As I surmised many months ago - an inside job...at USAMRIID

[Guest guest]

Capitol Hill Anthrax Matches Army's Stocks

5 Labs Can Trace Spores to Ft. Detrick

By Rick Weiss and Schmidt

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, December 16, 2001; Page A01

Genetic fingerprinting studies indicate that the anthrax spores

mailed to Capitol Hill are identical to stocks of the deadly bacteria

maintained by the U.S. Army since 1980, according to scientists

familiar with the most recent tests.

Although many laboratories possess the Ames strain of anthrax

involved in this fall's bioterrorist attacks, only five laboratories

so far have been found to have spores with perfect genetic matches to

those in the Senate letters, the scientists said. And all those labs

can trace back their samples to a single U.S. military source: the

U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID)

at Fort Detrick, Md.

" That means the original source [of the terrorist material] had to

have been USAMRIID, " said one of the scientists.

Those matching samples are at Fort Detrick; the Dugway Proving Ground

military research facility in Utah; a British military lab called

Porton Down; and microbial depositories at Louisiana State University

(LSU) and Northern Arizona University. Northern Arizona University

received its sample from LSU, which received its sample from Porton

Down. Dugway and Porton Down got their samples directly from USAMRIID.

In another development yesterday, government health officials said

they planned to recommend that about 3,000 people who were exposed to

anthrax, including hundreds of Washington postal and Capitol Hill

workers, be offered an experimental vaccine as a precaution in case

antibiotic treatment alone failed to protect them from getting sick.

The FBI's investigation into the anthrax attacks is increasingly

focusing on whether U.S. government bioweapons research programs,

including one conducted by the CIA, may have been the source of

deadly anthrax powder sent through the mail, according to sources

with knowledge of the probe. The results of the genetic tests

strengthen that possibility. The FBI is focusing on a contractor that

worked with the CIA, one source said.

But it remains unknown which lab may have lost control of the

material that apparently ended up in terrorist hands. One of the two

scientists familiar with the genetic testing, who has been advising

the government on the anthrax scare, said investigators still know

little about security at Porton Down, though they have no reason to

suppose it has been inadequate. Of the domestic labs, Dugway has

attracted the most attention from the FBI, he said.

Dugway is also the only facility known in recent years to have

processed anthrax spores into the powdery form that is most easily

inhaled.

Scientists have known for some time that bacteria used in the

terrorist attacks belong to the Ames strain, a variant of the anthrax

bacterium, Bacillus anthracis, that was first isolated from a cow in

Iowa and has been under study by military scientists for decades. But

the Ames strain comes in various subtypes that can be distinguished

from one another by detailed tests on the microbe's genes.

The genetic fingerprinting finding was made by a research team led by

geneticist Keim at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff,

which has been comparing the Ames strain bacteria found in the Senate

letters to other Ames strain samples retrieved from nature and from

various university and government laboratories.

" That's good detective work in the sense of determining the origins;

this will narrow the search for the people who had access to the

strain, " said Jennie Hunter-Cevera, a microbiologist and president of

the University of land Biotechnology Institute.

Other experts were cautious, noting that it is possible that the

exact subtype of the Ames strain could have originated elsewhere --

perhaps even isolated from animals or soil in the wild.

" It's an important finding but it's not one of those things that

says, 'Aha!' " said Spertzel, a former director of the U.N.

biological weapons team in Iraq.

The scientists are still planning to do genetic testing on anthrax

bacteria from the Defense Research Establishment Suffield, a Canadian

military research facility, the University of New Mexico in

Albuquerque, and the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, a

government contractor doing research on anthrax vaccines. Those are

the only other facilities known to have received samples from

USAMRIID.

The researchers also plan to test samples obtained from nature, and

from other university labs known to have the Ames strain to see if

any others match. But of the few such samples that have been tested

so far none has matched the spores used by the terrorists. In

addition, the researchers want to examine other characteristics of

the samples, such as proteins, carbohydrates and other substances in

the material.

" If there's also a telltale piece or trace of nutrients or chemicals

that show the process, that's even better. You start adding the

pieces and go from tentative to confirmative, " Hunter-Cevera said.

The CIA's biowarfare program, which was designed to find ways to

defend against bioterrorists, involved the use of small amounts of

Ames strain, an agency spokesman said yesterday. The CIA declined to

say where its Ames strain material came from. The spokesman said,

however, that the CIA's anthrax was not milled into the volatile

power form found in the letters and that none of it is missing.

Nevertheless, the FBI has turned its attention to learning more about

the CIA's work with anthrax, which investigators were told about by

the agency within the past few weeks, government officials said. The

CIA has tried to develop defenses against a vaccine-resistant strain

of anthrax reportedly developed by the Russians several years ago.

While the CIA has had small amounts of Ames strain anthrax in its

labs to " compare and contrast with other strains, " a spokesman said,

the agency did not " grow, create or produce the Ames strain. " The

anthrax contained in the letters under investigation " absolutely did

not " come from CIA labs, the spokesman said.

He also said that the FBI is fully aware of the CIA's work with

anthrax and suggested investigators were satisfied with the

information they had been provided. Law enforcement sources, however,

said the FBI remains extremely interested in the CIA's work with

anthrax, with one official calling it the best lead they have at this

point. The sources said FBI investigators do not yet know much about

the CIA program.

Both law enforcement and intelligence officials said the CIA is

cooperating with the FBI probe.

Investigators are considering a wide range of possible motives for

the anthrax attacks, including vengeance of some sort, profiteering

by someone involved in the anthrax cleanup business, or perhaps an

effort by someone to cast blame on Iraq, which has an extensive

bioweapons arsenal. Whoever sent the letters could have a strong

scientific background, officials said, but they also believe the

material could have been stolen and mailed by someone without such

expertise.

A law enforcement source said the FBI did not initially include the

CIA on its list of labs working with anthrax because the agency was

not among 91 labs registered with the federal Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention to transfer anthrax specimens. But as

investigators interviewed workers at those known labs, they learned

of the CIA's work, and in the past few weeks posed questions about it

to the agency.

CIA scientists worked with other government agencies and outside

contractors in the defensive biowarfare program, the agency spokesman

said. The agency said most of its defensive work involves simulants,

not active biological agents.

" Everything we have done is appropriate and necessary and consistent

with our treaty obligations, " he said, adding that congressional

oversight committees, along with the National Security Council staff,

has been kept abreast of the CIA lab work. " One of our missions is to

learn about potential biological warfare threats, " he said, adding

that research can involve " anthrax and other biological agents. "

Staff writer Joby Warrick contributed to this report.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company