US law enforcement officials said today that they had effectively solved a series of deadly 2001 anthrax attacks that sent a shockwave of fear through the country in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Officials said the seven-year-long investigation points to a deceased US government scientist who was a renowned expert on the anthrax virus and had worked to develop a vaccine for the illness.
The suspect, biodefence researcher Bruce Ivins, took his own life last week as authorities were preparing to charge him with perpetrating the attacks.
"Dr Bruce Ivins was responsible for the death, sickness and fear brought to our country by the 2001 anthrax mailing, and it appears based on the evidence that he was acting alone," said Joseph Persichini, assistant director of the FBI's Washington field office.
Law enforcement officials said that the release of the documents effectively culminates an exhaustive investigation that spanned six continents and led to the development of new scientific techniques to trace biological weapons to their source.
"We believe that based on the evidence we had collected we could prove his guilt to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt," said Jeffrey Taylor, the top federal prosecutor for Washington. "We are confident that Dr Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks."
Officials said that they are now preparing to close the investigation into the 2001 attacks, which killed five people and sickened at least 17 others. Among the dead was 63-year-old Robert Stevens, a British-born picture editor for American Media who lived in Florida.
Also killed were two US postal workers, Thomas Morris and Joseph Curseen, Kathy Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant from New York City, and Otilie Lundgren, a 94-year-old Connecticut woman. Americans rushed to purchase ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic that fights the germ.
Coming just weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, the campaign crippled the US postal system and fuelled fears the US was under attack from biological weapons. Among those targeted were two top Democratic senators and US news organisations.
After analysing the anthrax spores used in the attacks, investors began focusing on a US military research laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, where Ivins and an early suspect in the case, Steven Hatfill, worked.
Justice department officials said newly developed scientific techniques were able to match the anthrax used in the attacks to a flask possessed by Ivins. Only a few other scientists had access to the flask, and they were eliminated form consideration.
"The spores used in the attacks were taken from that specific flask," and processed and loaded into the letters, Taylor said. "No one received material from that flask without going through Dr Ivins."
In addition, Ivins was unable to explain late-night laboratory work around the time of the attacks. He suffered from serious mental illness, telling a friend he was suffering from "incredible paranoid, delusional thoughts at times", that he feared he could not control his behaviour.
Investigators believe he supplied false samples of anthrax in order to mislead investigators, and wrote an email claiming that al-Qaida terrorists had access to anthrax.
Ivins, 62 at the time of his death, was a senior microbiologist who had worked for the US army medical research institute for infectious diseases for 27 years. He worked with anthrax since 1980.
According to the affidavit, Ivins began working into the night in August 2001, a schedule change that departed from his colleagues and which ended shortly after the attacks.
When confronted by investigators in March 2005, Ivins "could provide no legitimate reason for the extended hours".
"The investigation determined that Dr Ivins's role in the experiments were minimal, and did not justify the time he spent" in the laboratory, wrote postal inspector Thomas Dellafera in an October 2007 court affidavit.
Investigators found a series of emails in which Ivins described his mental state in bizarre language and wrote about his treatment.
"Occasionally I get this tingling that goes down both arms," Ivins wrote to a friend. "At the same time I get a bit dizzy and get this unidentifiable 'metallic' taste in my mouth. (I'm not trying to be funny - It actually scares me a bit.) Other times it's like I'm not only sitting at my desk doing work, I'm also a few feet away watching me do it. There's nothing like living in both the first person singular AND the third person singular!"
Ivins was prescribed medications for anxiety and depression.
Documents also reveal Ivins was obsessed with a US college sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, which maintained an office down the street from the Princeton, New Jersey, mailbox form which the anthrax letters were posted.
Officials said the seven-year-long investigation points to a deceased US government scientist who was a renowned expert on the anthrax virus and had worked to develop a vaccine for the illness.
The suspect, biodefence researcher Bruce Ivins, took his own life last week as authorities were preparing to charge him with perpetrating the attacks.
"Dr Bruce Ivins was responsible for the death, sickness and fear brought to our country by the 2001 anthrax mailing, and it appears based on the evidence that he was acting alone," said Joseph Persichini, assistant director of the FBI's Washington field office.
Law enforcement officials said that the release of the documents effectively culminates an exhaustive investigation that spanned six continents and led to the development of new scientific techniques to trace biological weapons to their source.
"We believe that based on the evidence we had collected we could prove his guilt to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt," said Jeffrey Taylor, the top federal prosecutor for Washington. "We are confident that Dr Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks."
Officials said that they are now preparing to close the investigation into the 2001 attacks, which killed five people and sickened at least 17 others. Among the dead was 63-year-old Robert Stevens, a British-born picture editor for American Media who lived in Florida.
Also killed were two US postal workers, Thomas Morris and Joseph Curseen, Kathy Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant from New York City, and Otilie Lundgren, a 94-year-old Connecticut woman. Americans rushed to purchase ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic that fights the germ.
Coming just weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, the campaign crippled the US postal system and fuelled fears the US was under attack from biological weapons. Among those targeted were two top Democratic senators and US news organisations.
After analysing the anthrax spores used in the attacks, investors began focusing on a US military research laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, where Ivins and an early suspect in the case, Steven Hatfill, worked.
Justice department officials said newly developed scientific techniques were able to match the anthrax used in the attacks to a flask possessed by Ivins. Only a few other scientists had access to the flask, and they were eliminated form consideration.
"The spores used in the attacks were taken from that specific flask," and processed and loaded into the letters, Taylor said. "No one received material from that flask without going through Dr Ivins."
In addition, Ivins was unable to explain late-night laboratory work around the time of the attacks. He suffered from serious mental illness, telling a friend he was suffering from "incredible paranoid, delusional thoughts at times", that he feared he could not control his behaviour.
Investigators believe he supplied false samples of anthrax in order to mislead investigators, and wrote an email claiming that al-Qaida terrorists had access to anthrax.
Ivins, 62 at the time of his death, was a senior microbiologist who had worked for the US army medical research institute for infectious diseases for 27 years. He worked with anthrax since 1980.
According to the affidavit, Ivins began working into the night in August 2001, a schedule change that departed from his colleagues and which ended shortly after the attacks.
When confronted by investigators in March 2005, Ivins "could provide no legitimate reason for the extended hours".
"The investigation determined that Dr Ivins's role in the experiments were minimal, and did not justify the time he spent" in the laboratory, wrote postal inspector Thomas Dellafera in an October 2007 court affidavit.
Investigators found a series of emails in which Ivins described his mental state in bizarre language and wrote about his treatment.
"Occasionally I get this tingling that goes down both arms," Ivins wrote to a friend. "At the same time I get a bit dizzy and get this unidentifiable 'metallic' taste in my mouth. (I'm not trying to be funny - It actually scares me a bit.) Other times it's like I'm not only sitting at my desk doing work, I'm also a few feet away watching me do it. There's nothing like living in both the first person singular AND the third person singular!"
Ivins was prescribed medications for anxiety and depression.
Documents also reveal Ivins was obsessed with a US college sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, which maintained an office down the street from the Princeton, New Jersey, mailbox form which the anthrax letters were posted.