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'Troubled' Anthrax Suspect Acted Alone, Officials Say

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By CARRIE JOHNSON, DEL QUENTIN WILBER and DAN EGGEN

The Washington Post

Published: August 7, 2008

Updated: 08/07/2008 12:33 am

WASHINGTON - Government officials asserted Wednesday that a troubled bioweapons scientist acted alone to perpetrate a terrorism scheme that killed five people, a case that centered on a near-perfect match of anthrax spores in his custody and a record of his late-night laboratory work just before the toxic letters were mailed.
Federal investigators uncovered e-mail messages written by bacteriologist Bruce E. Ivins describing an al-Qaida threat that echoed language in the handwritten letters mailed to Senate offices and media organizations in September and October 2001.

Ivins, who worked in high-security labs at Fort Detrick, Md., had a motive because of his work validating a controversial anthrax vaccine that had been suspended from production, authorities said.

Even as Justice Department officials declared the worst act of bioterrorism in U.S. history all but solved, scientists and legal experts said the evidence is far from foolproof.

Investigators were unable to place Ivins in Princeton, N.J., on the days when the letters were dropped into a Nassau Street mailbox.

They did not try to match his crabbed handwriting with the distinctive block print on the 2001 letters. And they did not silence congressional critics who wondered whether one man could have carried out the elaborate attacks.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, called for a "full-blown accounting" of the $15 million investigation, which took nearly seven years and included multiple wrong turns.

Hatfill Pursuit Bolsters Doubts

Other congressional sources said the FBI case was compelling but doubts lingered in part because of the bureau's lengthy, ultimately fruitless pursuit of former Fort Detrick researcher Steven Hatfill.

In June, the Justice Department agreed to pay Hatfill a $5.8 million settlement to resolve his privacy lawsuit. The only veiled reference to the government's wrong focus came in a footnote in the documents. The footnote said tests to make a clear genetic link to a specific scientist did not exist in the early years of the investigation.

The task force first obtained court permission last winter to search Ivins' modest house in Frederick, Md., his cars and the family van, his work locker and his personal e-mail accounts.

Ivins Lawyer Calls Probe 'Dance'

Paul Kemp, an attorney for Ivins, said prosecutors had carried out "an orchestrated dance of carefully worded statements, heaps of innuendo and a staggering lack of real evidence - all contorted to create the illusion of guilt."

Authorities said they were compelled to present their case against Ivins, who had been warned he could face murder accusations but had not been charged, because of the "extraordinary public interest" after his death July 29 by suicide.

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor of Washington called Ivins "the sole suspect." He said, "We are confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks."

The airing of evidence, which followed briefings for lawmakers and relatives of victims, closed a painful chapter for many families.

Using sophisticated DNA techniques and detective work, FBI agents and U.S. Postal Service inspectors picked apart discrepancies in Ivins' accounts about the lethal bacteria he had cultured.

Prosecutors say Ivins offered different stories about when and how he learned that the anthrax cultures in his lab genetically matched the powder in the letters.

The FBI accused him of submitting "questionable" anthrax samples five years ago to keep investigators off his trail.

Investigators honed in on Ivins for several reasons, according to a statement from U.S. Postal Service Inspector Thomas Dellafera. That document appeared to serve as a blueprint for the government, laying out critical arguments against Ivins.

Late Night Lab Work

Dellafera said Ivins could not justify his "late night laboratory work," which peaked around the time of the Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, 2001, mailings.

A chart submitted with the search warrant request showed that Ivins logged lengthy evening shifts from Sept. 14, 2001, through Sept. 16, 2001.

There was another spike in late nights in early October 2001.

During other periods, he typically left his lab before 5 p.m., Dellafera contended.

Ivins told investigators he retreated to the lab "to escape" problems at home.

Authorities also referenced e-mail that Ivins had sent to a friend describing his rising stress loads, depression and feelings of "isolation - and desolation" in 2000 and through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The filing cited an e-mail Ivins allegedly sent a few days before Sept. 11 warning that "Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas" and have "just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans."

Documents also offer some insight into possible motives.

The filing made reference to e-mail from Ivins in June and July 2000, describing his stress in an effort to resolve problems with an anthrax vaccine made by BioPort, a Michigan company, that had stopped production under federal order.

The vaccine had been used to inoculate U.S. troops, as well as laboratory workers.

In his June 2000 correspondence, Ivins worried that if the BioPort vaccine failed its potency tests, "the program will come to a halt. That's bad for everyone concerned, including us."

The documents said another driving force in targeting his victims may have been the political views of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

The documents note that Ivins' wife was active in the anti-abortion movement and both senators had been publicized as pro-choice advocates.

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