More Questions in Anthrax Probe

ByABC News
August 12, 2002, 7:32 AM

Aug. 12 -- Despite Steven Hatfill's strong denials this weekend of any involvement in last year's fatal anthrax attacks, FBI officials told ABCNEWS today there are new questions about the former government scientist.

The FBI has not officially labeled Hatfill, 48, a suspect in the anthrax killings. But officials point to continued questions about the scientist and say they are also unable to clear him.

Perhaps most significant to the FBI, authorities say a police bloodhound reacted strongly to Hatfill and his apartment after being exposed to the scent retrieved from the anthrax letters under a new technology, reports ABCNEWS' chief investigative reporter Brian Ross.

Authorities say the bloodhound evidence does not justify an arrest warrant, but provides a lead which cannot be overlooked.

Also of interest to the FBI is a trip Hatfill made to London last Nov. 15 for a bioweapons training session sponsored by the United Nations, sources said. On that same day, an anthrax hoax letter, with harmless powder, was mailed from London to the office of Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Hatfill, who spoke out for the first time this past weekend, says leaks from federal officials about him and the resulting media scrutiny are ruining his life. Hatfield said he was a "loyal American" who had "nothing to do with the anthrax letters," and his attorney argued that his case was similar to that of Richard Jewell, who was named as a suspect and then cleared in a bomb blast at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

The FBI has called Hatfill a "person of interest," and has conducted several searches of his home in Maryland first with his consent and then with a search warrant. A storage facility he rented has also been searched, as well as his girlfriend's apartment.

Despite the attention Hatfill has been receiving, he is not believed to have the ability to make anthrax. The only person in the United States known to be able to make anthrax is a man named William Patrick, who is a friend of Hatfill's, sources told ABCNEWS.