A step closer in anthrax hunt

Debra Weierman, media coordinator for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which supervises the case, declined to comment on the findings or on any law enforcement theories about how the crimes might have been carried out. But sources close to the case said the discoveries were so compelling that the FBI now plans to drain one of the ponds in another search for sunken evidence. The FBI has notified the city of Frederick and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources that it will begin the operation by June 1 and expects to pump thousands of gallons of water from a single pond into the others and a nearby reservoir. Additional agents have been assigned to the case, code-named Amerithrax.

Two sources familiar with the items recovered from the pond described a clear box, with holes that could accommodate gloves to protect the user as he worked. Also recovered were vials wrapped in plastic. Not everyone involved in the case subscribes to the theory. Some believe that the killer could have completed the task on land and simply dumped materials into the pond to avoid detection.

The devices come in all sizes and range in price from simple models that cost less than $150 to custom-designed varieties that are priced at $10,000 or more. The Justice Department secured the sales records of major US glove box and bag manufacturers soon after the anthrax attacks occurred. The FBI has come under criticism for the pace of the investigation, which has involved dozens of agents and cutting-edge laboratory analysis. The pond findings, the sources said, offer the first possible physical evidence in a case that, thus far, has been built almost exclusively on circumstantial clues considered too tenuous to lead to criminal charges. But the case still has significant weaknesses, the sources said. A major problem is that the FBI has found no evidence linking anyone to the actual mailing of the letters. The two most deadly letters, to Daschle and Leahy, are believed to have been mailed from a highly visible mailbox in Princeton, NJ, just across the street from the Princeton University campus. The box, which tested positive for anthrax, was removed from its concrete footings in August 2002 and shipped to Army labs for testing.

The water theory has increased investigators’ interest in Hatfill, who formerly lived in an apartment outside Fort Detrick’s main gate that is about eight miles from the ponds. Based on a tip, FBI teams rushed to seal off the municipal forest in late December and sent divers into the ponds, which were created decades ago to provide water in case of forest fires. The FBI said at the time that it was looking for equipment that might have been used in the crimes. Since then, a team of FBI agents has returned occasionally to the site. The pond searches represented another flurry of activity in an investigation that had appeared stalled. Soon after the anthrax letters surfaced, the FBI released Akers said Hatfill was trained in the use of the cell culture system, which he employed both at USAMRIID and during a previous government research appointment at a division of the National Institutes of Health. The FBI has reviewed the manuscript of Hatfill’s novel, which is on file at the US Copyright Office.

(LA Times-Washington Post)