By ANDREW BUNCOMBE
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified the man behind last year's fatal anthrax mailings but is "dragging its feet" over bringing charges because the suspect is a former Government scientist, it was claimed yesterday.
The man allegedly travelled to Britain to post an infected letter to United States Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
Dr Barbara Rosenberg, a director with the Federation of American Scientists, said many scientists working in the anthrax field were aware of the suspect, who she said had been questioned at least twice by the authorities.
She said the FBI was reluctant to arrest the scientist because he knew Government secrets.
The agency had known of the suspect since October, said Rosenberg.
"There are a number of insiders - Government insiders - who know people in the anthrax field who have a common suspect."
Five people died and 13 others were infected with anthrax after a series of letters laced with the bacteria were sent to Daschle, another prominent politician and a series of media outlets last autumn.
It has long been believed that the source of the anthrax was a Government laboratory within the US but Rosenberg's comments - made at a conference at Princeton University and reported by the Trenton Times newspaper - are the most specific yet.
The accusations, many of which are repeated on the federation's website, say the man may have worked at the same laboratory that tested the letters - Fort Detrick, Maryland, the American military laboratory near Washington.
Most of the genuine and many of the hoax letters were posted from near Trenton, New Jersey, about 240km from Washington and 130km from New York, where three television stations and a newspaper had staff who contracted the infection.
"We can draw a likely portrait of the perpetrator as a former Fort Detrick scientist who is now working for a contractor in the Washington, DC area," said Rosenberg, director of the federation's chemical and biological arms control programme.
"He had reason for travel to Florida, New Jersey and the United Kingdom.
"There is also the likelihood the perpetrator made the anthrax himself. He grew it, probably on a solid medium, and weaponised it at a private location where he had accumulated the equipment and material.
"We know that the FBI is looking at this person, and it's likely that he participated in the past in secret activities that the Government would not like to see disclosed.
"And this raises the question of whether the FBI may be dragging its feet somewhat and may not be so anxious to bring to public light the person who did this.
"I know that there are insiders, working for the Government, who know this person and who are worried that it could happen that some kind of quiet deal is made that he just disappears from view."
The FBI declined to comment on the claims.
- INDEPENDENT
Story archives:
Links: Bioterrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
FBI 'wary of charging' suspect over anthrax mail
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