Anthrax expert stands by her claim

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Anthrax expert stands by her claim

02/21/02

By JOSEPH DEE

Staff Writer

A biological weapons control expert yesterday refused to back down from her

claim that the FBI has a prime suspect in last autumn's deadly anthrax

letters episode, despite strenuous denials by the bureau.

She speculated that FBI agents might still be building their case against

the suspect and possible accomplices.

" They're probably collecting evidence, so I can understand they'd want to

deny that they have a specific suspect, " said Barbara Hatch Rosenberg,

director of the Federation of American Scientists' Chemical and Biological

Weapons Program.

" I'm certain that since they haven't moved against the suspect or suspects

that they don't want to alert anyone they're under suspicion, " she said.

During a Monday lecture at Princeton University, Rosenberg said the FBI has

a prime suspect and might be " dragging its feet " in making an arrest because

he has ties to secret U.S. military biological weapons programs.

She called upon the public and the news media to keep up the pressure on the

FBI, saying some of her sources, who she described as " government insiders, "

have confided fear that the FBI might attempt to deal with the suspect

discreetly, out of the glare of public scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Rep. , R-Washington Township, will be making a formal

request to FBI Director S. Mueller III for a detailed briefing by a

top-level agent on the bureau's investigation, aide Nick Manetto said last

night. also will seek a more detailed response from the bureau to

Rosenberg's claims.

Several FBI representatives Tuesday denied Rosenberg's assertion that the

bureau has a prime suspect. One spokeswoman was asked how many suspects the

bureau has but declined to answer the question.

is also planning to reach out to Rosenberg for a personal interview,

Manetto said.

" The congressman wants every single angle examined, " Manetto said. " It

doesn't make sense to not look at leads, especially when you have a source

talking to other people and making her information well known. "

Rosenberg said she has been besieged by telephone calls since an account of

her lecture was published in Tuesday's edition of The Times of Trenton.

She refused to divulge the names of her government contacts after her

lecture Monday. Asked again yesterday if she could reveal some names, she

said, " I'm afraid not. My contacts won't talk to the press and won't divulge

names. They won't tell me the name (of the suspect). "

Rosenberg said during her lecture that several of her contacts who are

familiar with the federal investigation have reached the conclusion that a

particular man is the main suspect. And they know the FBI has interviewed

him on more than one occasion, she said.

Analysis of the anthrax spores in the five contaminated letters -- four of

which were postmarked at the Trenton Main Post Office in Hamilton -- shows

they were grown from the same so-called Ames strain of the bacteria used at

a U.S. military research lab at Fort Detrick in land. The lab sent the

strain to seven other research labs, some of which in turn shared the

bacteria with other labs, Rosenberg said Monday. About 20 labs have received

the Ames strain, she said.

Rosenberg said the perpetrator is likely a former Fort Detrick research

scientist who was familiar with classified information on a process to make

the powder useful as a weapon.

A particular chemical process developed by the U.S. military removes an

electrostatic charge that would cause the spores to clump together.

Unclumped, the spores float in the air more readily, where they can be

breathed deep into a person's lungs.

Last week the FBI asked the American Society for Microbiology to e-mail its

40,000 members, asking for any tips they might have, according to a story

published on the Salon.com Web site. Such efforts have led some observers to

question why the FBI is casting such a wide net instead of focusing on the

researchers in the 20 labs that had access to the Ames strain.

An FBI source said the agency's investigation has included inquiries at the

labs.

Rosenberg, a microbiologist, is a former cancer researcher at Memorial

Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and former biochemistry professor at Cornell

Medical College. She is currently a research professor of environmental

science at the State University of New York at Purchase.

The Federation of America Scientists has an illustrious pedigree, dating

back to the end of World War II when it was called the Federation of Atomic

Scientists.

Physicists and other scientists who secretly developed the first atomic bomb

as part of the Manhattan Project formed the group to confront the new perils

for civilization and responsibilities for nations as the world entered the

Nuclear Age.