GAO To Review FBI’s Anthrax Probe

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says it will review the scientific methods the FBI used when it concluded that Army scientist Bruce E. Ivins acted alone in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), who represents the district from which the anthrax spores were sent, requested the inquiry after the FBI announced in February that it had officially closed its investigation. The FBI identified Ivins as the sole perpetrator of the attacks after he committed suicide in July 2008. But many of Ivins’ former colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland and several lawmakers have been critical of the FBI’s work on the case. In addition to examining the microbial and forensic methods used by the FBI, GAO says it will look at what scientific concerns and uncertainties, if any, remain in the case. A separate review of the FBI’s work by the National Academy of Sciences is expected to be completed this fall.