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Anthrax Suspect Borrowed Device

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 5, 2008

WASHINGTON - Bruce E. Ivins, the government's leading suspect in the 2001 anthrax killings, borrowed freeze-drying equipment from a bioweapons lab that fall that allows scientists to convert wet germ cultures into dry spores, according to sources briefed on the case.

Ivins' possession of the drying equipment, known as a lyopholizer, could help investigators explain how he may have been able to send letters containing deadly anthrax spores to U.S. senators and news organizations, causing five deaths.

The device was not commonly used by researchers at the Army's sprawling biodefense complex at Fort Detrick, Md., where Ivins worked as a scientist, employees at the base said.

Instead, sources said, Ivins had to go through a formal process to check out the lyopholizer, creating a record on which authorities are now relying. He did at least one project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that would have given him reason to use the drying equipment, according to a former colleague in his lab.

The Washington Post

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