The investigation into the anthrax attacks that started in 2001 and mystified the nation ended for the FBI in June, when its prime suspect committed suicide. For others, the case leaves many questions unanswered.
“I tend to be very skeptical about it,” Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland School of Law, said of the FBI’s case against the late Bruce Ivins.
The university held a forum Wednesday in Baltimore to scrutinize the FBI’s case with Claire Fraser-Liggett, a DNA researcher who led efforts to trace the origin of the anthrax used in the mailings, and Scott Shane, a New York Times reporter who has extensively followed the story.
“There’s many different examples of the FBI barking down the wrong tree,” Greenberger said.
Federal investigators had pinned the mailings of deadly anthrax powder to several members of Congress and New York media on Ivins, a scientist at the government’s biodefense labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick.
But as investigators prepared to charge Ivins, he committed suicide.
The FBI said he was the only person responsible for the attacks, but doubts have persisted, with experts such as Greenberger saying the evidence is circumstantial and would not hold up in court.
Meanwhile, Shane said some media helped fuel the early focus on Steven Hatfill, a Fort Detrick researcher.
The U.S. Department of Justice settled a lawsuit with Hatfill in June for nearly $6 million.
