Congressional investigators to review FBI work in anthrax case

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WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators plan to examine how the FBI determined that one scientist was responsible for the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, a lawmaker said.

The Government Accountability Office will look into how reliable and accurate the FBI’s scientific and technical methods were when it concluded Dr. Bruce Ivins was responsible for the anthrax-laced letters sent in 2001.

The letters killed five people, sickened 17 others, jolted a nation reeling from the September 11 attacks and resulted in one of the FBI’s largest investigations ever, with more than 1,000 people facing scrutiny.

By 2007 investigators determined that a single-spore batch of anthrax created and maintained by Ivins at his laboratory in Maryland was the parent material for the spores in the letters. Ivins committed suicide on July 29, 2008, just as prosecutors prepared to charge him with murder for committing the attacks.

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