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Title: Forensics Gave Investigators Little to Work With (Anthrax
Source:
Wall Street Journal Article
URL Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121781398414008953.html
Published: Aug 5, 2008
Author: By MARK SCHOOFS and GARY FIELDS
Post Date: 2008-08-05 01:44:27 by TwentyTwelve
Keywords: Anthrax, Forensics, Investigators
Views: 127
Comments: 5
Wall Street Journal Article Forensics Gave Investigators Little to Work With By MARK SCHOOFS and GARY FIELDS August 4, 2008; Page A10 There was never much to go on. The total physical evidence in the anthrax case was this: four hand-addressed envelopes; four letters, two of which bore identical text; and a small amount of anthrax itself. The envelopes didn't even have stamps, because they were the prestamped kind available at post offices nationwide. The letters were photocopies, not originals. There was far more evidence in the case of the infamous Unabomber, who constructed his own bombs and packed them in wooden boxes he fashioned himself, leaving a cornucopia of elements to trace. And the Unabomber ended up writing a 35,000-word manifesto, which is how, after almost 18 years, the FBI finally caught him: His brother recognized the writing style and tipped off the FBI. The longest letter in the anthrax case is 24 words. Investigators scrutinized each piece of evidence but largely came up empty. Did the handwriting match any in available databases? No. Was the ink special so that investigators could narrow down where it was sold? No. Was the paper special? No. Did the photocopies contain stray marks from the copier -- or copiers -- used to make them? Yes, but investigators were apparently never able to find the copy machines. Most frustratingly, there were no fingerprints or human DNA on the envelopes or letters. The messages were dissected, and it was widely believed that despite such phrases as "DEATH TO AMERICA" and "ALLAH IS GREAT" the author was an impostor rather than a true Islamist terrorist, because al Qaeda members usually write in a much more florid, baroque style. But the art of interpretation is just that -- an art. So is handwriting analysis, to a great extent. Whoever wrote the anthrax letters made an S that looked like a 5, a G that looked like a 6 and an R that looked like an A. The writer began the first line slightly to the left of those that follow. The spacing between lines was uniform, and on the envelopes, the lines all slanted downward. Such traits, according to one document examiner, suggest that the author had written English long enough to have established unconscious habits. But was it the perpetrator's own handwriting, or someone else's? Were the block capital letters a deliberate attempt by the author to disguise his or her true handwriting? Some experts believed the block letters indicated the writer wasn't American. But it was impossible to say for sure. To help the investigation, the FBI posted on its Web site copies of the letters and envelopes, addressed to Tom Brokaw of NBC news, the editor of the New York Post, former Sen. Tom Daschle, and Sen. Patrick Leahy. Scores of amateur sleuths joined the hunt. One reader noted that one of the letters had the same height-width ratio as the European letter-size paper, known as A4, instead of the standard American 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheet. Another pointed out that the way the writer wrote the letter "R" changed from one batch of letters dispatches to the next. Finally, there was the anthrax itself. By swabbing hundreds of mailboxes, investigators were able to identify at least one where anthrax had been mailed. It was a public mailbox in the busy commercial district of Princeton, N.J., near the campus of Princeton University. Investigators had known for months that the four letters originally were mailed in central New Jersey and passed through the regional postal facility in Hamilton Township. The problem: There were a number of pharmaceutical companies and research facilities in central New Jersey with employees sophisticated enough to produce something such as anthrax. Genetic analysis of the spores showed that the anthrax was the Ames strain, but that was little help since many labs had that strain. Further research, involving committees of scientists from government and academia, focused on how quickly mutations would arise in Ames strains that were kept apart, such as in different labs. Radio-carbon dating was done to try to determine when the bacteria were cultured. Investigators examined each minute and obscure element mixed in with the anthrax: "We're looking at cations, anions; we're looking at inorganic matter; we're looking at sugars, whether augurs are present," said one senior investigator at the time. "We're doing high-resolution scanning electron microscopy and transmission-electron microscopy." These tests also added another major, time-consuming hurdle: validating them on practice material, so that the science could withstand a challenge in a court of law. Anthrax extracted from victims matched the strain in Bruce Ivins's lab, according to a federal law-enforcement official. But several scientists who have spent years analyzing the genetics of bacteria doubt any DNA fingerprint exists that could definitively isolate a particular lab. That is one reason a clamor is growing, especially among scientists who have been involved in bioterrorism, for the FBI to make public why it thinks Dr. Ivins is the anthrax murderer. Write to Mark Schoofs at mark.schoofs@wsj.com and Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com
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#1. To: Original_Intent, rotara (#0)
The letters found to contain anthrax had no fingerprints or genetic material, and few other clues for investigators.
Title: Bioterrorism's Threat Persists As Top Security Risk
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#2. To: wudidiz (#1)
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