Anthrax probe focuses on ex-US scientist
( 2002-02-25 14:43 ) (7 )

The FBI has identified a scientist who once worked in a US government laboratory as a chief suspect in an anthrax attack that killed five people last year, The Washington Times reported on Monday.

US law enforcement authorities and biochemical experts cited by the paper said the unidentified scientist had been targeted after extensive interviews with more than 300 people associated with the government's anthrax program, but no charges had been filed.

FBI officials were not immediately available for comment.

The newspaper cited sources who said the anthrax suspect was believed to have worked at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Ft. Detrick, Maryland and had twice been fired from government jobs.

The paper quoted sources as saying the scientist was identified from a pool of about 50 researchers known to have the technical ability to produce the anthrax strain found in letters mailed to New York, Connecticut, Florida and Washington.

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, head of the biological arms-control panel for the Federation of American Scientists, was quoted as saying the FBI had been working on a "short list of suspects" for some time and that agents had narrowed the list to "a particular person ... a member of the biochemical community."

Anthrax-tainted letters were sent to two US senators and to media outlets in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Five people have died from anthrax since early October, and 13 others have been infected.