TOP FBI and CIA officials suspect American right-wing extremists and not Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist network could be behind the spate of anthrax attacks, it emerged today.
Investigators have found no evidence linking the deadly spores in letters with the terror group al-Qaida and are now focusing on neo-Nazi hate groups.
A senior US government official today said: "Everything seems to lean toward a domestic source.
Nothing seems to fit with an overseas terrorist type operation."
Authorities also do not believe the bioterrorism is the predicted second wave of attacks on the US masterminded by Bin Laden. The source added: "There is not intelligence on it, and it does not fit any (al-Qaida) pattern."
Both agencies are increasingly concerned the germ warfare agent attacks have diverted public attention from the larger threat posed by al-Qaida.
They believe the prime suspect in the hijacked plane strikes on America on September 11 is planning additional attacks against US interests at home or abroad that could come at any time.
It is understood that investigators have no clear suspects in the anthrax attacks and are not even certain whether there are other undetected letters that contain the potentially deadly microbe.
They suspect the same person wrote three letters - sent to television firm NBC, the New York Post newspaper and leading politician Tom Daschle - which were contaminated with anthrax.
They are scouring US and foreign laboratories for people who may have had access to the lethal bacteria.
In a series of cases involving letters laced with the anthrax spores, three people have died, at least 11 others have been infected and thousands more have been tested or
Turn to Page 2
From Page 1
given medicine for the rare disease. President George W Bush’s administration has previously said it does not rule out a link between the anthrax and Bin Laden, although it has found no hard evidence.
An anti-Israel message in anthrax letters sent to US Senate majority leader Mr Daschle and NBC News, and in Bin Laden’s statements are echoed by US extremists groups, such as Aryan Action, which have praised the September 11 plane attacks.
The organisation’s website declares: "Either you’re fighting with the Jews against al-Qaida or you support al-Qaida fighting against the Jews."
It is understood a meeting this year in Beirut was attended by US-based neo-Nazis and Islamic extremists united in their hatred of Jews.
White supremacists have been linked with anthrax in the past, but not in relation to an attack.
In 1997, Ohio microbiologist and former member of Aryan Nations Larry Wayne Harris, was convicted of wire fraud after he obtained three vials of bubonic plague germs through the mail.
He was arrested the following year near Las Vegas when the FBI acted on a tip that he was carrying anthrax. But agents found only harmless anthrax vaccine in the boot of his car.
Former United Nations weapons inspector Richard Butler, who early on suggested Iraq could have supplied the anthrax, now says there are signs that point to a US source.
Some investigators believe the author of the letters may have used phrases like "Death to America" and "Allah is great" to capitalise on Americans’ distrust of Muslims in the aftermath of the kamikaze attacks and to possibly hide his or her true identity and motive.
Investigators revealed that none of the up to 80 threat reports gathered daily by US intelligence agencies has connected the envelopes containing anthrax spores to al-Qaida or other known organised terrorist groups.
Initial evidence also suggests the spore samples have no solid connection to a foreign government or laboratory.
Investigators are also looking into the possibility that militant Muslims in America are behind the anthrax attacks.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer confirmed that investigators had determined that the pure, concentrated and highly dangerous anthrax delivered in a letter to Mr Daschle "could be produced by a PhD microbiologist and a sophisticated laboratory".
He added: "That does not rule out that it could be state-sponsored. That does not rule out that it could come from a foreign location.
"But it certainly does expand it beyond state sponsorship or foreign locations," he added.
Experts are awaiting test results on whether the anthrax in one of the letters was mixed with a chemical to make it more airborne.
Officials said that there was evidence the mailed anthrax had a chemical additive so sophisticated that it almost certainly came from the United States, Iraq or the former Soviet Union.
Agents are aggressively investigating foreign and US labs and personnel with access to the bacterium. Nationwide, there are more than five dozen labs believed to have access to anthrax.
Investigators are using sophisticated methods to match ink to a specific type of pen maker and new software to isolate faces on grainy security camera footage around key areas such as post offices where suspects might have gone.
However some Pentagon officials are thought to believe that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is behind the hijackings and anthrax attacks.
Iraqi government ministers have refused to discuss why some diplomats met with suspected terrorist Mohammed Atta this year in Germany, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic.
FBI agents operating in Europe are also examining a report from Prague that a vacuum flask containing anthrax was given to Atta at a meeting with Iraqi consul Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani in April.
The envoy was deported by Czech officials later that month for "activities incompatible with his status as a diplomat".
Meanwhile, in Washington the US Supreme Court was closed down for anthrax testing and bacteria were also reported at a CIA mail centre, a Washington DC post office and the offices of three politicians.
Health officials recommended antibiotics for thousands more people yesterday as a precaution against anthrax and ordered expanded testing, signalling mounting concern over the spread of spores.
Trace amounts of anthrax were discovered in the offices of three congressmen in a House of Representatives office building.
Officials said they would begin testing at between 2000 and 4000 sites that receive mail from Washington’s central Brentwood postal facility and recommend antibiotics for all who work at them.
