Anthrax investigation presses on 3 years later

WASHINGTON -- The chatter at the Frederick Stamp Club rarely goes beyond talk about coveted and hard-to-find stamps. But a few months ago, two postal investigators joined the group's meeting to discuss a more pressing, deadly matter: anthrax.

The agents sat at a conference table in a Frederick County church and began to quiz club members. They politely asked whether anyone had bought a pre-stamped, 34-cent envelope at a postal facility in the Frederick area, the type used in the series of mailings that delivered the lethal 2001 anthrax attacks.

"Unfortunately, none of us had purchased any envelopes in Frederick," said club member Jackson Cope.

It was an interesting night for the stamp club, but another in a long series of dead ends for law enforcement authorities. The FBI and other agencies are continuing to seek clues that could unlock the mystery surrounding the attacks that killed five people and sickened 17 others.

The spore-laden letters were mailed in prestamped envelopes to the offices of Senators Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, as well as media outlets in Florida and New York. The people who died were two workers at the Brentwood Road postal facility in northeastern Washington, a photojournalist in Florida, a hospital worker in New York, and an elderly woman in Connecticut.

"We are going through and doing what we have to do to bring it to a resolution," said Michael Mason, head of the FBI field office in Washington. "We are working on this as actively as we did Day One."

About 30 FBI agents and 13 postal investigators are actively pursuing the case, dubbed "Amerithrax." In the past 33 months, agents have traveled to three continents, and according to the FBI, conducted more than 5,280 interviews, issued more than 4,480 grand jury subpoenas, and contracted out thousands of hours of lab work, narrowing down the type of anthrax to a strain called Ames.

But the investigation keeps returning to the Frederick area, home to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick. The lab, a possible source of the anthrax bacteria, once employed scientist Steven J. Hatfill, whose apartment in Frederick was searched twice by federal agents in the summer of 2002. Hatfill, a medical doctor and bioterrorism specialist, expert has not been charged with any wrongdoing. He has denied involvement in the attacks and has filed lawsuits against the Justice Department and The New York Times, alleging defamation.