Anthrax Scientist Aided FBI's Probe

Aug. 18, 2008— -- The FBI destroyed anthrax samples submitted in 2002 by the scientist who later became the prime suspect in the deadly mail attacks because he didn't prepare them according to the protocol spelled out in a court order, the bureau said today.

Dr. Bruce Ivins, the U.S. Army researcher who committed suicide last month as investigators zeroed in on him as the main suspect in the fall 2001 attacks, advised the FBI during its development of a standardized procedure for specimen collection. "Dr. Ivins was an adviser on the repository process," FBI laboratory director Dr. Chris Hassell told reporters today at FBI headquarters.

Investigators codified the protocol in a subpoena sent to scientists around the globe, which ordered them to submit anthrax samples to the FBI as it built a repository as part of the investigation.

During the course of the investigation, the FBI collected more than 1,000 samples of the Ames strain anthrax, which was used in the attacks. Eight of the samples, all originating from two U.S. labs, matched the genetic markers consistent with the anthrax that was used in the 2001 attacks.

In 2002, the FBI collected samples of anthrax that Ivins had in his possession at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.

In December 2003 and April 2004, the FBI identified more anthrax samples in Ivins' possession, which he provided. The FBI also seized a flask of anthrax identified as RMR-1029, which was used by scientists at the medical research institute.

As the FBI constructed a genetic fingerprint of the anthrax used in the attacks, investigators found that the second set of samples Ivins provided to the bureau had none of those genetic markers, but that the sample called RMR-1029 matched the four key genetic markers.

But because the FBI had previously determined that they might not be able to admit the Ivins anthrax samples in court because they were prepared differently than the more than 1,000 other samples received, the FBI had them destroyed.