Anthrax

FBI Agrees To Release More Details From Anthrax Probe, Backpedals On Key Elements

Andrew Tilghman | August 18, 2008, 10:20AM

Remember when the FBI told us that military microbiologist Bruce Ivins gave investigators a bogus sample of the anthrax from his lab in 2002 -- suggesting an effort to mislead and cover up his own connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks?

Well, that might not be true, according to the New York Times. Ivins did give investigators a sample of his own anthrax -- which allegedly matched the strain used in the attacks -- but the FBI botched the testing process.

But F.B.I. officials acknowledged at the closed-door briefing, according to people who were there, that the sample Dr. Ivins gave them in 2002 did in fact come from the same strain used in the attacks, but, because of limitations in the bureau's testing methods and Dr. Ivins's failure to provide the sample in the format requested, the F.B.I. did not realize that it was a correct match until three years later.

That closed-door briefing came as the FBI has agreed to begin providing more details about the science underpinning its case against Ivins.

The bureau is coming forward with more information at least partly in response to the experts who have publicly expressed skepticism about the FBI's case, which concluded that Ivins was the one and only person involved in the attacks.

Last week the Department of Justice gave a private briefing to Congress and this week the DOJ plans to make the new details public, the Times reports.

According to those who attended last week's briefing, the FBI appears to be backpeddling on some initial components of its case against Ivins.

In addition to the new version regarding the anthrax sample Ivins provided in 2002, investigators now say the envelopes used in the mail attacks were more widely available than initially suggested.

Investigators said two weeks ago that the envelopes were unique and easily traced back to the Maryland post office near Ivins' home. But reports from the close-door session say that is not the case.

Many scientists are looking forward to hearing details of the investigation, but do not expect the science to persuade all the skeptics.

"I expect people to be dazzled by the science. I am worried that people will confuse solid science (and I expect the science to be very good) with a solid case," Gigi Gonvall, a senior associate at the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told TPMmuckraker this morning.

"The science will only take you so far."

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Anthrax

FBI Appears To Change Theory In Anthrax Case

Andrew Tilghman | August 14, 2008, 1:53PM

Last week, the Washington Post published a story that appeared to finally tie Bruce Ivins to that New Jersey mailbox where the 2001 anthrax letters were mailed -- something the feds have been unable to do in their six-year investigation.

The Post breathlessly reported in a story -- headlined "New Details Show Suspect Was Away On Key Day" -- that Ivins took part of the day off on Sept. 17.

A partial log of Ivins's work hours shows that he worked late in the lab on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 16, signing out at 9:52 p.m. after two hours and 15 minutes. The next morning, the sources said, he showed up as usual but stayed only briefly before taking leave hours. Authorities assume that he drove to Princeton immediately after that, dropping the letters in a mailbox on a well-traveled street across from the university campus. Ivins would have had to have left quickly to return for an appointment in the early evening, about 4 or 5 p.m.

But then Glenn Greenwald over at Salon drilled down into the details and found that the whole story didn't make any sense -- and that the timeline described by the FBI and the Post may actually give Ivins an alibi, since the anthrax letter was stamped Sept. 18.

Now today's story in the Post appears to propose a new theory on when Ivins allegedly drove to New Jersey.

Investigators now believe that Ivins waited until evening to make the drive to Princeton on Sept. 17, 2001. He showed up at work that day and stayed briefly, then took several hours of administrative leave from the lab, according to partial work logs. Based on information from receipts and interviews, authorities say Ivins filled up his car's gas tank, attended a meeting outside of the office in the late afternoon, and returned to the lab for a few minutes that evening before moving off the radar screen and presumably driving overnight to Princeton. The letters were postmarked Sept. 18.

That's a big shift. But the Post didn't play it that way. Today's story emphasized the incremental development that the feds recovered human hair at the New Jersey mailbox where the 2001 letters were dropped -- and they did not match Ivins.

It's clear that the FBI's case against Ivins is less than airtight. The main question at this point might be whether anyone is going to make the FBI cough up any more details of its investigation. Skeptical scientists are clamoring for more details. And there's movement from Congress, albeit slowly. The Post reports today that the House Judiciary Committee is also negotiating to hold a hearing with FBI officials. That comes on the heels of Sen. Chuck Grassley's questions for Mueller and Attorney General Michael Mukasey last week.

But the furor over the troubled investigation may be fading a bit. Former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), who received one of the anthrax-laced letters in 2001, announced yesterday that he is satisfied that the FBI's investigation was "complete and persuasive." Meanwhile, the AP filed a story yesterday dismissing some of the doubters as conspiracy theorists, comparing Ivins to Lee Harvey Oswald.

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Anthrax

Scientsts Continue To Question Anthrax Investigation And Case Against Bruce Ivins

Andrew Tilghman | August 11, 2008, 3:30PM

Scientists are stepping up among those most skeptical of the FBI's evidence implicating military microbiologist Bruce Ivins in the 2001 Anthrax attacks.

In yesterday's New York Times, microbiologist Gerry Andrews wrote an op-ed describing himself as "both disheartened and perplexed by the lack of physical evidence" against Ivins. Andrews worked with Ivins for 16 years and served as the chief of the bacteriology division at the military lab at Ft. Detrick in Maryland.

While the FBI last week released extensive documents with circumstantial evidence against Ivins, they provided almost no details of the scientific testing that underpinned the investigation.

While questions about scientific aspects of the case have been aired, they are often relegated to the bottom of news stories behind other aspects of the investigation, such as Ivins' emails around the time of the attacks or his mental problems.

Today Dr. Meryl Nass, a bioweapons expert, rattled off a long list of concerns about the case on her blog.

Editors at Science Blogs built on their initial skepticism by publishing an additional piece titled "Anthrax Case: Reasonable Doubt on the Science."

The American Society of Microbiologists, the primary professional association for the field, has not issued any public statements on the case, but is prepared to provide experts for testimony on Capitol Hill if asked, spokeswoman Barbara Hyde told TPMmuckraker.

Meanwhile, virtually nobody with a science background in microbiology has stepped forward in support of the FBI's conclusion that Ivins was likely the one and only person involved in the 2001 attacks, said Gigi Gronvall, a senior associate with the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"[Federal officials] came out and said they'd made the case, but they didn't actually present that science. So it really can't be evaluated," Gronvall said in an interview. "They talked about the genetic signature but they didn't elaborate on what that was. We want to know how they were able to determine that that one flask contained the parent train of what was sent out."

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Anthrax

Ivins' Strain Of Anthrax Was Not So Rare After All

Andrew Tilghman | August 8, 2008, 4:29PM

Remember, at the beginning of the week, when the New York Times reported that "at least 10 people" had access to that critical flask of anthrax linking Dr. Bruce Ivins to the 2001 anthrax attacks?

At the time, we thought that was really significant. Ten people? How did the FBI eliminate the other nine people as suspects to know Ivins was the guilty one?

But then on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the number of people with access to that anthrax was much higher.

In addition, more than 100 people had access to the anthrax in question, a larger number than many had previously believed.

Now today, the Washington Post reports that the flask in Ivins' lab was not the only one containing that particular strain matched to the 2001 letters.

FBI officials said the powdered bacteria mailed to news outlets and Senate offices had a distinct genetic heritage that precisely matched anthrax spores Ivins kept in a flask in his laboratory. But the officials also acknowledged that 15 other labs had the same strain, known as RMR-1029.

At this rate, by the end of next week, we'll find out that this strain of anthrax is typically found in most 10th-grade science labs.

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Anthrax

Capitol Hill Questions FBI Anthrax Investigation: Where's The Polygraph?

Andrew Tilghman | August 8, 2008, 9:19AM

Concerns about the FBI's circumstantial case against military microbiologist Bruce Ivins are reaching Capitol Hill.

Last night, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a three-page letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey and FBI Director Robert Mueller III, asking them to respond to 18 questions about virtually every aspect of the probe.

In the House, Rep. Rush Holt, a Democrat who represents the New Jersey district where the anthrax-laced letters were mailed, says he's talking to other House members about a combined inquiry involving the judiciary, intelligence, science and technology, and government oversight committees.

Grassley has some pretty good questions. For example:

Was Dr. Ivins ever polygraphed in the course of the investigation? If so, please provide the dates and results of the exam(s). If not, please explain why not.

And

What role did the FBI play in conducting and updating the background examination of Dr. Ivins in order for him to have clearance and work with deadly pathogens at Ft. Detrick?

Read more for the full text of the letter.

Read more »

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Anthrax

Feds Continue Anthrax Probe After Ivins' Death

Andrew Tilghman | August 7, 2008, 7:11PM

From the AP:

The government is still searching for evidence that Bruce Ivins was solely responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks despite declaring the case solved.

Search warrants and other documents filed Thursday in federal court in Washington show the FBI wants to look through computers Ivins used at his local library before he killed himself last week.

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Anthrax

Scientists Say Many Questions Remain In FBI Anthrax Probe

Andrew Tilghman | August 7, 2008, 6:48PM

A reporter yesterday asked United States Attorney Jeffrey Taylor what evidence -- hard evidence -- the FBI had against Bruce Ivins in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

"We have a flask that's effectively the murder weapon," Taylor said.

But this is not like Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick.

A lot of ambiguity remains because the FBI's investigation hinges on the complexities of microbiology and genomics.

And it's not just that we don't understand those details. The FBI did not release them.

What the FBI tells us is this: the anthrax started out in a wet, almost liquid form. Then somehow Ivins -- and only Ivins -- converted that into the fine, weapons-grade powder that was sent through the mail and killed five people.

That's an exceptionally elaborate process for just one person, said Brenda Wilson, a microbiology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She did post-doctoral research on anthrax.

"I don't believe that he could do this all on his own. It does require more people than one," Wilson told TPMmuckraker.

"First you have to lyopholize it," Wilson explained. "Lyopholiziation is a drying process. But then after you dry it down, in order to make it weapons-grade, you have to do a lot of grinding and stuff -- it's like a milling process. And during the milling process you need to add substances to it, like sillica, that sort of coats the spores and makes them less sticky."

"People would notice what he was doing. People would be aware of him doing it. I know what people are doing in my lab. Even if he wanted to be sneaky about it, people would know that things were done."

"I could see if someone else made it and he took it and did something with it. That I could believe," Wilson said.

Officially, the U.S. does not have or keep any weapons-grade anthrax. President Nixon ordered the dismantling of U.S. biowarfare programs in 1969 and the destruction of all existing bioweapons, including anthrax.

Wilson pointed out the FBI talked about the flask of "wet" anthrax but there is no evidence they found any other remnants of the weapons-grade version beyond the letters sent in the mail.

"Where is the original batch? We know somewhere it had to be made and put into those envelopes," she said.

We also talked to George Weinstock, a professor of genetics and the associate director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

Compared to Wilson, Weinstock comes from a different field of science, so he had a different set of questions about the Anthrax investigation.

His main question was: How exactly did the FBI link the weaponized anthrax from the letters in 2001 to the flask of "wet" anthrax in Ivins' lab?

When matching DNA, it's much easier to prove something doesn't match than proving it does, he said.

We hear a lot about DNA matching in people -- such as paternity testing. But matching spores of anthrax is different. They're not as complex, so the odds of two sets of anthrax spores sharing the same genetic code is much higher.

In court documents, the FBI said it tested roughly 1,000 samples of anthrax before concluding that Ivins' anthrax was a parent strain of the anthrax in the letters.

Based on that level of testing, what are the odds that the "forensic microbiologists" got a false match?

"This might put the chance at one in 1,000. Think about one in 1,000 if it was a paternity suit? Whether that would stand up in court, I don't know. You really need to look at a much larger sample to have accurate statistics," he said.

"We need more information about these particular spelling mistakes" in the spores' gene sequence, Weinstock said. "We just don't know that information and it wasn't presented in the affidavit."

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Anthrax

Anthrax Scientist's Emails Suggest Paranoia, Mental Problems

Andrew Tilghman | August 7, 2008, 9:48AM

In trying to make the case that military scientist Bruce Ivins was a lunatic who sent anthrax through the mail and killed five people, federal agents disclosed a batch of emails Ivins wrote before and after the attack letters were sent.

The feds presumably plucked them from thousands of emails Ivins sent over the past several years. They paint a picture of a disturbed and well-medicated individual. They're laid out in a 25-page affidavit that federal agents drew up last fall when asking for search warrants.

The affidavit, unsealed and disclosed publicly yesterday, spotlights one email from just a few days after the first anthrax letter was sent. The affidavit draws a parallel with the phrasing in one of the unsigned anthrax letters, which read: "We have this anthrax...Death to America...Death to Israel," according to the court document.

Sept. 26, 2001, [Ivins wrote] "Of the people in my "group" everyone but me is in the depression/sadness/flight mode for stress. I'm really the only scary one in the group. Others are talking about how sad they are or scared they are, but my reaction to the WTC/Pentagon events is far different. Of course, I don't talk about how I really feel with them - it would just make them worse. Seeing how differently I reacted than they did to the recent events makes me really think about myself a lot. I just heard tonight that Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas. You [REDACTED].

In that same September 26, 2001 email, Dr. Ivins states "Osama Bin Laden has just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans" -- language similar to the text of the anthrax letters postmarked two weeks later warning "DEATH TO AMERICA," "DEATH TO ISRAEL."

The affidavit does not provide the full context of Ivins' Bin Laden remark here. And, as Glenn Greenwald at Salon noted, alarmist reports about Bin Laden and Islamic radicalism were common in the daily press at that time.

The affidavit does not disclose any of the emails' recipients.

Other emails featured in the affidavit include:

"June 27, 2000, "Even with the Celexa and the counseling, the depression episodes still come and go. That's unpleasant enough. What is REALLY scary is the paranoia...Remember when I told you about the "metallic" taste in my mouth that I got periodically? It's when I get these "paranoid" episodes. Of course I regret them thoroughly when they are over, but when I'm going through them, it's as if I'm on a passenger on a ride...Ominously, a lot of the feelings of isolation - and desolation - that I went through before college are returning. I don't want to relive those years again...I've been seeing the counselor once a week."

Read more for additional emails.

Read more »

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Anthrax

Did Bruce Ivins Start Planning Anthrax Attacks Before 9/11?

Andrew Tilghman | August 7, 2008, 9:00AM

The first anthrax-laced letter was sent out on Sept. 18, 2001.

And according to the FBI, Dr. Bruce Ivins was probably plotting and preparing his anthrax attacks for several weeks before that -- starting back as early as August 2001.

Among the pile of circumstantial evidence that federal agents compiled against Ivins was a log of his frequent night hours in the lab in 2001. (The military lab at Fort Detrick has electronic locks with swipe cards that allow detailed monitoring of people who have access to the stocks of the world's most dangerous biological agents.)

And the chart the FBI compiled shows that he began spending a lot of extra time in the lab at night in August.

Ivins explained to the FBI that he was having family problems at the time and preferred working late to going home.

On March 31, 2005, Dr. Ivins was asked by Task Force Investigators about his access to [the lab known as] B3 and could provide no legitimate reason for the extended hours other than "home was not good" and he went there "to escape" from his life at home.

Ivins provided that alibi back in March of 2005. The FBI didn't buy it. Which raises questions about why it took the FBI another two and a half years to ask for a search warrant for Ivins' home.

For a comprehensive timeline of the whole anthrax investigation, check out Marcy Wheeler's over here.

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Anthrax

FBI Identified Source Of Anthrax Years Ago, But Case Remained Unsolved And Ivins Continued Working

Andrew Tilghman | August 6, 2008, 6:14PM

The big turning point in the FBI's seven-year investigation came when scientists confirmed that the anthrax used in the 2001 letter attacks came from a specific flask stored at the military lab at Fort Detrick in Maryland.

"The key breakthrough was the science that focused their attention laser-like on that flask," said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor at a news conference today.

It was a flask that was "created and solely maintained" by Dr. Bruce Ivins, the key suspect who killed himself last week. Others at the lab also had access to the flask, officials said.

The FBI identified the flask as the source no later than March 2005, according to a set of court documents unsealed today.

But it was not until October 2007 that federal agents went to a judge seeking a search warrant for Ivins' home.

Identifying the source of the anthrax used in the attacks took several years.

In 2002, federal agents first asked for a sample from Ivins' jar of anthrax. He provided one but the FBI says it was bogus, possibly an effort to obstruct the investigation, according to the search warrant.

The feds were suspicious enough in April 2004 to send an FBI agent back to the military lab in Fort Detrick to seize the flask of anthrax, known as "RMR-1029." The flask was sealed with evidence tape and carried out by FBI contractors.

Nine months later, on March 31, 2005, the FBI confronted Ivins with their belief that he had not given them the sample they asked for.

"Dr. Ivins was adamant in his response that there had been no omission from his [REDACTED] submission, and he insisted that he had provided RMR-1029 to the FBI in his second submission samples in April 2002," according to the affidavit.

Even after that conversation, it took more than two years until they sought a search warrant for Ivins' home.

So what took so long?

Reporters posed that question to Taylor at this afternoon's press conference.

It's important to remember how complex, complicated, this investigation was. At the outset we had to identify the universe of persons and labs that might have access to this type of anthrax, once we identified what type of anthrax it was. And then over the years there were efforts to shrink the size of that pool. ...

We've got a video of the rest of his response.

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Anthrax

Feds Release Documents From Anthrax Investigation

Andrew Tilghman | August 6, 2008, 4:05PM

From the AP:

Army scientist Bruce Ivins "was the only person responsible" for anthrax attacks in 2001 that killed five and rattled the nation, the Justice Department said Wednesday, backing up the claim with dozens of documents all pointing to his guilt.

Documents made public alleged that Ivins, who committed suicide last week, had sole custody of highly purified anthrax spores with "certain genetic mutations identical" to the poison used in the attacks. Investigators also said they had traced back to his lab the type of envelopes used to send the deadly spores through the mails.

Ivins killed himself last week as investigators closed in, and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said, "We regret that we will not have the opportunity to present evidence to the jury."

The newly released court documents are available here.

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Anthrax

FBI Used Aggressive Tactics In Anthrax Investigation

Andrew Tilghman | August 6, 2008, 2:09PM

New details about the FBI investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks have only reinforced a long-standing trend -- the more we hear about the probe, the more botched it sounds.

Today the Washington Post reports that FBI agents harassed Ivins's daughters and offered his son millions of dollars to help convict Ivins in the anthrax killings. That's according to a friend and former co-worker whom Ivins confided in last fall.

It was around the time that FBI agents showed Ivins' 24-year-old daughter pictures of the victims who had died in the 2001 anthrax attacks and told her, "Your father did this," the scientist said. The agents also offered her twin brother the $2.5 million reward for solving the anthrax case -- and the sports car of his choice.

Talking abrasively to potential witnesses might not be uncommon for criminal investigators. But offering money and a car?

Also according to the same scientist, FBI agents had approached Ivins and his family in public. The Post reports:

One day in March, when Ivins was at a Frederick mall with his wife and son, the agents confronted the researcher and said, "You killed a bunch of people." Then they turned to his wife and said, "Do you know he killed people?" according to the scientist.

The only person to say publicly that Ivins talked like a homicidal sociopath was Jean Duley, Ivins' therapist, who was cooperating with the FBI investigation.

In fact, it was an FBI agent who suggested that she contact authorities about a so-called "Peace Order" and make those allegations available in public documents.

Duley got involved with the investigation after Ivins launched into a homicidal tirade during one of their therapy sessions, she said. Ivins talked about the possibility of facing capital murder charges soon and his desire to kill people and "go out in a blaze of glory," Duley told Maryland court officials.

Fearing Ivins may hurt someone, Duley contacted the local police in Frederick, MD. That one call from Duley led local police to remove him from the military research facility in Ft. Detrick and take him to a local mental health facility. (Duley sought a restraining order because Ivins threatened her when he learned she had contacted the police, she said.)

The Frederick Police response offers a stark contrast to the FBI, which was apparently concerned enough about Ivins to put him under surveillance more than a year ago, but not to seek to revoke his security clearance at Fort Detrick, where he handled deadly biological agents like bubonic plague.

The flawed investigation has already forced federal taxpayers to pay out nearly $6 million to settle a lawsuit filed against the Department of Justice by Steven Hatfill, the other scientist the feds accused in the case who had nothing to do with it.

This afternoon, we're expecting more details of the investigation. The FBI says these newly unsealed documents will prove their case against Ivins. We'll see.

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Anthrax

Feds Unseal Documents, Search Warrants In Anthrax Investigation

Andrew Tilghman | August 6, 2008, 10:36AM

From the AP:

The chief judge of Washington's federal courthouse on Wednesday unsealed hundreds of pages of documents in the FBI's nearly 7-year investigation of anthrax mailings that killed five people.

The move by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth came after consultation with Amy Jeffress, a national security prosecutor at Justice, and as FBI Director Robert Mueller prepared to brief the families of anthrax victims on details of the case.

The documents that Lamberth authorized to be released include at least 14 search warrants aimed at Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins, whom federal investigators were closing in on as he committed suicide last week. The records include the government summaries used to justify the search warrants, the warrants themselves and summaries of what FBI agents seized in each search.

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Anthrax

DOJ Plans To Close Anthrax Probe As Questions, Critics Mount

Andrew Tilghman | August 4, 2008, 2:00PM

The Department of Justice says it may close its investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks -- and possibly release previously sealed court records -- as early as today.

The move comes as questions and criticisms of the FBI's handling of the case grow more intense and also less than a week after the suicide of the alleged key suspect in the case, government scientist Bruce Ivins.

Closing the investigation would send a signal that Ivins was guilty and acted alone. But last week's suicide has thrust the anthrax investigation back into the spotlight and prompted new questions about the unsolved case as well as public statements and press reports surrounding the attacks in the fall of 2001.

The AP reports:

Among the unanswered questions in the investigation is how Ivins could have created the fine anthrax powder that, distributed in the mail, killed five people and terrorized the nation. Ivins' lab didn't deal with powdered anthrax and there is disagreement over whether he could have created it -- and if he did, how he kept it a secret.

The New York Times reports that investigators lack some key evidence against Ivins, such as anything linking the scientist to the central New Jersey town where the anthrax letters were mailed. An unnamed source calls the case against Ivins "circumstantial" and said at least 10 other people from the lab at Fort Detrick, MD, had access to the same flask containing that anthrax, the Times reports.

In an article on Sunday, The Washington Post wrote that federal prosecutors may disband the grand jury that was hearing evidence against Ivins, adding that no other criminal charges are expected in the case.

A lawyer for Ivins, Paul F. Kemp, has consistently maintained his client's innocence.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon has been working overtime on this story for the past few days and lays out a reconsideration of the anthrax investigation, its press reports and its time line. He bring attention to the mounting pressure on ABC News to disclose the confidential sources behind its report in 2001, which stated that federal agents had evidence that the anthrax came from Iraq.

Greenwald also raises questions about Ivins' therapist, who came forward several days ago describing Ivins's homicidal thoughts.

In a statement today, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), who was a target in the attacks, criticized the FBI and said he has little faith in its investigation.

Finally, as we noted earlier today, evidence is emerging that White House officials may have pressured the FBI to tag Al Qaeda as a suspect during the initial weeks of the probe.

Late Update: After reports that federal investigators couldn't place Ivins at the New Jersey mailbox where the anthrax letters were dropped, sources at DOJ leaked the AP a new story this afternoon. Their best guess is that Ivins made the seven-hour round trip up to the Princeton area after work one night, possibly because he had a weird obsession with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, which has a chapter up there.

That might have been enough to secure a grand jury indictment, but that sounds like a stretch for the jury to buy. We'll never know.

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Topics: Anthrax, Iraq, Justice Department

Anthrax

Former FBI Agent Says White House Pressured Bureau To Blame Anthrax On Bin Laden, Al Qaeda

Andrew Tilghman | August 4, 2008, 10:30AM

The New York Daily News reports:

In the immediate aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda, but investigators ruled that out, the Daily News has learned.

After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was "beaten up" during President Bush's morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide.

"They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East," the retired senior FBI official told The News.

On October 15, 2001, President Bush said, "There may be some possible link" to Bin Laden, adding, "I wouldn't put it past him." Vice President Cheney also said Bin Laden's henchmen were trained "how to deploy and use these kinds of substances, so you start to piece it all together."

But by then the FBI already knew anthrax spilling out of letters addressed to media outlets and to a U.S. senator was a military strain of the bioweapon. "Very quickly [Fort Detrick, Md., experts] told us this was not something some guy in a cave could come up with," the ex-FBI official said. "They couldn't go from box cutters one week to weapons-grade anthrax the next."

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