FBI seeks review of its anthrax probe

WASHINGTON -

Amid continuing questions from some lawmakers and others about the FBI's investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks, the FBI is asking the National Academy of Sciences to review its probe, Director Robert S. Mueller III said yesterday.

Among the issues that the independent organization likely would examine is how FBI analysts traced anthrax powder that was mailed to two U.S. senators and several news organizations to the Fort Detrick laboratory of Bruce E. Ivins, who killed himself in July.

The Justice Department says that Ivins, who worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, was the sole suspect in the attacks that killed five and infected 17 others in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001.

Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee that the powder recovered from the attacks contained "four distinct genetic markers" that matched those found in spores taken from a flask in Ivins' laboratory. But skeptics - including his congressman, Rep. Roscoe T. Bartlett of Maryland - say several of its characteristics indicate it could not have been developed at the institute.

Bartlett, a research scientist with a doctorate in physiology, says Ivins did not have the equipment or expertise to produce the fine, silicon-coated, electrically charged powder.

Critics have described the case against Ivins as entirely circumstantial. The Justice Department identified 16 government, commercial and university laboratories in possession of anthrax that contained the genetic mutations found in the powder used in the attacks. Of those, only one was in Maryland or Virginia, where investigators believe the envelopes were purchased.

The government has acknowledged that more than 100 people had access to the flask in Ivins' laboratory. But investigators point to time logs showing that he worked late for several nights before the letters were mailed.

Ivins was not the first Fort Detrick scientist implicated in the attacks. Former researcher Steven J. Hatfill won a $5.8 million settlement from the government this year for loss of reputation after the Justice Department named him a person of interest in the investigation.