FBI defends its efforts to track down source of anthrax

Federal law enforcement officials today defended their lack of progress in identifying the source of the anthrax-laced letters sent to the Senate and news organizations, and called for stronger sanctions against those who perpetrate bioterrorism hoaxes.

The officials appeared at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing and came under pointed questioning from Judiciary Technology, Terrorism and Government Information Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

James Caruso of the FBI's counter- terrorism section said the number of people with the ability to fashion anthrax spores into a form used to spread disease "is a very big universe to look at."

Caruso conceded that the FBI, which has 4,000 agents working on the case, still has not identified the source of the anthrax and does not even know how many laboratories in the United States handle the substance.

Feinstein has introduced legislation that would require laboratories that possess anthrax bacteria or any other of 35 pathogens that could potentially be used for bioterrorism to be registered with and certified by the federal government. Her bill would also require that employees who work with such substances be subject to criminal background checks.

The House passed a similar bill Oct. 23, but without the background check provision.

Meanwhile, Caruso and Justice Department Terrorism and Violent Crime chief James Reynolds said Congress could help by further increasing penalties for those who commit bioterrorism hoaxes.

Before Sept. 11, Caruso said, the FBI had responded to 100 cases involving potential use of "weapons of mass destruction," 67 of them biological. Since mid-September, he said, the FBI has responded to 7,089 suspicious anthrax letters alone, 950 incidents involving other threats, such as bombs, and "an estimated 29,331 telephonic calls from the public about suspicious packages."

False claims, Reynolds said, not only strain already overworked law enforcement and public health personnel, but "exact a very substantial psychological toll" to potential victims who often must wait days to find out if they were in fact exposed to deadly germs.