Expert: Anthrax suspect ID'd

[Guest guest]

Seadoc,

Could you please tell me what publication ph Dee writes for?

I have seen this before on several member's contributions. The best way for

those who oppose us to discredit what we do is to make reference to stories

that do not list the complete source of a news story.

Thank you,

Gerald Bozarth, WA ANG

Expert: Anthrax suspect ID'd

02/19/02

By JOSEPH DEE

Staff Writer

PRINCETON BOROUGH -- An advocate for the control of biological

weapons who has been gathering information about last autumn's

anthrax attacks said yesterday the Federal Bureau of Investigation

has a strong hunch about who mailed the deadly letters.

But the FBI might be " dragging its feet " in pressing charges because

the suspect is a former government scientist familiar with " secret

activities that the government would not like to see disclosed, " said

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, director of the Federation of American

Scientists' Chemical and Biological Weapons Program..... "

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Expert: Anthrax suspect ID'd

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http://www.nj.com/mercer/times/index.ssf?/mercer/times/02-19-IZAR1IUB.html

Expert: Anthrax suspect ID'd

02/19/02

By JOSEPH DEE

Staff Writer

PRINCETON BOROUGH -- An advocate for the control of biological weapons who

has been gathering information about last autumn's anthrax attacks said

yesterday the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a strong hunch about who

mailed the deadly letters.

But the FBI might be " dragging its feet " in pressing charges because the

suspect is a former government scientist familiar with " secret activities

that the government would not like to see disclosed, " said Barbara Hatch

Rosenberg, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Chemical and

Biological Weapons Program.

Rosenberg, who spoke to about 65 students, faculty members and others at the

Woodrow School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton

University, said the FBI has known of the suspect since October and,

according to her " government insider " sources, has interrogated him more

than once.

The investigation into five anthrax-laced letters and several other hoax

letters -- all mailed last fall, including several processed by Trenton Main

Post Office in Hamilton -- was the focus of Rosenberg's talk. She also gave

her thoughts about what the government should do to control biological

weapons.

" There are a number of insiders -- government insiders -- who know people in

the anthrax field who have a common suspect, " Rosenberg said. " The FBI has

questioned that person more than once, . . . so it looks as though the FBI

is taking that person very seriously. "

She said it is quite possible the suspect is a scientist who formerly worked

at the U.S. government's military laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md.

Rosenberg said she has been gathering information from press reports,

congressional hearings, Bush administration news conferences and government

insiders she would not name.

During a brief question-and-answer session after her talk, one man wondered

whether biological agents truly pose significant dangers to the public,

given the limited number of deaths and illnesses caused by five

anthrax-laced letters.

Without mentioning other biological agents that are far more deadly and

contagious than anthrax, Rosenberg said the potential for a biological

attack is " catastrophic. "

Another man wondered if the FBI and other investigators might be focusing

too narrowly on one scientist, saying, " New Jersey is the epicenter of the

international pharmaceutical industry, " and many people in those labs

presumably have the skills to handle and refine anthrax.

" I think your argument would have been a good one earlier on, but I think

that the results of the analyses (of the letters and the anthrax in them)

show that access to classified information was essential, " Rosenberg said.

" And that rules out most of the people in the pharmaceutical industry. . . .

It's possible, but they would have had to have access to the information, "

Rosenberg said.

Picking up the conversational thread, another man said, " People know a lot,

and it's a question of what they choose to focus their knowledge on. Things

are invented in parallel, " he said.

-- -- --

She said the evidence points to a person who has experience handling

anthrax; who has been vaccinated and has received annual booster shots; and

who had access to classified government information about how to chemically

treat the bacterial spores to keep them from clumping together, which allows

them to remain airborne.

" We can draw a likely portrait of the perpetrator as a former Fort Detrick

scientist who is now working for a contractor in the Washington, D.C.,

area, " Rosenberg said. " He had reason for travel to Florida, New Jersey and

the United Kingdom. . . . There is also the likelihood the perpetrator made

the anthrax himself. He grew it, probably on a solid medium and weaponized

it at a private location where he had accumulated the equipment and the

material.

" We know that the FBI is looking at this person, and it's likely that he

participated in the past in secret activities that the government would not

like to see disclosed, " Rosenberg said. " And this raises the question of

whether the FBI may be dragging its feet somewhat and may not be so anxious

to bring to public light the person who did this.

" I know that there are insiders, working for the government, who know this

person and who are worried that it could happen that some kind of quiet deal

is made that he just disappears from view, " Rosenberg said.

" This, I think, would be a really serious outcome that would send a message

to other potential terrorists, that (they) would think they could get away

with it.

" So I hope that doesn't happen, and that is my motivation to continue to

follow this and to try to encourage press coverage and pressure on the FBI

to follow up and publicly prosecute the perpetrator. "

-- -- --

She expressed disappointment that the U.S. government last July decided

against signing an international biological weapons treaty that would ban

nations from developing such weapons.

" It became clear from congressional testimony that the reason for this

rejection was the need to protect our secret projects, " Rosenberg said.

During the question-and-answer period, one woman said, " I'm not sure that I

understood you completely, but it seems to me that the United States

government has a double-standard, " of wanting other nations to comply with a

weapons ban but wanting freedom to pursue its own program.

" I'm totally shocked by this information, " she said, sending a wave of

laughter through the lecture hall.

" They make no bones about it, " Rosenberg replied. " On many occasions they've

argued that rules should be for the bad guys, not the good guys. "

Rosenberg said she worries about an " enormous increase " in money in the Bush

budget for research into bioterrorism agents. " There is already a rush for

this funding, " she said.

The number of researchers and labs ought to be tightly controlled, she said.

Under the current budget proposal, however, she says the government will be

spreading money around to " a lot more people and a lot more laboratories

around the country from which bioterrorists can emerge, as one just did.

" By spreading around this access and this knowledge, we're asking for

trouble.'