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sunspot.net - war on terror e Van Harp, assistant FBI director in charge of the Washington Field Office, who oversees the anthrax investigation, declined to comment on what he called "uninformed speculation" about the anthrax research. But Harp said 50 investigators are still working on what the bureau calls the Amerithrax case, backed by "a huge scientific effort." "We're making progress," he said. ing prog. The anthrax-laced letters were mailed on Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, 2001, from a Princeton, N.J., mailbox and addressed to media organizations and two U. S. senators. The attack killed five people and sickened at least 17 others, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to clean up government offices and postal facilities. FBI and Postal Inspection Service agents initially considered a link to the Sept. 11 hijackers or Iraq. But after genetic analysis showed the anthrax was derived from the Ames strain used in the U.S. military biodefense program, investigators concentrated their effort on a domestic source. Agents interviewed and conducted polygraph tests on scores of employees at the U.S. military biodefense research centers at Fort Detrick in Frederick and at Dugway Proving Ground. Since last summer, they have focused much of their effort on Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, a former Fort Detrick: bioweapons expert, repeatedly searching his Frederick apartment. In December and January, the FBI launched an extensive search in woods and ponds outside Frederick, an effort sources said was aimed at finding discarded biological equipment or other evidence. Meanwhile, the FBI's Amerithrax task force ordered an exhaustive battery of scientific tests on the anthrax. Outside scientists say researchers probably have used chemical analysis to trace the water and nutrients used to grow the anthrax to a particular geographic area. . As part of the scientific sleuthing, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller WI announced in November that investigators were trying to "reverse engineer” the mailed anthrax. Several sources discussed the work with The Sun on condition of anonymity. One investigator said that with about a dozen samples completed, scientists have matched the mailed powder closely enough to conclude it was made with "a pretty small operation" that cost "no more than a few thousand dollars." http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal-te.anthrax] laprl 1,0,1475421.story?... Page 20 the one- Sept. 17 4/11/2003