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+sunspot.net - war on terror Page 3 of 4 e . @ The perpetrator would have needed expertise in microbiology to separate the dormant anthrax spores from the living vegetative cells, to dry the spores without killing them and to mill the product, the source said. But the methods used point more to a makeshift lab than a professional operation, the source said. One clue pointing away from a state program was the absence of any additive to neutralize the spores' electrical charge and make them float more freely. Such additives or coatings, including glass-like silica, were routinely used in past U.S., Soviet and Iraqi bioweapons programs, and some accounts have suggested that silica was present in the mailed anthrax. But more thorough testing disproved that. "Everybody was looking for a coating, but there wasn't one," the investigator said. The government is retaining detailed data on the various anthrax samples produced, creating a reference library to help track the source of powder used in any future anthrax attack. Meanwhile, FBI agents still appear to be scrutinizing Hatfill, 49, a physician who became a lecturer and consultant on bioterrorism in the late 1990s. He has adamantly denied any connection to the anthrax letters and suggested the FBI has persecuted him because it can't find the real culprit. Two weeks ago, two agents visited Insight magazine reporter Timothy W. Maier in Washington to ask him about an interview he conducted with Hatfill in 1998. They seemed particularly interested ina photograph printed in Insight that year of Hatfill posing in bioprotection gear, demonstrating "how a determined terrorist could cook up a batch of plague in his or her own kitchen using common household ingredients and protective equipment from the supermarket," as the caption put it. Maier said he was surprised it had taken so long after the FBI first started showing an interest in Hatfill before they looked into the article and photograph. Critics of the FBI's efforts have pointed to other delays. In August, New Jersey Congressman Rush D. Holt blasted the bureau for taking nearly a year to test New Jersey mailboxes before finding the contaminated box in Princeton. But last week, after a new FBI briefing, Holt seemed far more impressed. "Although I have been critical in the past of the conduct of the World memo out re ‘Agency’: Sept. 11 threaten ‘Terroi to use as cot US. b killing Pentago responsi calling it * ‘Dirty. Suspe forwa! court Govern judge's r Raids. Taliba Soldiers searchet Afghanis http://www. baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal-te.anthrax 1 lapr11,0,1475421 .story?.... 4/11/2003