# FBI closing in - Ames strain

[<span style="font-family: Arial;">**Wapo, 26 Oct 2001:** </span>](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anthraxinmailames.html)<span style="font-family: Arial;"> *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**.*  \*</span>

<span style="font-family: Arial;">(re Daschle letter opened in his office **Oct. 15)**</span>

**[<span style="font-family: Arial;"> Maj. Gen. John Parker, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command</span>:](http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anthraxinmailames.html)**  *<span style="font-family: Arial;">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.</span>*

*<span style="font-family: Arial;">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.</span>*

<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">**[BBC, <span class="date">19 Dec 2001</span>:](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.*** </span>*<span style="font-weight: 400;">Last week it was </span>**acknowledged** <span style="font-weight: 400;">that the US military has in recent years been </span>**making weaponised anthrax**<span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span>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**,*

*<span class="body" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="bkmrk-william-c.-patrick-i"><span class="body-content"><span style="font-weight: 400;">**William C. Patrick III:** Anthrax is relatively easy to grow; it doesn't require any special nutrients," </span>**Patrick** <span style="font-weight: 400;">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."</span></span></span></span>*

\* FBI (Mueller) suspected it was a homegrown scientist from beginning, knew from Nov 14.