Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters (2011) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 25-36
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. The investigation also accelerated the development of a nascent scientific field, called microbial forensics, involving a series of laboratory tests to pin point the genetic identity of a microbial agent used for nefarious purposes.
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Two more anthrax letters bearing the same Trenton postmark, but dated October 9, 2001, were addressed to Democratic U.S. Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and 1 In 2008 the National Bioforensic Analysis Center was established in the Department of Home land Security's National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasure Center to assist in microbial forensics investigations.
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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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Morris, Jr., a postal worker at the Washington, D.C., Brentwood Mail Processing and Distribution Center, which serviced Capitol Hill, is the second person to die from inhalational anthrax believed to have been contracted as a result of the anthrax mailings.(Cole, 2009, p.
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. December 31: The Dirksen Senate Office Building, which is connected to the Hart Senate Office Building by underground corridors, is reopened (New York Times, 2002)
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. September 17: FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing entitled "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." At the hearing, Mueller states that the FBI was seeking an independent review of the scientific evidence in the anthrax mailings case.
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1.3 BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE FBI'S SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION During its investigation of the anthrax mailings, the FBI worked with other federal agencies to coordinate and conduct scientific analyses of the spore powders recovered from the letters, environmental samples, clinical samples, and samples collected from laboratories that might have been the source of the letter-associated spores. The agency relied on external experts, including some who had previously developed tests to differentiate among strains of B
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anthracis Ames strain DNA in some samples (see section 3.4.3) Scientists from the Department of Defense examined the spore materials in the letters and identified several variants in the samples based on their colony morphology.2 With support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other government agencies, FBI scientists worked with the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR)
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3 Documents were initially delivered in two batches containing reports of the scientific analyses (see the Index of Documents Provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a listing) .4 The first batch included technical review panel reports, laboratory analytical test reports and results pertaining to Ames strain identification, carbon dating, stable isotope analysis, agar and heme analysis, and assay development, and published papers.
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In summary, the FBI provided some of the primary information related to the scientific analyses and was generally responsive to committee questions, but early on it was difficult for the committee to ascertain details of what was done in the course of some of the FBI scientific work, the identity of some of the samples analyzed, and the relationships among the samples in the repository. In addition to materials provided directly by the FBI to the committee, FBI officials also briefed the committee on several occasions.
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Scientific investigation usually is a more open-ended endeavor than a legal or criminal investigation as scientists acknowledge appropriate degrees of uncertainty -- both small and large -- in their investigations and are inspired to do future work on the questions of interest, yielding more certainty and more information. In contrast, the justice system, to be effective, requires decisions to be made rather than deferred, and thus scientific uncertainty has to be weighed in light of all other evidence.
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National security concerns and the pressures of an ongoing criminal investigation may require that the collection of samples and their evaluation be carried out under circumstances of secrecy that limit the capacity of outside observers to assess the validity of the forensic interpretations. Such circumstances pose special challenges in which the optimal application and evaluation of scientific methods may in some instances run counter to security interests.
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