itself to find someone responsible, Pena said. Unless investigators have solid evidence on Hatfill, however, he is probably going to go the way of Richard Jewell, Pena added, referring to a man once suspected, but later exonerated, of being responsible for a bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

If it turns out that Hatfill had no role in the anthrax attacks, the FBI has "essentially ruined someone's life, and no one seems to care," Pena said.