Congress sets ‘Amerithrax’ probe

By: centraljersey.com
The first Congressionally directed look into the FBI’s handling of Amerithrax will be done by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The GAO will investigate the scientific and technical methods used by the FBI during its investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, known as Amerithrax, something U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) requested earlier this year. Mr. Holt and four colleagues requested the first Congressionally directed investigation after the FBI announced it was closing its investigation into the 2001 anthrax letter attacks.
Mr. Holt consistently has raised questions about the federal investigation into the attacks.
"The American people need credible answers to many questions raised by the original attacks and the subsequent FBI handling of the case," Mr. Holt said. "I’m pleased the GAO has responded to our request and will look into the scientific methods used by the FBI."
The attacks evidently originated from a postal box on Nassau Street in Princeton, killing five and sickening many. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, letters laced with anthrax were sent to members of the media and Congress. Some of the letters were routed through the Postal Service’s mail processing center in Hamilton. The processing center was closed for more than three years, the congressman said, and $65 million was spent to decontaminate it. The fallout from the anthrax attacks caused a temporary closure of Mr. Holt’s office in 2001, after traces of anthrax were found on equipment.
Less than a year later, the FBI found anthrax in a mail drop box on Nassau Street.
The FBI has tied the attacks to senior Army microbiologist Bruce Edwards Ivins, who killed himself in July 2008 when he was aware he was a prime suspect in the attacks. The lethal anthrax letters in the attack were mailed from a single mailbox at 10 Nassau St. in Princeton, the FBI has said.
But the FBI never presented any evidence placing Mr. Ivins in Princeton at the time the anthrax letters were mailed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It only detailed an "obsession" Mr. Ivins had with a college sorority, which had a presence in Princeton. Mr. Ivins’ father also attended Princeton University.
In September 2008, the FBI requested that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) examine a relatively narrow range of scientific questions about the FBI’s scientific conclusions in the case, and those findings are expected to be released by year’s end. At Mr. Holt’s request, GAO will take a much broader approach in examining the scientific underpinnings of the FBI’s investigation.
Specifically, the GAO will seek to answer the following questions: 1) What microbial and technical forensic methods did the FBI use to conclude that Bruce Ivins was the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attack; how reliable and reproductive were those methods; and were the methods validated? 2) What scientific concerns and uncertainties, if any, remain? 3) What agencies, including intelligence agencies, are responsible for monitoring high containment laboratories in the U.S. and abroad; how do they monitor these laboratories; and how effective is their monitoring?
Mr. Holt continues to insist on the need for passage of his legislation to create a comprehensive Congressional commission to investigate the 2001 anthrax attacks and the federal government’s response to and investigation of the attacks. The bipartisan commission would make recommendations to the president and Congress on how the country can best prevent and respond to any future bioterrorism attack.
"In the wake of the bungled FBI investigation, all of us – but especially the families of the victims of the anthrax attacks – deserve credible answers about how the attacks happened and whether the case really is closed," Mr. Holt said. "The commission, like the 9/11 Commission, would do that, and it would help American families know that the government is better prepared to protect them and their children from future bioterrorism attacks."
This story contains material from previous Princeton Packet stories.