Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Summary
Summary
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. During its investigation of the anthrax mailings, the FBI worked with other federal agencies to coordinate and conduct scientific analyses of the anthrax letter spore powders, environmental samples, clinical samples, and samples collected from laboratories that might have been the source of the letter-associated spores.
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considered in connection with the 2001 Bacillus anthracis mailings. In assessing this body of information, the committee will limit its inquiry to the scientific approaches, methodologies, and analytical techniques used during the investigation of the 2001 B
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As such, this report and the committee's review and evaluation focused on the application of biological, physical, and chemical sciences to evidentiary materials from the letters, to the collection and analysis of environmental samples, to the analysis of the flask designated RMR-1029 (a flask containing 1 The public can gain access to these materials by contacting the NRC Public Access Records Office.
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FBI SCIENTIFIC CONCLUSIONS AND COMMITTEE FINDINGS The FBI drew a number of conclusions from its scientific investigation, which are summarized in Table S-1 at the end of the Summary. The committee found it challenging, however, to identify a definitive set of scientific conclu sions drawn by the FBI investigators because they did not provide them in written form and because the conclusions provided publicly by DOJ in its briefings and Investigative Summary2 varied from those provided by FBI officials in presentations to the committee.
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• The initial assessment of whether the B anthracis Ames strain in the letters had undergone deliberate genetic engineering or modification was timely and appropriate, though necessarily incomplete.
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S.3 The FBI created a repository of Ames strain B anthracis samples and performed experiments to determine relationships among the letter materials and the repository samples.
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Thus, the presence of dispersants, such as nanoparticulate silica or bentonite, was an important feature in consid ering whether or not the letters contained "weaponized" anthrax spores. • Although significant amounts of silicon were found in the powders from the New York Post, Daschle, and Leahy letters, no silicon was detected on the outside surface of spores where a dispersant would reside.
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S.7 There was inconsistent evidence of B anthracis Ames DNA in environmental samples that were collected from an overseas site.
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It is critically important to continue to preserve all remaining evidentiary material and samples collected during the course of this (the anthrax letters investigation) and future investigations, including overseas environmental samples, for possible additional studies.
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S.10 A review should be conducted of the classified materials that are relevant to the FBI's investigation of the 2001 Bacillus anthracis mailings, including all of the data and material pertaining to the overseas environmental sample col lections. (Recommendation 3.1)
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These findings could reach no meant that the anthrax significant conclusions mailer must have possessed regarding the skill set of significant technical skill" the perpetrator.
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The bulk 2009) .a sensitive technology called silicon content in the transmission electron Leahy letter matched microscopy (‘TEM')
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Scientists at the University of Utah, under contract to the FBI, concluded that the results from the analysis were inconsistent with the spores having been produced at Dugway Proving Ground The FBI drew no conclusions based upon this analytical method (FBI, 2009)
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in spore distinct batches of anthrax Furthermore, the concentrations, used in the 2001 attacks evidentiary material in color, shared a common origin" the New York letters contaminants, (USDOJ, 2010, p.
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engineering of engineering" (USDOJ, 2010, anthracis Ames strain the B anthracis p.
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anthracis B anthracis Ames Ames strain, were present in the but there were material in each of significant the three letters that numbers of were examined (New phenotypic York Post, Leahy, and variants or Daschle)
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anthracis Ames DNA in environmental samples that were collected from an overseas site. continued
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, which represents a sample from every Ames culture at every laboratory identified by the FBI as having Ames strain" (USDOJ, 2010, p.
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The repository samples would be compared with the material found in the letters to determine whether they might be the source of the letter materials. However, for a variety of reasons, the repository was not optimal.
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8) .b genetic testing combined with rigorous investigation, the FBI concluded that RMR 1029 is the parent material of the evidentiary anthrax spore powder, i.e., the evidentiary material came from a derivative growth of RMR 1029" (USDOJ, 2010, p.
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. possible source of the anthrax spores found in the attack letters, but these data alone did not rule out other sources.
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. screening, FBI scientists appropriately concluded that the majority of repository samples contained none of the four mutations, although 50 of the samples contained one of the four mutations and 10 samples had three or all four mutations (the numbers with one or more mutations are higher if one includes samples that were excluded in the FBI's Statistical Analysis Report)
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bSee for example, "As noted above, based on advanced genetic testing combined with rigorous investigation, the FBI concluded that RMR-1029 is the parent material of the evidentiary anthrax spore powder, i.e., the evidentiary material came from a derivative growth of RMR-1029." (p.
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