# Anthrax
BBC: America's anthrax attack last autumn was second only to that on the Twin Towers in the degree of shock and anxiety it caused...Some even say the anthrax letters triggered sub-clinical hysteria in the American people... yet this, the first major act of biological terrorism the world has seen remains an unsolved crime...
# Bob Stevens
# Bio-terrorism
#####
[Atlanta Journal-Constitution](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/floridadoctorfirstclue.html): The morning of Oct. 2 (Tuesday, [2.15am](https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-10-19-0110190228-story.html), 2001), anthrax was not on the radar of doctors...
[Annals of Internal Medicin](https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-155-12-201112200-00373)e: ...(when) a confused and febrile Robert Stevens walked into the emergency department of JFK Medical Center, Palm Beach County, Florida.
[Drs. Larry M. Bush/Maria T. Perez:](https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-155-12-201112200-00373) What transpired .. including how public health and federal government agencies performed, has been both praised and criticized. An intertwined epidemiologic and criminal investigation of such magnitude was unprecedented in U.S. history... ([Scientific American:](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/postal-anthrax-aftermath/)) ...and sparked a massive infusion of research funds ($41 billion) to counter .. bioterrorism.
# 5 Days Earlier
####
[New York Times:](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/books/chapters/the-demon-in-the-freezer.html) (On) Thursday, September 27th, Robert Stevens and his wife drove to Charlotte, North Carolina, to visit their daughter Casey.
[Dr. Barry Abrams/Dr Larry M. Bush, co-authors of *Index Case of Fatal Inhalation of Anthrax due to Bioterrorism*):](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa012948) Immediately on his arrival in North Carolina, the first symptoms developed; (including) muscle aches, nausea, and fever. The symptoms waxed and waned for the duration of the three-day trip.
[Esquire](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1501/esq0303-mar-anthrax/): (T)hey hiked a trail to the bottom of Hickory Nut Falls .. Bob .. scooped a handful of water , and drank it. He told Casey, "Tastes minerally."
[C. A Mimms:](https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/book-excerpts/9780805091045EX.pdf) They (then took) a side trip to Durham to meet her boyfriend who was in school there. On the Sunday drive to Durham, flu-like symptoms of weakness, fever, and chills hit.
[Palm Beach Post](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html) (interview with Maureen Stevens): They thought it was flu. On the way home (to Florida) .. Stevens .. drove .. [for ten hours](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1501/esq0303-mar-anthrax/) .. pulling himself together long enough to make it home. They turned in early because they both felt like they were coming down with something.
[Esquire](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1501/esq0303-mar-anthrax/): Home by 5, in bed by 8, with a temperature of 101.
[https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-10-19-0110190228-story.html](https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-10-19-0110190228-story.html)
# The Middle of the Night
[Palm Beach Post](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html): Maureen Stevens awoke in the middle of the night [(about 2am)](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/floridadoctorfirstclue.html) and found (her husband) wandering the house. He was stumbling, speaking in gibberish, barely lucid.
[Atlanta Journal-Constitution](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/floridadoctorfirstclue.html): (H)e tried to dress to go to work .. was running a high fever. His frightened wife got him into the car and quickly drove the short distance up Congress Avenue to JFK Memorial in Atlantis.
Maureen took him to the emergency room of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Palm Beach County.
[Palm Beach Post](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html): (S)he found a wheelchair and sat him in it. It was .. the last interaction between them.
The next 48 hours elapsed in that kind of slow-motion surreal blur that happens when personal disaster strikes. She began to gather the kids, one of whom was overseas at the time.
# JFK Memorial Hospital
[Seattle Times:](https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20011021&slug=detect20) (T)he leading players on Stevens' team of doctors (were) **Dr. Larry Bush and Dr. Barry Abrams**, infectious-disease specialists, and **Dr. Randall Wolff**, director of JFK Medical Center's emergency department.
[Dr. Barry Abrams/Dr Larry M. Bush,](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa012948) co-authors *Index Case of Fatal Inhalation of Anthrax due to Bioterrorism*[:](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa012948) Because (Robert Stevens) was disoriented at the time of his presentation, he was unable to provide further relevant information .. On physical examination (by rostered doctors), he was found to be **lethargic and disoriented**.
His temperature was **39°C** (102.5°F), blood pressure was 150/80 mm Hg, pulse 110, respirations 18. Treatment with intravenous cefotaxime and vancomycin was initiated for presumed bacterial meningitis while the patient awaited lumbar puncture. No respiratory distress was noted.
[Seattle Times: ](https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20011021&slug=detect20) (At 7am) Wolff walked into the ER to start his shift. He found Stevens convulsing just before he slipped into a coma.
[*Index Case of Fatal Inhalation of Anthrax due to Bioterrorism*](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa012948): Within hours after admission, the patient had a generalized grand mal seizure and was intubated to protect his airway and so that ventilatory assistance could be provided.
[Orlando Sentinel:](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2001-10-19-0110190110-story.html) (same writer, dif version) Wolff performed a spinal tap, looking for hints in the spinal fluid that bathes the brain.
[New York Times:](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/us/nation-challenged-disease-anthrax-threats-points-limits-health-systems.html) Healthy spinal fluid is clear, but Mr. Stevens's was cloudy and cluttered with infection-fighting white blood cells.
[Dr. Randall Wolff:](https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20011021&slug=detect20) That was the start of some sort of sign that something wasn't right.
# Dr. Larry M. Bush - Bug Hunter
[Atlanta Journal-Constitution](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/floridadoctorfirstclue.html): About **6:30 a.m.** Oct. 2, Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious disease specialist at JFK Memorial Hospital in Atlantis, received a call saying his help was needed with a gravely ill patient.
[Esquire:](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1501/esq0303-mar-anthrax/) Larry pads into the hospital shortly before eight o'clock. a slender man with an unruly fringe of wiry hair .. (Dr. Bush is) (a) **bug doctor ..** a **hunter**, .. tracking **microscopic trophies** .. figuring out how to kill them.
[Abrams/Bush: ](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa012948)Dr. Bush examined a by-then comatose man, interviewed his wife standing at the bedside, and hastened to the laboratory to inspect a Gram-stained sample of his cerebrospinal fluid.
[Atlanta Journal-Constitution](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/floridadoctorfirstclue.html): When Bush saw the fluid, he found it "grossly cloudy" -- a sign of something other than meningitis.
[Dr. Larry M. Bush:](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1501/esq0303-mar-anthrax/) I realized then that we might have something very unusual here.
[Dr Bush](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/us/nation-challenged-disease-anthrax-threats-points-limits-health-systems.html) (thought) I've got to make sure this isn't anthrax.
**Diagnosis**
[Dr. Larry M. Bush](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/us/nation-challenged-disease-anthrax-threats-points-limits-health-systems.html): When you see rod-shaped bacteria in the spinal fluid, you become particularly concerned. I was .. trying by the process of elimination to determine what they could *not *be. I was thinking they could be listeria, but they didn't fit the pattern.
[NY Times Oct 14 2001:](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/us/nation-challenged-disease-anthrax-threats-points-limits-health-systems.html) (H)e realized only a handful of rod-shaped bacteria fit the .. shape he was peering at under the microscope. That handful included anthrax.
[Dr Larry M. Bush](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/criticaldoctorfirstFLcase.html): I thought, '**Why not anthrax? Right here. Right now.'**
[NY Times Oct 14 2001:](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/us/nation-challenged-disease-anthrax-threats-points-limits-health-systems.html) **(W)ithin six hours** of examining Mr. Stevens, (1-2pm, Oct 2) Dr. Bush says he was convinced the man had anthrax.
[Dr. Randall Wolff:](https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20011021&slug=detect20) We were hesitant to mention the word because of all the implications. **I mentioned at the time that**, considering the World Trade Center bombing, this bacillus is more likely to be anthrax than two weeks ago.
[Bush to Abrams:](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1501/esq0303-mar-anthrax/) I've got a guy in the ER and I think he has anthrax. No. I'm pretty sure he has anthrax. Do you know what that means?
[Bush/Abrams](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1501/esq0303-mar-anthrax/): Bioterror.
[New York Times:](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/books/chapters/the-demon-in-the-freezer.html) At two o'clock on Tuesday morning, Maureen took him to the emergency room of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Palm Beach County. A doctor there thought he might have meningitis. Five hours later, Stevens started having convulsions.
The fact that anthrax popped into Dr. Bush's mind had not a little to do with recent news reports about two of the September 11th hijackers casing airports around south Florida and inquiring about renting crop-dusting aircraft. Anthrax could be distributed from a small airplane.
At around four o'clock in the afternoon of Friday, October 5th, he (Stevens) suffered a fatal breathing arrest.
On Saturday, October 6th, Sherif Zaki and his team of CDC pathologists arrived in West Palm Beach in a chartered jet.
# Maureen Stevens
[Palm Beach Post](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html): [Palm Beach Post](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html): On Thursday (Oct 4, 2 days later), Dr. Jean Malecki - the county health department director .. - called (Maureen Stevens) at the house in suburban Lantana. (She) had gone home for a short rest.
We think it's anthrax, Malecki told her.
[Maureen Stevens:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exwpHPDw_NA) (1:59) I’d been at the hospital all morning - and we were constantly asking what it was - the timing - this still just really upsets me.
They called me and said they had the diagnosis - they knew what was wrong with Robert and she said it’s Anthrax - which just floored me.
I didn’t know a lot about it but I knew it wasn’t good.
Then she said ‘Unfortunately’ she said, ‘the media knows about it - somebody informed the media - that they knew before I did. So this - for some reason - has always irritated me. * *
The nurses were very nice - they seemed to pick up how serious it was before the ... I ... I spoke to Dr Bush - I said is this you know .. ahr can ca-can he .. I was trying to find out whether he could get better or was it so dire?
(He) said ‘Well, there’s always a possibility.’ 250
But he .. at that moment I needed it .. I mean he must have known that I needed because I'm sure he knew very well what that disease did.
**Home**
[Palm Beach Post](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html): Newspaper photographers took pictures of the handwritten note (Maureen Stevens) taped to the front door telling the kids where she was. There were top-level officials everywhere: deputies, FBI .. CDC.
[Atlanta Journal-Constitution:](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/floridadoctorfirstclue.html) Stevens' home on quiet Massachusetts Avenue in Lantana, a neighborhood of modest bungalows .. was cordoned off by yellow tape as investigators descended on the house to take hundreds of samples of soil, household items and anything else that might harbor anthrax.
[Maureen Stevens:](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html) We couldn't go home.
[Palm Beach Post](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html): (T)hen the family got the hospital page..: Hurry.
(They) were ushered to the private room
[Maureen Stevens:](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/widowwantsanswers.html) Water and tissues, I should have known.
[Dr Larry M. Bush](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa012948): On the third hospital day, (sic?) despite aggressive medical treatment .. the patient had an asystolic cardiac arrest and died.
[Maureen Stevens (recalling, Feb 26, 2003)](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/scientistsanthraxbogus.html): *We were getting near the retirement years. We were planning to do things. We wanted to go back to Paris. We wanted to do so much, and that's all been taken away, and his children have had so much taken away. You know, no walking down the aisle with their father...*
# The mailings
# Subseqent attacks
**[FBI Archives Nov 16:](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/about-us/history/famous-cases/anthrax-amerithrax/the-leahy-letter)** *A letter addressed to Senator Patrick Leahy found in the sequestered Congressional mail .. has been opened by **experts** at the Army’s Ft. Detrick, Maryland, biomedical research laboratory. The envelope contained a quantity of a substance believed to be anthrax, based on testing conducted before the envelope was opened, and appears to be consistent with that found in the letter sent to Senator Daschle.*
*While the two letters appear to be virtually identical, **science** will continue to **drive this** analysis and **investigation**.* (A*) number of **sophisticated scientific** and forensic examinations have been initiated. **Investigators** are hopeful that the results of those tests — expected in the coming days and weeks — will yield clues which will bring us closer to identifying who is responsible for the anthrax attacks.\**
[**Tom Ridg**](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/world/nation-challenged-overview-oct-16-2001-focus-bioterrorism-show-military-might.html)[**e**](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/world/nation-challenged-overview-oct-16-2001-focus-bioterrorism-show-military-might.html), Oct 17. 2001: *Bioterrorism is* *the **No. 1 priority** this week and for weeks ahead.*
**[NYT, Oct 01:](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/world/nation-challenged-overview-oct-16-2001-focus-bioterrorism-show-military-might.html)** *Americans were frightened. They* ***flocked** to doctors' offices and hospitals **demanding** to be **tested** for anthrax**,** even though in the overwhelming number of cases there was no evidence that they had been exposed to the germ. *
*The run on the antibiotic **Cipro** was so great that Bayer, the German company that makes it, said it would triple production, though even that might not be enough to meet demand.*
[**NEW YORK (CNN) Oct 21:**](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/NYpostletteranthrax.html) *A letter found by police in the mailroom of the New York Post newspaper has tested positive for anthrax, and has the same postmark as anthrax-laced [letters](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/detect/antdetect_letters.html) sent to Sen. Tom Daschle and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, an FBI official said Saturday.*
*Special Agent Joe Valiquette said the unopened letter was found Friday night in the course of the investigation at the Post, after Johanna Huden ([case 1](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/detect/antdetect_case1.html)), an editorial page assistant, was diagnosed with cutaneous (skin) anthrax. He said a granular substance was felt by agents through the envelope.*
**
# Bio-terror
Pumping up the fear factor
# Jennifer Lopez - The Guardian
The [Guardian:](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/10/medicalscience.september11) FBI officers **dressed in moon suits** have been searching the offices of American Media - publisher of the lurid supermarket tabloid National Enquirer - since 63-year-old picture editor Bob Stevens died after inhaling anthrax.
Investigators in Florida suspect that foul play is almost certainly involved in the outbreak of anthrax at a newspaper office that has killed one employee and hospitalised another, fuelling fears that Americans have been **targeted by bio-terrorists.**
(P)art of the investigation is focusing on **a letter** that arrived at the company about a week before the September 11 attacks. It was described by sources as a **"weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez"** [*NBC*](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3067576): - similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get.
[*Guardian:*](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/10/medicalscience.september11) But inside the oddly-worded letter was a “soapy, powdery substance” and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. Employees said the letter was handled both by Stevens and Blanco.
AMI - an empire built on the screaming headlines and lurid stories of the lunatic supermarket tabloids - had yesterday become the panicked subject of a story most would say only it could make up.
Sources at AMI .. said the FBI has asked employees about any "enemies" the company or its papers might have. Given the content of the weekly tabloids, "that list would go on forever", joked one employee.
# Bio-Terrorism
**[Debra Bottcher](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/10/medicalscience.september11) (worked *down the corridor* from Mr Stevens) Oct 11, 2001**: *It's just starting to hit me. At first I thought it was a fluke but now I find myself wondering about all these crazy things going on. Bob Stevens lived in Lantana. Atta, that terrorist, was in Lantana. All these amazing coincidences are just too amazing for me. I'm very worried.*
**[George W. Bush, ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bush_text102301.html)****[Oct 23: ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bush_text102301.html)** *I want to first thank* ***Chairman Bide****n** .. for standing solidly with the administration to formulate and conduct a foreign policy that's in the best interest of our country. It's oftentimes said that when it comes to foreign policy, **partisanship stops**, and that's **exactly what's happened** here at this table.*
*Well, there's no question that the **evildoers** are continuing to try to harm America and Americans. Today, at a remote facility, we detected some anthrax. And just like at the Congress, our government's responding **very quickly**. *
*Two postal workers passed away, and our hearts are with their families; **our praye**rs are with their loved ones. But the **evil** **ones** continue.*
*We're working hard to find out who is doing this and **bring them to justice**. *
*It's hard for Americans to imagine how **evil** **the people** are who are doing this.*
*We're having to **adjust our thinking**. We're a kind nation, we're a compassionate nation, we're a nation of **strong values**, and we value life. And we're **learning** people in this world, you know, want **to** **terrorize** our country by trying to take life.*
*They won't succeed. This country is too strong to allow **terrorists** to affect the lives of our citizens.*
*I understand people are concerned, and **they should be**. But they need to know our government is doing everything we possibly can to **protect** the lives of our citizens - **everything**.*
*We're waging an **aggressive** campaign overseas to bring Al Qaeda to justice.*
**[NEWSWEEK](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3067576):** * Newsweek has learned that the FBI is **aggressively** trying to locate a **summer intern** from nearby Florida Atlantic University in connection with the investigation. The intern, who **sources said** came from a **Middle Eastern** country, had sent an e-mail to all employees that … **thanked** company employees for the help he gave them, but then contained language suggesting that he wasn’t saying “goodbye.” *
AMI official: (The email had) *a sense of foreboding - it referred to a **“surprise”** - something that he left behind - it was weird.*
**Al Qaeda**
[The Atlantic:, June 1, 2002: ](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2002/06/does-al-qaeda-have-anthrax-better-assume-so/377589/) *If anything, hints that anthrax and Al Qaeda may be linked have grown harder to dismiss.*
*Dot one: Several of the hijackers, including their suspected ringleader, Mohamed Atta, are reported to have **looked at crop dusters** in Belle Glade, Fla. *
*Dot two: Among five targeted media organizations, only one was not nationally prominent—American Media, of Boca Raton, Fla., which happens to be a few miles from where Atta and other terrorists lived and attended flight school. (Atta rented an apartment from a real estate agent whose husband worked for American Media.) *
*Dot three: In March a doctor in Fort Lauderdale announced that he had treated one of the terrorists for what, in r**etrospect,** he **believes** was cutaneous anthrax. **Doctors** at **Johns Hopkins University** examined the case and **concurred** that anthrax was "the most probable and **coherent** **interpretation** of the **data** **available**."*
[Deseret News, Apr 2002:](https://www.deseret.com/2002/4/22/19650725/scientists-hatch-own-theories-on-anthrax) *Assessing a medical case in Florida, in which one of the Sept. 11 hijackers sought treatment for a leg wound in June, O'Toole and Inglesby concluded that the skin lesion **might** have been **caused by anthrax**. That was the conclusion too of the attending physician**, Dr. Christos Tsonas of the Holy Cross Hospital** in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but it was reached only after reviewing his notes taken while treating Ahmed Ibrahim Al Hanzawi for what appeared to be a **simple**, if unusual, **leg injury.***
[Stephen D. Bryen, ex-head of Pentagon's Defense Technology Security Administration, Reagan - managing partner of Aurora Defense:](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2002/06/does-al-qaeda-have-anthrax-better-assume-so/377589/) (Mailing)* is not how regimes think about dispersing a biological or chemical weapon, which should say that the guy distributing it was a total amateur. *(That leads me to) *"sample" theory" - the sample theory being that somebody gave these guys a small amount. It has all the characteristics that it was given to people who **didn't have any idea** how to use it.*
[The Atlantic:](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2002/06/does-al-qaeda-have-anthrax-better-assume-so/377589/): *Other recent reports cite* ***captured documents** and an **unfinished lab in Afghanistan** that **suggest** Al Qaeda was interested—as **presumably** it would be—in producing **biological weapons**, including anthrax. In 1999, an Arabic-language newspaper in London reported that: "elements loyal to \[Osama\] bin Laden" had, for **a few thousand dollars,** "managed to obtain an offer for the supply of samples of anthrax and other poisons" from a former Soviet bloc country.*
[BBC:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1719534.stm) Red Thomas is a retired army officer living in Mesa Arizona. He wrote what has become the definitive article on the internet preaching against overblown fears.
There is only one way, says Mr Thomas, to take out 10,000 people with one dirty letter:
Red Thomas: *We'd have to find 10,000 volunteers to line up and lay down on a big metal table while a doctor stuck a tube down into the lungs and blew the anthrax in there, and then we'd get all 10,000 of them and fly them to Pango Pango so they could avoid any medical intervention, and then yes, we could kill 10,000 people*
# Al Qaeda in Cropdusters - The Experts
**[BBC, Sep 27, 2001:](https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/010927_bioweapons.shtml)*** The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (headed by Robert Mueller, recently confirmed that **Mohammed Atta,** one of the suspected hijackers who is believed to have piloted a jetliner into one of the twin towers, was acquiring knowledge of **crop-dusting aircraft** prior to the devastating attack.*
*Atta was reported to have visited an airport in Florida where he enquired how far crop dusters could fly and requested details of their carrying capacity.*
[**Debora MacKenzie**](https://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/misc2.html)**,** NEW SCIENTIST(sorry, 404ed): *The **Al-Qaeda** group suspected of the 11 September terrorist attacks is **allied to Iraq**, and to Chechen rebels in the former Soviet Union. Iraq and the Soviet Union both developed anthrax weapons consisting of aerosolised spores that would cause pneumonic disease. The group is also known to be interested in bioweapons.*
[**NYT, 17 Oct 2001:**](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/world/nation-challenged-overview-oct-16-2001-focus-bioterrorism-show-military-might.html)* Thus far, the delivery system has been relatively crude: the mails. But if someone could spray this strain by a more sophisticated means - say**, a crop-duster** plane - the peril could be great, the **experts say**.*
**[Paul Ewald](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2002/06/does-al-qaeda-have-anthrax-better-assume-so/377589/), biologist**, Amherst College, author of Plague Time: *If this attack was caused by the Al Qaeda group—and I think that's the best explanation, given the evidence available - this small release would be most useful as a demonstration that they have anthrax on U.S. soil.*
*Smart terrorists would have made or obtained larger quantities of the stuff and stashed it, probably (if they're smart) before setting off alarms by sending out a few grams. Later, with **the potency of their weapon proved**, they could mount, or threaten to mount, a much larger attack.*
[**Larry Bush,** 1st to diagnose Anthrax](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/NEJMoa012948v1.pdf): *When dispersed in the air as 1-to-5-μm paticles, B. anthracis endospores may pose a risk even over large geographic distances. After an accidental release of endospores from a military biologic-weapons facility in Sverdlovsk, Russia, cases of anthrax in humans occurred as far as 4 km from the site, and cases in animals occurred as far as **50 km** away.*
**[U.S. Air Force Colonel Randy Larsen (Ret):](https://www.theledger.com/article/LK/20091130/News/608108978/LL)** *In an Oct. 21 progress report, this bipartisan board cautioned that **“a one-to two-kilogram release** of anthrax spores from a crop duster plane could* ***kill more Americans than*** *died in World War II****”.***
*The commission’s **crop-duster scenario** was conceived after Americans discovered two Afghan anthrax laboratories. “The 9/11 Commission Report” says Jemaah Islamiah **agent** Yazid Sufaat “would spend several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al-Qaida in a laboratory he helped set up near the Kandahar airport.”*
***Interestingly enough**, Sufaat was captured **thanks** to information that American interrogators **gleaned after** **waterboarding** KSM. Had America not **dampened KSM’s nose**, U.S. soldiers or civilians already might have had Sufaat’s anthrax up their nostrils.*
**[Stan Bedlington](https://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/misc2.html),** ret. CIA, Counterterrorism Center: *Frankly, when I heard the news, I thought, 'It's got to be biochemical'. This is frightening enough and yet, you could **take a small plane a**nd **sprinkle anthrax** over New York City and **wipe out half the population.***
**Matthew Meselson, Harvard biologist:** *Very, very pure. If you look at it under the electron microscope, you don't see anything but anthrax spores.*
**[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oct 5: ](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/scientistsanthraxbogus.html)***About **200 pounds of anthrax** spores released upwind of Washington, D.C., **could kill up to 3 million people,** according to a government study.*
**Prof Brian Levin, Director Center on Hate and Extremism, California State University (404ed):*** Because of the sophistication needed to put together an anthrax threat and the timing of this, I think it's far more likely that this is **foreign** rather than domestic.*
**[ FBI Archives:](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/about-us/history/famous-cases/anthrax-amerithrax/the-leahy-letter)** *The FBI reminded the public that **the reward is up to $1.25 million***
**[FBI spokesman:](https://www.theledger.com/article/LK/20091130/News/608108978/LL)** ***Exhaustive** testing **did not support** that anthrax was present anywhere the hijackers had been.*
# Pivot to Iraq
[**Guardian:** ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/terrorism.afghanistan6)*American investigators probing anthrax outbreaks in Florida and New York believe they have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack - and have named **Iraq as prime suspect** as the source of the deadly spores.*
**[Senior US intelligence source:](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/terrorism.afghanistan6)** *Making anthrax, on its own, isn't so difficult. But it only begins to become effective as a biological weapon if they can be made the right size* ***to breathe in.** If you can't get airborne infectivity, you can't use it as a weapon. That is **extremely difficult.** There is very little leeway**.** Most spores are either too big to be suspended in air, or too small to lodge on the lining of the lungs.*
**They aren't making this stuff in caves in** [Afghanistan. ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan)*This is prima facie evidence of the involvement of a state intelligence agency. Maybe Iran has the capability. But it doesn't look likely politically. **That leaves Iraq.***
[**Administration official:** ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/terrorism.afghanistan6) *We see **this war** as one against the **virus of terrorism**. If you have bone marrow cancer, it's not enough to just cut off the patient's foot. You have to do the complete course of chemotherapy. And if that means embarking on the next **Hundred Years' War**, that's what we're doing.*
**[FBI email to US biologists:](https://www.deseret.com/2002/4/22/19650725/scientists-hatch-own-theories-on-anthrax)** Jan 2002: *The perpetrator might be described as 'standoffish' and likely prefers to work in isolation as opposed to a group/team setting. It is possible this person used off-hours in a laboratory or (borrowed) equipment to produce the anthrax.\**
\* Indicates FBI was aware that Anthrax attack was likely homegrown terrorism as early as 3 months after mailings.
# Fauci's Feeding Frenzy
Anthrax funded bio-science into the behemoth it is today
# NYT-Fauci
****[NYT, Feb 4, 2002: ](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/04/us/nation-challenged-bioterrorism-bush-request-major-increase-bioterror-funds.html)** *Spending to protect the United States against germ weapons began increasing under President Bill* *Clinton, .. but many of Mr. Clinton's requests were cut by his own Office of Management and Budget or the Congress, which remained skeptical.***
***Spurred** by the spate of anthrax-filled letters that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has decided to seek $11 billion over two years to **protect** the nation against biological terrorism, a far larger amount than even bio defense experts had expected. *
*Dr. Anthony S. **Fauci**, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the huge infusion of federal aid for basic and **applied** research was likely to be **''transforming**.''*
**[Dr. Fauci:](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/04/us/nation-challenged-bioterrorism-bush-request-major-increase-bioterror-funds.html)** *The $1.75 billion request for the National Institutes of Health alone is the biggest single-year request for any discipline or institute in the history of the N.I.H. This is the first time that an extraordinary amount of money is being increased **expressly for bioterrorism** rather than for the general enhancement of capabilities.*
***[NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/04/us/nation-challenged-bioterrorism-bush-request-major-increase-bioterror-funds.html)**: The budget also calls for increasing the national supply of **''push packs''** -- the preassembled packages containing life-saving antidotes, drugs and other medical supplies that can be sent to the sites of terrorist attacks or **mysterious infectious outbreaks***
*Dr. Fauci is expected to travel with President Bush to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to announce details of the administration's biodefense plans.*
**[Dr. Fauci:](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/04/us/nation-challenged-bioterrorism-bush-request-major-increase-bioterror-funds.html)** *You need appropriate facilities to **work on dangerous microbes** that can be used for **weapons**, and we must **jump-start** our efforts to get new facilities and expertise into existing centers of biological excellence*
**[NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/04/us/nation-challenged-bioterrorism-bush-request-major-increase-bioterror-funds.html)**: *Dr. Fauci said he was putting the **final touches** on a strategic plan for spending the new money at his institute, which is scheduled to receive a 61 percent increase.*
*He said he would spend about $441 million of the $1.75 billion budget on basic research, some $592 million on **drug** and **vaccine** discovery and development, $194 million on **trials of new drugs**, and $522 million on new research **laboratories** at federal, university and **industry** facilities.*
*Some $600 million will go to the **Pentagon**, .. much of it at the United States Army laboratory at **Fort Detrick, Md.**, which **conducted biological weapons research** before such weapons were **banned** in **1969**, and now develops antidotes to and **defenses** against such pathogens. **The laboratory** has been **heavily involved** in trying **to analyze the origins** and source of the anthrax letters sent to the Senate and to media outlets in New York and Florida.\**
*The budget also devotes $10 million to creating a **team of epidemiological scientists** .. who will work with their **foreign counterparts** *(on) .. ***mysterious disease outbreaks** and **share** news about promising new **drugs** and **antidotes**. *
*It earmarks another $20 million for the centers' **Epidemiological Intelligence** Service, established in 1951 as an early-warning system against **biological warfare**. \**
[**Dr Fauci, 2011, 10-year anniversary:**](https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2011/10/anthony-s-fauci-reflects-on-the-2001-anthrax-attacks.html)[ ](https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2011/10/anthony-s-fauci-reflects-on-the-2001-anthrax-attacks.html) *What stands out most to me about the 2001 anthrax attacks is the notion that from that point on, **bioterror was a reality and no longer an abstract concept**. .. (T)he attacks really were a wake-up call.*
*Through the anthrax response, we built both a **physical** and an **intellectual infrastructure** that can be used to respond to a **broad range** of emerging health **threats**.*
***The result** is that today we are in a **much better** position — from the perspective of both the research **pipeline** and public health preparedness.*
\* Fort Detrick, Md., *was* the laboratory heavily involved in the origin of the anthrax letters.
\* Seeding money for the Prox-O-5, EcoHealth
# Homegrown Bioterror
# New York Times Sep 4
**[BBC/Susan Watts, March 2002:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/1873368.stm)** *The New York Times carried a major investigation which at any other time would have been a story of huge significance. .. It revealed *(private)* contractors have been involved in **classified** bio-defence projects .. in the **first few days** of **September** last year* *- immediately prior to the attacks of the 11th.*
**[NYT, Sep 4, 2001: ](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/world/us-germ-warfare-research-pushes-treaty-limits.html)*** In a program code-named **Clear Vision**, the Central Intelligence Agency built and tested a model of a **Soviet**-designed **germ bomb** that agency officials **feared** was being sold on the international market.
*
*At about the same time, Pentagon **experts** assembled a **germ factory** in the **Nevada desert** from commercially available materials .. (that) demonstrated the **ease** with which a **terrorist** or **rogue nation** could build a plant that could produce pounds of the deadly germs.*
*Over the past several years, the United States has embarked on a program of secret research on biological weapons that, some officials say, **tests the limits** of the global treaty banning such weapons.*
*The 1972 treaty forbids nations from developing or acquiring weapons that spread disease, but it allows work on **vaccines** and other **protective measures**. Government officials said the secret research, which **mimicked** the major steps **a state or terrorist** would take to create a biological arsenal, was aimed at better **understanding** the threat.*
**[BBC/Susan Watts, March 2002:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/1873368.stm) ***One - run by a contractor - [Battelle](https://www.geekwire.com/2015/a-peek-inside-battelle-the-quiet-rd-giant-behind-copy-machines-compact-discs-and-barcodes/) - was to create **genetically altered anthrax.***
**[NYT: ](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/world/us-germ-warfare-research-pushes-treaty-limits.html)** *(A)dministration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to ****engineer genetically*** *a potentially* ***more potent*** *variant of the bacterium that causes* ***anthrax,*** *a deadly disease ****ideal*** *for* ***germ warfare****.*
*The **experiment** has been **devised** to assess whether the vaccine now being given to millions of American soldiers is effective against such a superbug, which was first created by **Russian** scientists. A Bush administration official said the National **Security** Council is expected to give the final **go-ahead** later this month.*
# Destruction of Evidence
* *
**[NYT, Nov 9, 2001:](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/09/us/nation-challenged-inquiry-experts-see-fbi-missteps-hampering-anthrax-inquiry.html)** * Shortly after the first case of anthrax arose, the F.B.I.* (Mueller)* said it had **no objection** to the **destruction** of a collection of **anthrax samples** at **Iowa State Universit****y**, but some scientists involved in the investigation now say that collection may have contained **genetic clues** valuable to the inquiry.*
*Last month* (**Oct**)*, after consulting with the F.B.I.* (Mueller)*, Iowa State University in Ames* ***destroyed** anthrax spores collected over more than **seven decades** and kept in more than 100 vials. A variant of the so-called **Ames** strain **had been** implicated in the death of a Florida man from inhalation anthrax, and the university was **nervous** about security.*
*[New Yorker, Nov 12, 2001:](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/theamesstrain.html) Around 5:30 P.M. on **October 12th**, college staff members wearing biosafety gloves removed the anthrax specimens from the laboratory cabinet and placed them in an autoclave, a steam sterilizer about the size of a filing cabinet.*
*Roth had wondered about the possibility (of the) .. more than 100 vials being evidence .. and .. contacted the F.B.I. and the Centers for Disease Control before killing the specimens. Both agencies approved the destruction. *
**[NYT: ](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/09/us/nation-challenged-inquiry-experts-see-fbi-missteps-hampering-anthrax-inquiry.html)***(A) precise match between the anthrax .. and a particular strain in the collection might have offered hints as to when that bacteria had been isolated and, perhaps, how widely it had been distributed to researchers. And that, in turn, might have given investigators important clues to the **killer's identity**.*
[**James Roth:**](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/theamesstrain.html)* They may be having some second thoughts about that, but it's too late now,*
[**James Roth**, **Distinguished Professor of veterinary microbiology, preventative medicine, Iowa:** ](https://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/officials-dont-regret-destroying-their-anthrax-sample/article_35a87bdb-5296-527f-a5c4-51098255fbca.html) *On Oct. 9, a media report out of Florida stated that the anthrax that killed a man in Florida was stolen from **a lab in Iowa**. .. Several days later the FBI reported the connection was false.\**
*The decision to destroy vet med's collection of anthrax cultures was made by **Vet Med Dean** Norman Cheville, Associate Dean Don Reynolds and **Roth**.*
**[New Yorker](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/theamesstrain.html):** * The school's anthrax collection had been stored in cabinets in the teaching laboratory, the doors of which were routinely locked at night. .*
*When an associated laboratory nearby, run by the United States Department of Agriculture, had outgrown its building space a few years earlier, it had moved some of its work on anthrax and mad-cow disease to a rented space in an Ames strip mall.*
[**Pentagon Bio-defense Preparedness board:**](https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/biodefense-strategy/Pages/goal2-transcript.aspx) *Dr. ****James Roth,*** *Distinguished Professor, The Department of Veterinary and Microbiology and Preventative Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University and member of the National Academy of Medicine; Dr. ****William Karesh****, Vice President for Health and Policy, **EcoHealth Alliance** and Interproject Liaison for the USAID **emerging threats**.*
# FBI closing in - Ames strain
[**Wapo, 26 Oct 2001:** ](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anthraxinmailames.html) *Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday that the bacterial spores that caused anthrax outbreaks in Florida, New York and Washington belong to the so-called **Ames strain** -- a subtype of the anthrax bacterium that is **commonly used** in universities around the world and was a **focus** of studies by the **U.S. military**.* \*
(re Daschle letter opened in his office **Oct. 15)**
**[ Maj. Gen. John Parker, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command:](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anthraxinmailames.html)** *We are trying very hard to characterize anything that would be associated with this sample and we're continuing to do that research. I won't have the absolute answers until all of those investigations are in.*
*It is highly concentrated. It is pure and the spores are smaller. Therefore they're more dangerous, because they can be more easily absorbed in a person's respiratory system.*
**[BBC, 19 Dec 2001:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1719534.stm)** *For five weeks now* (=Nov 14)*, the FBI has been **working openly** on the premise that the terrorist is **home-grown.*** *Last week it was **acknowledged** that the US military has in recent years been **making weaponised anthrax**, of a type that **matches** the anthrax used to lace the **lethal letters.***
**[The Atlantic, June, 2002:](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2002/06/does-al-qaeda-have-anthrax-better-assume-so/377589/)** *In November* (2001), *the FBI issued a suspect profile identifying the likely anthrax attacker as a single adult male, **probably an American** with a scientific background, **lab experience**, poor social skills, and a grudge. \**
*Some people - I - was one of them - viewed this interpretation with skepticism. What would be the motive? Why the timing so close to September 11? A number of analysts, including David Tell in a useful article in The Weekly Standard on April 29, have subsequently cast doubt on the **disgruntled-scientist hypothesis**,*
***William C. Patrick III:** Anthrax is relatively easy to grow; it doesn't require any special nutrients," **Patrick** said. "But having grown it, you have to dry it and keep it dry, and you have to have a pretty tight system. You need a minimum amount of equipment for that; you just can't go out in the woods and create this."*
\* FBI (Mueller) suspected it was a homegrown scientist from beginning, knew from Nov 14.
# Stephen Hatfill
(under construction) A cautionary tale
# Rosenberg-CIA
**[Deseret News, Apr 2002: ](https://www.deseret.com/2002/4/22/19650725/scientists-hatch-own-theories-on-anthrax)** (L)eading scientists — many **fearful** that an unsolved case will encourage other bioterrorists — are applying their deductive reasoning to the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and spread a new level of fear about biological warfare.
Their theories are full of intrigue: A disgruntled scientist. A **covert government project gone awry**. An accomplice to the **Sept. 11** hijackers who stayed behind to mail the letters after their planes hit the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. **Right-wing extremists** stockpiling the deadly material in anticipation of a visit from the **Internal Revenue Service**.
**[BBC/Susan Watts, March 2002:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/1873368.stm)** A Newsnight investigation raised the possibility that there was a secret CIA project to investigate methods of sending anthrax through the mail which went madly out of control.
The shocking assertion is that a key member of the covert operation may have **removed, refined** and eventually **posted** weapons-grade anthrax which killed five people. .. But has the FBI found the whole case **too hot** to handle?
**[Prof Barbara Hatch Rosenberg:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/1873368.stm)** Some **very expert** field person would have been given this job and it would have been left to him to decide exactly how to carry it out. The result might have been a project gone **badly awry** if he decided to use it for his own purposes and target the media and the senate for his own motives as not intended by the govt project...but this is a possibility that I think needs to be considered.
**[BBC's Tim Franks, 19 Dec 2001:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1719534.stm)** I'm **told** the FBI is now centring its investigations on just four or five laboratories that received anthrax from the **Dugway Proving Ground** in Utah.
The first person to push the theory that the terrorist is a **government-related insider** is the biological weapons **expert**, Professor Barbara Hatch Rosenberg.
**Atlantic:** Rosenberg **.. (who) once served as a low-level bioweapons adviser to President Clinton ..** (was) a passionate **crusader against** the use of bioweapons. (S)he was .. convinced that an American scientist was to blame for the anthrax attacks.
Rosenberg's investigations **led her to Hatfill**. (Hatfill says he believes Rosenberg was made aware of him by a former acquaintance, a defense contractor with whom Hatfill had clashed over a proposed counter-anthrax training program intended for the U.S. Marshals Service.) She wrote a paper she called “Possible Portrait of the Anthrax Perpetrator,” which was **disseminated on the Internet**.
[**Deseret News, Apr 22, 2002:**](https://www.deseret.com/2002/4/22/19650725/scientists-hatch-own-theories-on-anthrax) (A) molecular biologist, (she) began the scientific sleuthing in Feburary (sic) when she posted an article on the Web site of the Federation of American Scientists, [**www.fas.org/bwc**](http://www.fas.org/bwc), (dead-link, unfortunately)
Rosenberg estimates that perhaps **fewer than 40 people** could be **suspects.**
She believes that the **perpetrator** is **one of her own**: a disgruntled American scientist.
**[Prof Rosenberg:](https://www.deseret.com/2002/4/22/19650725/scientists-hatch-own-theories-on-anthrax)** He must be **angry** at some **biodefense agency**. He is driven to demonstrate, in a **spectacular way**, his capabilities and the **government's inability** to respond.
He is **cocksure** that he can **get away with it.** Does he **know something** that he believes to be sufficiently damaging to the United States to make him **untouchable** by the FBI?
**[BBC/Franks:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1719534.stm)** The **weaponised anthrax** is made by a highly secret process belonging to the United States, and the material seems to **fit that recipe**. Their best lead at present is the contractor that **worked for the CIA**.
# Lab-exit theory
[**Scott Becker**](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1719534.stm)[, **Dec 2001**, Association of Public Health Laboratories head:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1719534.stm) *There's security measures that need to be improved in labs across the country. Things as simple as **l******ocks on refrigerators, key cards for access*** *into the facilities*.
**[BBC Interviewer:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1719534.stm)** *(A) lot of listeners would be astonished to learn you get* *padlocks on stationery cupboards, but not necessarily, padlocks on refrigerators that have **lethal organisms** in them.*
*We certainly **share that concern** (but) the **s****cientific community** has been a very **collegial** community, and scientists work very well together. You **know who'**s working on what organisms around.*
# Prof Don Foster by David Freed
[](https://dulandrift.formosahut.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/image-1651312712445.png)[The Atlantic, David Freed, May 2010: ](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-wrong-man/308019/) *Don Foster, a* ***professor** of **English** at Vassar College and a self-styled literary detective, who had achieved modest **celebrity** by examining punctuation and other linguistic fingerprints to identify Joe Klein, who was then a Newsweek columnist, as the author of the anonymously written 1996 political novel,[ Primary Colors](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0783227973/theatlanticmonthA/ref=nosim/). *
*[Historic Mysteries: ](https://www.historicmysteries.com/donald-wayne-foster/) Foster was praised for his keen sleuthing skills. Don Foster also analyzed .. The Night Before Christmas and questioned if it was indeed written by the unanimously-accepted Clement Clarke Moore.*
*Foster first came to prominence in his graduate school work regarding the famous sonnets of Shakespeare. An early edition of the sonnets was dedicated to “Mr. W. H.”, and scholars have debated for centuries who this mysterious man could be. *
*Foster developed a theory that the dedication should actually read “Mr. W. S.” or even “Mr. W. Sh.” indicating **Shakespeare himself.**
*
*Later, Don Foster **stumbled onto** what he proclaimed to be a **lost poem of Shakespeare**’s titled “A Funerall Elegye in memory of the late Vertuous Maister William Peeter.” *
*It **wasn’t** one of Shakespeare’s best poems, but **if** it was written by The Bard it **would have been** the first newly **discovered** work in more than 100 years. **Immediately**, some scholars **believed** that Foster was **correct** in his summation, and **several** anthologies included the “new” poem in their collections.*
**[Historic Mysteries: ](https://www.historicmysteries.com/donald-wayne-foster/)** *Foster later came to the attention of law enforcement officials who requested his help in attempting to determine the authors of two crime-related documents. Foster approached these documents with in-depth analysis using both **computers** and his common sense.* (including the Jon Benet Ramsay murder)
[**Prof Foster (letter to Patsy Ramsay, June 1997):**](https://www.reddit.com/r/JonBenet/comments/nioun4/donald_foster/) *I know you are innocent - know it, absolutely and unequivocally. I will **stake** my personal **reputation** on it. .. The near universal belief - a view encouraged by police behavior - is that you wrote the letter to protect this person who murdered your daughter. I find that impossible to believe.*
(Ramsay lawyers declined Foster's offer to help.)
[**Prof Foster (to Boulder police, 1998):**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wayne_Foster#Ramsey_murder_case) *In my opinion, it is not possible that any individual except Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransom note.*
*Foster had since **consulted** with the **FBI** on investigations of the **Unabomber** and Atlanta’s **Centennial Olympic Park bomb****ing**, among other cases. *
*Foster surmised that the killer was **an** **American posing** as an Islamic jihadist. *
*(A) limited number of American scientists would have had a working knowledge of anthrax. *
*One of those scientists, **Foster concluded**, was a man named **Steven Hatfill**, a medical doctor who had **once** worked at the Army’s elite Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases **(USAMRIID**), which had stocks of anthrax.*
**[Prof Don Foster, (English) Vassar College February 2002: ](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-wrong-man/308019/)** *When I lined up Hatfill’s known movements with the postmark locations of reported biothreats, those hoax anthrax attacks appeared to trail him like a vapor cloud.*
**[Atlantic/David Freed: ](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-wrong-man/308019/)** *Scouring the Internet, (Prof) Foster found an interview that Hatfill had given while working at the **National Institutes of Health**, in which he described how bubonic plague could be made with **simple** equipment and used in a bioterror attack.*
*Foster later tracked down an **unpublished novel** Hatfill had written, depicting a fictional bioterror attack on Washington. *
*He discovered that Hatfill had been in Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) during an anthrax outbreak there in the late 1970s, and that he’d attended medical school near a Rhodesian suburb called **Greendale** - the name of the invented school in the return address of the anthrax letters mailed to the Senate. *
*The deeper Foster dug, the more Hatfill looked to him like a viable suspect.*
Foster says he met Rosenberg over lunch in April 2002,
Prof Don Foster: *(We ) compared notes .. laid out the evidence, such as it was, hers and mine .. found that our **evidence** had led us in the same direction.*
**[David Freed: ](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-wrong-man/308019/)** ***Weeks** dragged on\* while he and Rosenberg tried to* ***interest the FBI*** *in their theories.*
Don Foster: *(T)he bureau remained stubbornly unwilling to listen. (2mths later) patience exhausted.* *Rosenberg met on Capitol Hill with Senate staff members **Special Agent** Van Harp, the senior FBI agent on what by then had been **dubbed** the “Amerithrax” **investigation**, was summoned to the meeting, along with other FBI officials.*
*\* *Luxury!
# Foster-Rosenberg-FBI
**Atlantic:** Although Rosenberg would **later deny e**ver having identified him publicly or privately, the specific details of her “Portrait” made it clear she had a particular **suspect in mind**: Steven Hatfill.
Foster says he met Rosenberg over lunch in April 2002, “compared notes,” and “found that our evidence had led us in the same direction.” Weeks dragged on while he and Rosenberg tried to **interest the FBI** in their theories, but the bureau remained “stubbornly unwilling to listen.” Two months later, her “patience exhausted,” Rosenberg, according to Foster, met on Capitol Hill with Senate staff members “and laid out the evidence, such as it was, hers and mine.” Special Agent Van Harp, the senior FBI agent on what by then had been dubbed the “Amerithrax” investigation, was summoned to the meeting, along with other FBI officials.
Rosenberg criticized the FBI for not being **aggressive enough**. “She thought we were **wasting efforts and resources** in a particular—or in several areas, and should focus more on who she concluded was responsible for it,” Harp would later testify.
**Did she mention Dr. Hatfill’s name in her presentation?**” Hatfill’s attorney, former federal prosecutor Thomas G. Connolly, asked Harp during a sworn deposition.
“**That’s who she was talking about,**” Harp testified.
Exactly a week after the Rosenberg meeting, the FBI carried out its first search of Hatfill’s apartment, with **television news cameras broadcasting it live.**
# Mr. Z
Quotes are from *[Hatfill v New York Times](https://casetext.com/case/hatfill-v-new-york-times-co-4)* case text.
SHEDD, Circuit Judge (summarising)*: Nicholas Kristof writes a regular column for the editorial page of The* (NY) *Times. During the spring and summer of 2002, Kristof wrote several columns criticizing the FBI's investigation. From May through July 2002, Kristof focused his attention on the FBI's handling of information related to a man he called "Mr. Z." According to Kristof, circumstantial evidence pointed to Mr. Z, who was widely suspected by other scientists of involvement in the anthrax mailings.*
*In Kristof's opinion, the FBI had not moved **aggressively** enough against Mr. Z. In August 2002, Kristof identified Mr. Z as Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, a research scientist employed by the Department of Defense.*
# Hatfill
[](https://dulandrift.formosahut.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-05/image-1652002003641.png)
**[Laura Rozen, blogger, 27 Jun 2002:](http://cryptome.sabotage.org/authors/rozen-l.html)** Who is Steven Hatfill? The Prospect has spoken with **dozens of biowarfare scientists**, other government contractors who work in bio-defense, former medical school associates and colleagues, and sources close to the FBI investigation to get a clearer picture of the Maryland scientist.
Hatfill, who was employed as an **Ebola** researcher at USAMRIID from 1997 to 1999, has since worked as a government contractor who specializes in training U.S. Special Forces, embassy employees, emergency workers, and other government officials to respond to biological attacks. .. his colleagues say he is passionately devoted.
Hatfill had access to the[ U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases](http://www.usamriid.army.mil/) (USAMRIID) in Frederick, Maryland, up until early March. As one of a handful of places in the country where scientists grow the most lethal germs in order to **develop vaccines** to defend against them, USAMRIID and its Utah cousin,[ Dugway Proving Grounds](https://www.dugway.army.mil/), have been at the center of the eight-month-old FBI investigation.
Last month, genetic analysis of the letter-anthrax suggested that it was indistinguishable from a strain developed at USAMRIID.
Hatfill belongs to a **small pool of people** who have access to and detailed knowledge of how to grow and weaponize the highly lethal, concentrated dry powder spores of anthrax that were sent in letters to media personalities and members of Congress last October. Specifically, by virtue of his government contracts, Hatfill had access to the[ U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases](http://www.usamriid.army.mil/) (USAMRIID) in Frederick, Maryland, up until early March. As one of a handful of places in the country where scientists grow the most lethal germs in order to develop vaccines to defend against them, USAMRIID and its Utah cousin,[ Dugway Proving Grounds](https://www.dugway.army.mil/), have been at the center of the eight-month-old FBI investigation. Last month, genetic analysis of the letter-anthrax suggested that it was **indistinguishable** from a strain developed at USAMRIID.
**[WaPo/Marilyn W. Thompsom, 14 Sep 2003:](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/pursuithatfill.html)** Stan Bedlington had known (Hatfill) for several years. They were **drinking buddies** who'd both been involved in anti-terrorism efforts long before the World Trade Center crumbled.
Bedlington, a retired CIA agent, had spent six years as a senior analyst with the **CIA Counter-terrorism** Center. Hatfill was working as a **virology researche**r at the **U.S. Army** Medical Research Institute of **Infectious Diseases** at Fort Detrick, where he'd begun making a name for himself **preaching the dangers** of a bioterror attack.
(T)hey ran into each other again at Charley's Place in McLean, then a **favorite hangout** for the U.S. **intelligence community.** Agents and officials from the CIA and Pentagon **mingled** with **private consultants** and law enforcement agents**.** Most were cleared to handle classified information, but after long workdays and a few drinks, the conversation often veered to **tales of dark intrigue** and, occasionally, into drunken bluster.
Hatfill, who first showed up there with men whom Bedlington recognized as **bodyguards for Saudi Arabian Prince** Bandar bin Sultan, had plenty of stories to tell.
**[Laura Rozen:](http://cryptome.sabotage.org/authors/rozen-l.html)** Indeed, several of his associates have told the Prospect that Hatfill bragged of having been a double agent in South Africa.
**[WaPo](https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/pursuithatfill.html)**: He bragged about being an ex-Green Beret. He walked with a slight limp and told people it was the result of being shot during combat. In a convincing British accent that he could turn on at will, he described parachute jumps and commando training he did under the direction of the **British Special Air Service.** He detailed his exploits as a member of the **Selous Scouts**, an elite counterinsurgency unit of Rhodesia's white supremacist army that became notorious for brutality during that country's civil war. He even recounted a **devastating outbreak of anthrax poisoning in the Rhodesian bush** in the late 1970s, an event later suspected to be part of an effort **by the Selous Scouts** to control guerrilla uprisings.
**[Guardian, Jun 2003: ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jun/01/anthrax.usa)** T*he man at the centre of the investigation into the post-9/11 anthrax attacks in the US* ***faked a UK medical degree** and membership of the Royal Society of Medicine, to fool his way into a job at America's highest security bio-defence installation.*
Dr Steven Jay Hatfill was named last August by US Attorney General John Ashcroft as as the **only** **'person of interest'** in the investigation and now lives under 24-hour surveillance by the FBI.
Hatfill, a former researcher at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, denies he is the anthrax killer.
An investigation by the Observer, carried out with with New York-based current affairs magazine Seed, has discovered that the **cancer specialist and bio-terror expert** claimed he had a medical degree from **Edinburgh on CVs used to apply for jobs** in the US. He also said he was a Fellow of the prestigious **Royal Society of Medicine**. The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh had **no record of Hatfill qualifyin**g as doctor in 1984, as claimed on his CV. His medical degree is from **Zimbabwe**, where he qualified in the same year.
Rosamund Snow, RSM spokeswoman, said : 'He is not on our books, nor has he applied to be.'
The investigation found that Hatfill had **fabricated large portions of his CV, including claims of serving in the Rhodesian SAS** and researching for Nasa's Solar System Exploration Division.
**[Guardian, Jun 2002:](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jun/28/usa.anthrax?CMP=gu_com)** FBI agents investigating the anthrax attacks that killed five people have searched the [Maryland](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/maryland) home of a former US military scientist who commissioned a study into similar attacks three years ago. The study commissioned by Dr Hatfill describes placing 2.5 grams of bacillus globigii, an anthrax simulant, in a standard business envelope.
Two agents also spent several months in a Washington storage unit, poring over a mountain of forgotten videotape to locate footage of Hatfill's television appearance in 1998. In it, he discussed the likelihood of a biological attack, according to television host Armstrong Williams.
# FBI names Hatfill
[**John Ashcroft, FBI, The Early Show, CBS Aug 6, 2002** ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/08/29/the-fbi-problem/9dda4346-a18c-4862-ab55-d7f2030c5d33/)(asked whether Hatfill was a suspect): *Well, he's a **person of interest**. . . . I'm not prepared to say any more at this time other than the fact that he is an individual of interest.*
# The draining of the pond
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/detect/antdetect\_letters\_a.htm