Details disclosed in faulty anthrax probe

WASHINGTON - Investigative documents unsealed yesterday reveal provocative details behind early suspicions leading the FBI to target the wrong man in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people.

The misguided investigation continued for years into chief suspect Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, who in June won a $5.8 million settlement from the FBI and the US Justice Department for violating his privacy rights. On Aug. 8, the US attorney for Washington, D.C., explicitly exonerated Hatfill from any involvement with the deadly mailings.

The documents were made public by order of a federal judge in response to a lawsuit brought by the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Lawyers for the newspapers argued that the investigation of the anthrax mailings was a matter of high public interest and among the most complex and expensive in the annals of federal law enforcement.

The investigation culminated with the suicide death on July 29 of Bruce E. Ivins, a government microbiologist who was about to be charged for the deadly mailings that also sickened or injured 17 people. Authorities said evidence showed that Ivins, acting alone, carried out the mailings.

The freshly unsealed documents dealt not with Ivins but with Hatfill, disclosing some of the earliest mistaken suspicions and false leads.

In a sworn statement seeking a judge's permission to search Hatfill's apartment and other property in July 2002, FBI agent Mark P. Morin alleged that Hatfill, while employed as a research scientist at Fort Detrick from 1997 to 1999, "had access to the unlocked storage freezers in which the Ames strain (of anthrax was then kept)." Later, the FBI found that the unique formulation of anthrax powder used in the 2001 mailings was prepared by Ivins and was never accessible to Hatfill.

Morin's affidavit included a curious entry linking Hatfill in an unspecified way to the former nation of Rhodesia and citing the deaths of antigovernment rebels from anthrax exposure. The FBI, however, made no allegation that Hatfill had any access to anthrax in what is now Zimbabwe.

The affidavit also suggested that Hatfill lied to the FBI about his use of Cipro, a drug that can save the life of a person exposed to inhaled anthrax.

Hatfill's attorney, Thomas G. Connolly, said yesterday that he was puzzled by the allegation.

"It's well known that Dr. Hatfill had Cipro prescribed to him after nasal surgery," he said. That surgery, according to Connolly, was performed on or about Sept. 11, 2001.