Word: anthrax
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Unfortunately, this is about all the FBI has to go on. Not only is there an almost total absence of clues, but, say critics, there's also an abundance of cluelessness within the FBI. Several university labs that work with anthrax, and companies that make or repair equipment that could have been used to process it, complain that the bureau still hasn't questioned them or, when it did, asked the wrong questions...
Surprisingly, though, Fitzgerald doesn't think the man is linked to Osama bin Laden. In a TIME/CNN poll of 1,037 Americans last week, 63% thought it very likely that bin Laden was responsible for the anthrax attacks, 40% thought it very likely that Saddam Hussein was to blame, and only 16% picked "U.S. citizens not associated with foreign terrorists...
...profiler points out that references to Allah and Israel in the anthrax notes do not resemble similar references in letters from al-Qaeda terrorists. "He's an opportunist," says Fitzgerald, arguing that the man used the events of Sept. 11 as a cover. And while the finely powdered anthrax sent to Senator Daschle points to a skilled manufacturer, it need not have come from a professional bioweaponeer; it could have been made in a home lab with a budget...
...then right after the hijackings, the mailer "would have become all of a sudden very mission-oriented, very focused and preoccupied." He might have begun self-medicating with antibiotics. After the letters were mailed, he would have become obsessed with reading the papers and watching TV, especially when the anthrax news broke. Another possible clue: the letters were mailed on Tuesdays in all three cases. That suggests this domestic terrorist had access to a lab only on weekends; he would then package the stuff on Monday and send it out the next...
Scientists at Iowa State University, meanwhile, where the family of anthrax strains used in the attacks was first isolated, say the FBI didn't object when they decided to destroy their collection of anthrax samples for fear they couldn't keep them secure. (The bureau figured the "Ames" strain was so widespread the samples didn't matter.) And while officials insist that they've been thoroughly professional, FBI Deputy Assistant Director James T. Caruso admitted to a Senate committee last week that the bureau doesn't know how many labs in the U.S. handle anthrax...