House Democrats press FBI on 2001 anthrax attacks, security guidelines

Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee Friday asked the FBI to answer a series of far-reaching questions in anticipation of an upcoming oversight hearing, including whether the White House pressured the agency to conclude that the 2001 anthrax attacks were caused by al Qaeda or linked to Iraq.

In a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, the lawmakers also questioned whether the agency failed to help prevent the nation's mortgage crisis and asked if new national security guidelines could be postponed until the next administration comes into office.

"As the committee prepares for our FBI oversight hearing on September 16 at which you will testify, we have become increasingly concerned about a number of troubling issues that have recently surfaced in media reports and congressional briefings implicating the actions and operations of the FBI," wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

Specifically, the Democrats asked Mueller to identify any White House officials who pressed the bureau to show that the anthrax attacks were "a second wave" of attacks by al Qaeda, or that the anthrax was of a weapons-grade quality that could be linked to Iraq. They questioned why government scientist Steven Hatfill remained a suspect in the investigation after evidence pointed away from him, and asked why government scientist Bruce Ivins was allowed to keep his security clearance after he became a prime suspect.

Ivins committed suicide in July, just as the government was about to file formal charges against him for an alleged connection to the anthrax attacks. The lawmakers also questioned whether the FBI "seriously erred" in helping to mitigate or prevent the national mortgage crisis.

"We are ... concerned about recent reports indicating that the FBI may have contributed to the current subprime mortgage crisis by failing to act on its knowledge of wide-scale mortgage fraud," they wrote. "It also appears that the FBI failed to prioritize this crime, as evidenced by the reported decrease in the number of agents devoted to the issue and the attorney general's refusal to create a national task force to centralize FBI mortgage fraud investigations."

The lawmakers also said serious questions have been raised about a plan by Attorney General Michael Mukasey to consolidate FBI rules for gathering intelligence on criminal, terrorism and foreign activity. In particular, the lawmakers asked if the administration would consider not consolidating the guidelines in favor of making suggested changes to the new administration in January. "It is not clear to us that the proposed consolidated guidelines will prevent innocent citizens from coming under a cloud of suspicion for their legitimate religious and political activities," they wrote. When asked about the letter and questions raised, an FBI spokesman said: "We have received the letter and the FBI director will be available to discuss these issues at his scheduled hearing next week."