The U.S. Justice Department on Friday formally cleared former U.S. Army biological defense researcher Steven Hatfill of suspicion in connection to the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, June 30). "We have concluded, based on lab access records, witness accounts, and other information, that Dr. Hatfill did not have access to the particular anthrax used in the attacks, and that he was not involved in the anthrax mailings," U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor wrote in a letter to Hatfill's attorney. Identified in 2002 as a "person of interest" in the case, Hatfill was subjected to thousands of hours of FBI scrutiny before the government began honing in on microbiologist Bruce Ivins early last year as the main suspect in the case (see GSN, Aug. 8). Ivins committed suicide late last month as federal prosecutors were reportedly preparing to press charges against him.
Hatfill sued the government for invasion of privacy and in June received a $5.85 million settlement from the Justice Department.
Taylor noted that the government in 2002 had not yet developed forensic methods later used to link the genetic strain of the anthrax used in the attacks to a supply controlled by Ivins.
U.S. legislators and legal specialists have urged the FBI to disclose when it ruled out Hatfill as a suspect and why the bureau did not reveal the timing when negotiating the government settlement. The years-long focus on Hatfill prevented investigators from pursuing alternative leads, according to detractors of the federal probe.
In case records released Wednesday, the government rebuffed previous assertions that the perpetrator of the attacks infused the anthrax powder with silicon dioxide to help it spread more effectively.
The mailed anthrax contained only the element silicon "within the spores," according to case information.
Meanwhile, the Army on Friday said it would establish an expert panel to audit safety and security precautions at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked and was believed to have acquired anthrax used in the mailings.
Army Secretary Pete Geren plans to approach at least 12 civilian and military officials about joining the panel, according to an Army spokesman (Johnson/Warrick, Washington Post, Aug. 9).
The team would examine the site's overall security but not the errors of individuals, the Associated Press reported. There is no set schedule for submission of reports, according to one Army spokesman.
Ivins only lost his access to secured laboratory areas last September, after investigators had already searched his house. Army officials said they would not release further details on attempts to limit his access to the Fort Detrick biodefense site (Lolita Baldor, Associated Press I/Google News, Aug. 8).
In Washington, U.S. Representatives John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Friday they would direct a congressional inquiry to investigate how Ivins retained access to the site's anthrax supplies for years after he began exhibiting signs of mental illness, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, in examining U.S. biodefense sites, has already identified past cases of accidental agent releases as well as inadequate training, security and management at Biosafety Level 3 and 4 facilities run by academic institutions and civilian government entities.
Dingell, panel chairman, expressed concern in a statement that current security measures might not be screening the roughly 14,000 U.S. researchers trusted with biological-weapon agents for signs of mental instability.
"I'm deeply troubled by the allegations raised about security at one of our nation's premier labs handling some of the deadliest germs in the world," he said. "Our nation is at serious risk if one of our government's most prominent scientists could have a decade-long battle with mental illness without anyone noticing" (Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 9).
Elsewhere, experts said the "microbial forensic" techniques developed in the anthrax mailing investigation could be refined for other uses, AP reported Friday.
"Science is a wonderful thing but it is, at the end of the day, a tool," said Gigi Kwik Gronvall at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Biosecurity. "The question is how that was used."
As one example, microbial forensic techniques might eventually be used to identify where a person has walked by linking bacteria on that person's shoes to agents in the dirt at a given site, AP reported.
As Ivins's death prevents scientists from learning whether such evidence can stand up in court, researchers are pressing the FBI to release full genetic data from its investigation to help determine the information's reliability.
The forensic method is "still a field very much in its infancy," said geneticist Claire Fraser-Liggett who previously worked at a laboratory that performed significant analysis work in the anthrax investigation. "There was always the lingering question as to whether you would ever really be able to find differences that would be useful in terms of doing attribution."
The FBI compared the anthrax in the mailings to more than 1,000 strains, she said, "finding that you could really apply many of the same parallels with human forensics to microbial forensics" (Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press II/Google News, Aug. 8).