* A Postal Service employee at the Hamilton Township Plant and Distribution Center in Hamilton, New Jersey, who resigned shortly before the mailings, and whom a witness alleged was associated with a U.S-based al-Qaeda laboratory involved in anthrax production.
* A scientist who allegedly had the capability and disposition to use anthrax as a weapon.
* A researcher whose unusual behavior prompted a former colleague to contact the FBI, and who was described as a freelance scientist who would sell her/his services if the price was right.
* A researcher against whom the FBI received several tips that’s/he fit the publicized profile of the anthrax terrorist, and who reportedly had a grudge against the United States.
* A microbiologist whose suicide after the attacks was coupled with allegations that’s/he might have some association with the anthrax attacks.
* A scientist with extensive knowledge of the production of weaponized anthrax, and who arguably had a financial motive for committing the attacks.
* A disgruntled foreign scientist who allegedly had reason to take revenge against her/his former employer, and about whom other co-workers had expressed concerns.
Each of these individuals was ultimately excluded as a suspect based on a number of factors, including alibi, insufficient ability, and lack of access to RMR-1029.
- 6. Dr. Steven J. Hatfill
One individual who became widely known in August 2002 as a person of investigative interest was Dr. Steven Hatfill, a former researcher at USAMRIID. In the first four months of the investigation, eight individuals brought Dr. Hatfill’s name to the attention of the FBI as someone suspected of being involved in the attacks. Dr. Hatfill had in the past boasted to USAMRIID co-workers that he knew how to weaponize anthrax, quizzed colleagues on their knowledge of the topic, and repeatedly stopped people in the hallways to warn them about the dangers of anthrax as a biological weapon. In a June 2002 search of Dr. Hatfill’s apartment in Frederick, Maryland, investigators discovered detailed anthrax production protocols, some of which matched techniques used by the United States Army to produce anthrax for the now defunct U.S. Offensive Weapons Program. Also recovered from Dr. Hatfill’s apartment was an anthrax simulant powder.
While working as a researcher at USAMRIID from 1997 to 1999, Dr. Hatfill also had virtually unrestricted access to the same strain of anthrax (Ames) used in the 2001 mailings, although the FBI’s genetic analysis of the organism used in the attacks eventually led investigators to exclude him as a suspect. Dr. Hatfill also appeared to know the intricacies of
19
