# 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**.