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FBI had, then tossed anthrax type used in attacks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-19 09:49 WASHINGTON -- Months after the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings, FBI scientists had, but destroyed, the unique strain of the bacteria used in the attacks that years later would lead them to Dr. Bruce Ivins, now the government's top suspect. FBI officials admitted Monday that destroying the initial Ivins sample was a mistake, but said it didn't really hinder the investigation because the technique used to trace the source of the anthrax to Ivins had not been developed yet. Luckily, a copy of that first sample was sent to an outside professor, who years later used it to help further link Ivins to the killer strain.
Top FBI officials and a handful of prominent scientists who aided the investigation presented more, but not all, of the scientific case against Ivins in a two-hour-and-fifteen-minute news conference to try to quell suspicions of outside scientists, some of whom were friends of the suspect. At times the officials and scientists contradicted themselves, even down to the number of flasks containing the anthrax Ivins had. They eventually agreed it was one one-liter triangular flask capped with cheesecloth that linked Ivins to the attacks. "There were a lot of lessons learned," FBI Assistant Director Vahid Majidi said. "Were we perfect? Absolutely not. We've had missteps, and those are the lessons learned. ... It was over the last few years that we were able to incorporate all of the lessons learned that we have throughout this investigation." |
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