FBI closing in - Ames strain

Wapo, 26 Oct 2001:     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:  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:  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:  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.