IP: FBI not talking to former Army anthrax makers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 10:51:35 -0500
> From: tim finin <finin () cs umbc edu>
> Organization: UMBC http://umbc.edu/
>
> I thought this article in today's Baltimore Sun was very
> interesting.  Apparently, the FBI has not yet interviewed the
> Former Army biowarfare specialists who developed techniques to
> make Anthrax at Ft. Detrick MD.  It seems like the only explanations
> are gross incompetence or a lack of commitment to find out
> who was behind the sending of the anthrax letters.
> --
>
> http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.anthrax09dec09.story
>
> Ex-anthrax makers want FBI to talk with them
>
> Retired Army veterans offer unique experience, eagerness to help effort
>
> By Scott Shane Sun Staff, December 9, 2001
>
> Two months after the FBI mobilized hundreds of agents to investigate
> the anthrax attacks, the bureau has still not interviewed the only
> Americans with experience producing anthrax for use as a weapon: aging
> veterans of the U.S. biological warfare program based at Fort Detrick.
> Scientists and former federal law enforcement officials say they are
> baffled by the FBI's failure to contact the former Army biowarfare
> specialists, who have rare technical expertise and might offer useful
> leads on finding the perpetrator.  In fact, as the biowarfare veterans
> themselves admit, the perpetrator might be one of them - investigators
> have yet to do the work necessary to rule them out.
>
> "That is really, really surprising," said I. Michael Greenberger, who
> was in charge of counterterrorism at the U.S. Justice Department
> during the Clinton administration, of the FBI's failure to interview
> the former bioweapons makers. "That just takes my breath away. This is
> supposed to be a no-stones-unturned investigation."
>
> Greenberger, now at the University of Maryland law school, said, "My
> first instinct would be to go to these guys and ask them what it's
> like to make stuff like this. Plus, they're potential suspects,
> because of their experience."
>
> Milton Leitenberg, an expert on biological weapons at the University
> of Maryland, called the FBI's failure to talk to the anthrax veterans
> "gross incompetence. The FBI certainly should have talked to them."
>
> But no one is more disturbed by the FBI's omission than the anthrax
> veterans themselves. Most are men in their 70s and 80s, living in
> retirement around Frederick, where Fort Detrick is situated, or in
> Florida. They estimate that their number has dwindled to about two
> dozen, and many have been trading ideas about the anthrax attacks over
> lunch, by phone and by e-mail since October.
>
> Since they were among the few Americans with the knowledge necessary
> to mount such an attack, they figured they would be among the first
> people FBI agents would visit. That was many weeks ago.
>
> "We've been reading about how thorough the Department of Justice is,"
> said James R.E. Smith, who made anthrax and other bioweapons at
> Detrick and other Army facilities from 1943 to 1971. "That's a bunch
> of nonsense. They haven't investigated me."
>
> 'I want to be examined'
>
> ...

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