2001 anthrax attacks

2001 anthrax attacks

The 2001 anthrax attacks, also called Amerithrax, happened in the United States during several weeks starting on September 18, 2001. This was just one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters with anthrax spores were sent to several news places and to two senators, Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. These attacks caused people to get sick, and some died.

The FBI worked very hard to find out who did this. At first, some people thought groups like Al-Qaeda or Ba'athist Iraq might be involved, but that was not true. Later, the investigation looked closely at a scientist named Steven Hatfill, but he was proven not to be involved. Another scientist, Bruce Edwards Ivins, who worked at a government lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland, became a main suspect. In 2008, federal officers said Ivins was the person responsible, based on DNA evidence.

However, a review by scientists later said there was not enough proof to say for sure that Ivins was the one who did it. The FBI closed its investigation in 2010.

Context

The anthrax attacks happened a week after the events of September 11, 2001. Letters with a harmful substance called anthrax were sent to several news offices and two important senators: Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.

One person, Robert Stevens, got very sick and passed away after the letters were sent. The letters were postmarked from Trenton, New Jersey and were sent to news places in New York City and a newspaper office in Boca Raton, Florida. Later, more letters were sent to the two senators.

The attacks caused a lot of worry and took a long time to solve.

Letters

The anthrax letters were mailed from Princeton, New Jersey. Investigators found anthrax in a mailbox near the Princeton University campus.

The letters sent to news offices like The New York Post and NBC News had a note.

09–11–01
THIS IS NEXT
TAKE PENACILIN NOW
DEATH TO AMERICA
DEATH TO ISRAEL
ALLAH IS GREAT

Another note went to Senators Daschle and Leahy. It said:

09–11–01
YOU CAN NOT STOP US.
WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX.
YOU DIE NOW.
ARE YOU AFRAID?
DEATH TO AMERICA.
DEATH TO ISRAEL.
ALLAH IS GREAT.

All the letters were copies made by a copy machine. The originals were never found. The letters looked different in size and style.

Some letters that looked like they might be connected to the anthrax attacks turned out not to be. Letters from St. Petersburg, Florida and Reno, Nevada were tested but were not related. These false leads took time to investigate.

Anthrax material

Letters sent to news offices had a coarse brown material, while letters sent to two U.S. Senators had a fine powder. The brown anthrax mostly caused skin infections, but one person also got a dangerous lung infection. The fine powder sent to the Senators mostly caused dangerous lung infections.

All the material came from the same bacterial strain known as the Ames strain. This strain was found in a cow in Texas in 1981 and was named after Ames, Iowa, because of a labeling mix-up. It was first studied at a medical research institute in Maryland and later shared with labs in the U.S. and abroad.

Investigation

Authorities went to six continents, talked to over 9,000 people, did 67 searches, and gave out over 6,000 subpoenas. Many FBI workers tried to see if the September 11 attacks and the anthrax problems were linked. They later decided they were not.

Anthrax archive destroyed

The FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) let Iowa State University destroy its anthrax archive on October 10 and 11, 2001. The FBI and CDC had a harder time investigating because this big group of anthrax spores, kept in over 100 bottles at Iowa State University, was destroyed. Many scientists think this took away important clues that could have helped solve the case.

Al-Qaeda and Iraq blamed for attacks

Right after the anthrax attacks, White House leaders asked the FBI director to say al-Qaeda was to blame, after the September 11 attacks. The FBI knew early on that the anthrax needed special tools and was unlikely to be made in a simple place. At the same time, President Bush and Vice President Cheney talked about the chance that the anthrax attacks were linked to al-Qaeda. Some reports said Iraq might be involved, but later, leaders said there was no proof for this. Osama bin Laden said he was not involved in the anthrax attacks.

"Person of interest"

A molecular biologist and others thought the attacks might be done by a government worker starting in October 2001. In June 2002, the FBI searched a scientist’s home, and he became well known. The FBI later said he was not a suspect. In August 2002, the Attorney General called him a “person of interest,” but no charges were made. The scientist said he did not do it and sued for his rights being broken. The case was settled for $5.8 million in 2008.

Bruce Edwards Ivins

Bruce Ivins worked for 18 years at government labs at Fort Detrick studying germs. In August 2008, it was reported that he had died, and the FBI was about to charge him. The proof was mostly guesses, and a group was not ready to say he did it. Ivins’ death left some questions, as experts said there was no proof he knew how to turn anthrax into a powder you could breathe in.

Ivins was taken from his job because people were worried he might hurt himself or others. On August 6, 2008, federal leaders said Ivins was the only person responsible.

Mental health issues

Ivins told a mental health counselor before the anthrax attacks that he liked a young woman who lived far away and that he had “mixed poison” which he took with him when he went to watch her play soccer, saying that if she lost, he would poison her. The counselor was worried and told leaders at her clinic and a psychiatrist who had helped Ivins, as well as the police.

In 2008, Ivins told another therapist that he wanted to hurt his coworkers and “go out in a blaze of glory.”

Evidence of consciousness of guilt

A report about the Amerithrax investigation said Ivins did things and said things that showed he might have known he could be guilty.

The FBI said that Ivins’ reasons for some of his actions did not match what they found.

Alleged hidden texts

In the letters sent to the news, some letters were marked, and some think this was a hidden message.

Ivins' "non-denial" denials

In June 2008, Ivins was taken to a hospital for mental health help. During a group talk there, he said things about the anthrax letters that the FBI called “non-denial denials.” When asked about the anthrax attacks, Ivins said he could not remember doing anything like that. He also said he did not know how to make a germ weapon and did not want to know how.

Doubts about FBI conclusions

After the FBI said Ivins did it alone, many people, including some of his coworkers, had doubts. Reasons for these doubts include that Ivins was only one of many who could have used the bottle in the attacks and that the FBI could not show he was near the mailbox in New Jersey from which the anthrax was sent. Some scientists also said the FBI’s science tests had problems and had not been checked by other scientists.

Congressional oversight

Some members of Congress asked for a new investigation into the anthrax attacks, either by Congress or by an independent group.

National Academy of Sciences review

Because questions kept coming, the FBI asked the National Academy of Sciences to look at the science proof. The NAS review said it was “impossible to know for sure where the anthrax in the letters came from, based only on the science proof available.”

Government Accountability Office

A study by the United States Government Accountability Office found problems with the FBI’s testing ways. The GAO said the FBI did not fully understand how genetic changes happen, did not have strong checks on testing, and did not include ways to measure guesswork in their results.

Aftermath

Contamination and cleanup

Many buildings were contaminated with anthrax after the letters were sent. Companies worked to clean and make these places safe again, including important buildings in New York City. Cleaning the Brentwood postal facility took a long time and cost a lot of money. The cleanup of a building in New Jersey also took many years and a lot of money.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency helped clean several places in Washington, D.C., including offices where important leaders work.

Preparedness and research

The anthrax attacks, along with the events of September 11, 2001, led to more money being spent on research and preparing for future threats. Funding for studying diseases increased, and new medicines and vaccines were created and stored by the government.

After the September 11 attacks, some people in the government started taking a special medicine to protect themselves, even before the anthrax letters were sent.

U.S. mail crackdowns

Because of the attacks, many people and businesses stopped using regular mail. This pushed many to start using email and other online ways to send information.

Policy

After these events, there was a push for new laws to help stop future terrorist actions. This led to the creation of important laws for national security.

Adverse health effects

Some people who were affected by the anthrax attacks continued to have health issues years later, such as feeling very tired, having trouble breathing, or remembering things poorly.

One worker at a mail facility became very sick after handling contaminated materials.

Media

Television

The anthrax attacks were shown in some TV shows. They were in season 4, episode 24 of Criminal Minds. The second season of the National Geographic series The Hot Zone talked about these attacks.

The attacks were also in season 12, episode 13 of Unsolved Mysteries. A show called The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11 by Dan Krauss, on Netflix and the BBC, looks at the investigation. It first appeared on September 8, 2022.

Season 8, episode 3 of How It Really Happened talks about the attacks and the investigation; it started streaming in June 2024. In season 1, episode 13 of House, M.D., titled "Cursed," Dr. House mentions the anthrax attacks when helping a child. The episode also talks about terrorism.

One episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, season 2, episode 23, was based on these events. It tells the story of a scientist wrongly accused of an anthrax attack.