Blueprint for Anthrax Attack
June 27 -- The former government scientist whose home was searched by the FBI this week commissioned a report three years ago on how to deal with an anthrax attack by mail, ABCNEWS has learned.
The scientist, Steve Hatfill has denied to ABCNEWS any connection with the anthrax attacks that left five dead and at least 13 others ill last fall. But the FBI says he is one of 20 or 30 present and former government scientists who remain under scrutiny in the case.
The FBI obtained a copy of the secret anthrax report last week just before agents raided Hatfill's home in Frederick, Md., and a storage facility he maintains in Ocala, Fla.
The report describes a hypothetical anthrax attack, specifying an amount and quality of anthrax that is remarkably similar to what was sent to the offices of U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle last October.
The report, obtained by ABCNEWS, was written in February 1999 by William Patrick III, a leading bioweapons expert and submitted to a defense contractor, Science Applications International Corporation where Hatfill worked at the time. It says that a terrorist would use 2.5 grams of powder in a standard envelope, about the same amount sent to Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Same Spores, Particle Sizes
The report says any "more powder makes the envelope bulge and draws attention."
"Anytime you pick something up like this, and it seems to layout the whole story for you months or years before the fact, your immediate response is to step back and say 'whoa, something may be going on here,'" said bioterrorism expert and ABCNEWS consultant Kyle Olson.
The report also depicts the same number of spores, one trillion per gram, and particle size as actually were found in the Senate letters — a far more deadly anthrax than most experts thought doable.
"Our attacker may very well have used this report as something of a — if not a template, then certainly as a rule of thumb," said Olson.
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