The anthrax in the letters sent to government and media offices in Washington and New York cannot be definitively tied to the anthrax in the possession of a Fort Detrick researcher, according to a new report released Tuesday by the National Research Council.
A committee of the NRC reviewed the scientific procedures used by the FBI during its investigation of the anthrax attacks that killed five people and sickened 17 over a period of weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.
The study was undertaken at the request of the FBI. The agency face skepticism when it zeroed in on Bruce Ivins, a scientist researching anthrax at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick County, as the person who had mailed the letters. Ivins committed suicide in 2008. The Bureau relied heavily on genetic testing of anthrax in vials in Ivins’ possession in reaching their conclusion.
