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 five people to die and seventeen others to get very sick. Many police officers and workers for Senator Russ Feingold were also exposed to the anthrax.

The FBI worked very hard to find out who did this, and it became one of the biggest and most complicated investigations ever. At first, some people thought groups like Al-Qaeda or Ba'athist Iraq might be involved, but that did not turn out to be 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 from an anthrax vial in his lab.

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, but some details about the case and Ivins' health are still kept private. The government also paid money to the family of one of the first victims, Robert Stevens, to avoid more legal problems.

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 attacks began. 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. These letters had a more powerful form of anthrax.

In all, 22 people got sick from anthrax, and five of them sadly passed away. The attacks caused a lot of worry and took a long time to solve.

Letters

The anthrax letters were believed to have been mailed from Princeton, New Jersey. Investigators found anthrax in a mailbox on Nassau Street near the Princeton University campus. About 600 mailboxes were tested, but only this one had anthrax.

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

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. For example, letters from St. Petersburg, Florida and Reno, Nevada were tested but were not related. These included hoaxes and one letter that had harmless white powder. These false leads took time to investigate.

Anthrax material

Letters sent to news offices contained a coarse brown material, while letters sent to two U.S. Senators had a fine powder. The brown anthrax mostly caused skin infections, though one person developed a more dangerous lung infection at the same time as several skin infections nearby. 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 traveled to six continents, interviewed over 9,000 people, conducted 67 searches, and issued over 6,000 subpoenas. Hundreds of FBI personnel worked on the case, trying to figure out if the September 11 attacks and the anthrax incidents were connected. They later concluded that they were not.

Anthrax archive destroyed

The FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allowed Iowa State University to destroy its anthrax archive on October 10 and 11, 2001. The FBI and CDC investigation was made harder because this large collection of anthrax spores, kept in over 100 vials at Iowa State University, was destroyed. Many scientists believe this eliminated important evidence that could have helped identify when the bacteria was isolated and how widely it was shared with researchers. This could have provided important clues to solve the case.

Al-Qaeda and Iraq blamed for attacks

Right after the anthrax attacks, White House officials pressured the FBI director to publicly blame al-Qaeda, following the September 11 attacks. The FBI knew early on that the anthrax used needed advanced equipment and was unlikely to have been made in a simple setting. At the same time, President Bush and Vice President Cheney publicly talked about the possibility of a connection between the anthrax attacks and al-Qaeda. Some reports suggested Iraq might be involved, but later statements from the White House and public officials said there was no evidence to support this. Osama bin Laden denied any involvement in the anthrax attacks.

"Person of interest"

A molecular biologist and others suggested the attacks might be the work of a government employee starting in October 2001. In June 2002, the FBI searched a scientist’s apartment, and he became widely known. The FBI later stated he was not a suspect. In August 2002, the Attorney General called him a “person of interest,” though no charges were filed. The scientist denied involvement and sued for violation of his rights. The case was settled for $5.8 million in 2008.

Bruce Edwards Ivins

Bruce Ivins worked for 18 years at government bio defense labs at Fort Detrick as a researcher. In August 2008, it was reported that he had died, and the FBI was about to press charges against him. The evidence was mostly circumstantial, and the grand jury was not ready to issue an indictment. Ivins’ death left unanswered questions, as scientists familiar with germ warfare said there was no evidence he had the skills to turn anthrax into an inhalable powder.

Ivins was taken from his workplace due to concerns he might harm himself or others. On August 6, 2008, federal prosecutors declared Ivins the sole perpetrator of the crime.

Mental health issues

Ivins told a mental health counselor over a year before the anthrax attacks that he was interested in a young woman who lived out of town and that he had “mixed poison” which he took with him when he went to watch her play in a soccer match, saying that if she lost, he was going to poison her. The counselor was alarmed by his emotionless description of a specific, homicidal plan and immediately alerted the head of her clinic and a psychiatrist who had treated Ivins, as well as the Frederick Police Department.

In 2008, Ivins told a different therapist that he planned to kill his co-workers and “go out in a blaze of glory.”

Evidence of consciousness of guilt

According to a report on the Amerithrax investigation published by the Department of Justice, Ivins did things and made statements that indicated he knew he might be guilty.

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

Alleged hidden texts

In the letters sent to the media, certain letters were highlighted, and some believe this was a hidden code.

Ivins' "non-denial" denials

In June 2008, Ivins was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital. During a group therapy session there, he made statements about the anthrax mailings that the FBI described as “non-denial denials.” When asked about the anthrax attacks, Ivins said he suffered from memory loss and did not recall doing anything like that. He also said he didn’t know how to make a bio-weapon and didn’t want to know how.

Doubts about FBI conclusions

After the FBI announced that Ivins acted alone, many people, including some of his colleagues, expressed doubts. Reasons for these doubts include that Ivins was only one of many people who could have worked with the vial used in the attacks and that the FBI could not place him near the New Jersey mailbox from which the anthrax was mailed. Some scientists also said the FBI’s scientific tests had problems and had not been reviewed by other scientists.

Congressional oversight

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

National Academy of Sciences review

In response to continuing questions, the FBI asked the National Academy of Sciences to review the scientific evidence. The NAS review concluded that it was “impossible to reach any definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in the letters, based solely on the available scientific evidence.”

Government Accountability Office

A study by the United States Government Accountability Office found problems with the FBI’s testing methods. The GAO said the FBI did not fully understand how genetic mutations happen, did not have strong controls over sampling, and did not include measures of uncertainty 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, though tests did not show anthrax in his blood.

Media

Television

The anthrax attacks were mentioned in several TV shows. They appeared in season 4, episode 24 of Criminal Minds. The second season of the National Geographic series The Hot Zone focused on these attacks.

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

Season 8, episode 3 of How It Really Happened discusses 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 diagnosing a child. The episode also references Saddam Hussein and terrorism, though Saddam was not involved.

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