Posted by Alli (160.129.27.22) on December 07, 2001 at 12:32:09:
Nature 414, 570; 06 December 2001
"Anthrax evidence implies US culprit"
DAVID ADAM
The investigation into the anthrax attacks in the United States may be homing in on the unsettling prospect that a researcher from America's own biological weapons programme is responsible.
Barbara Rosenberg, a microbiologist at the State University of New York who chairs the biological weapons working group at the Federation of American Scientists, claimed this week that the investigations point to a microbiologist who once had access to weaponized anthrax in a US government lab. "I think the FBI knows it and I think they're looking into it," she says.
Rosenberg voiced her concerns at the Biological Weapons Convention meeting in Geneva on 21 November and then posted them on a listserv hosted by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The FBI has already indicated that it believes the anthrax culprit is probably based in the United States and recently confirmed that it is investigating US labs capable of producing the high-quality powdery form of the bacteria used in the attacks.
Rosenberg argues, among other things, that tests on the anthrax samples have revealed the presence of a chemical known to have been used in the US process that turns wet slurries of anthrax culture into spores suitable for weapons.
Other scientists involved in bioweapons research have reacted more cautiously. "The general outline has some credence but it is by no means certain," one said.