FBI Faulted For Overstating Science In Anthrax Case

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The scientific evidence alone is not enough to prove that microbiologist Bruce Ivins was the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks that killed five people in 2001, according to an independent review panel.

The panel of scientists was convened by the National Research Council of the National Academies to review the science that the FBI used in its investigation into the attacks.

Starting a week after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, letters containing anthrax bacterial spores were mailed to NBC News and the New York Post. Letters were also sent to the offices of then-Sen. Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy.

After the attacks, the FBI created the "Amerithrax Task Force" to conduct an investigation that the FBI has called"one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement."

Key Findings From The Report The FBI correctly identified the dominant organism found in the letters as the Ames strain of Bacillus anthracis.

Spores in the mailed letters and in a flask found at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases share a number of genetic similarities consistent with the FBI finding that the spores in the letters were derived from that flask. However, the committee found that other possible explanations for the similarities — such as independent, parallel evolution — were not definitively explored during the investigation.

The flask, identified by the U.S. Department of Justice as the "parent material" for the anthrax in the attack letters, was not the immediate source of spores used