Anthrax Probers Still Seek Md. Leads

Although the pond yielded nothing that would aid the investigation, authorities have continued to look to Fort Detrick for leads.

Earlier this year, postal investigators interviewed employees at the Fort Detrick lab, according to their attorney, Rosemary McDermott. She said the questions included queries about access to "hot suites," areas at the facility where work is done on anthrax and other dangerous biological agents.

The investigators also wanted to know whether the employees ever saw anyone doing unauthorized research on anthrax, she said.

McDermott said the employees told investigators that they did not have access to the "hot suites" and that they never saw unauthorized research on biological agents.

In May, investigators re-interviewed another of McDermott's clients, Ayaad Assaad, a former Fort Detrick scientist. Assaad, an Egyptian American, was laid off in 1997 as part of a staff reduction and is suing the Army for age and racial discrimination.

Assaad, currently an acting team leader and toxicologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was first interviewed in October 2001 after authorities received an anonymous letter identifying him as a "potential bioterrorist."

The letter, postmarked in late September 2001, was mailed after the first batch of anthrax letters was sent but before it became public that anyone had gotten sick. Assaad suggested in 2001 that someone responsible for the anthrax killings mailed the anonymous letter about him to divert attention.

Authorities have said they have no evidence suggesting Assaad was involved in the attacks.

Assaad and his attorney said they most recently met with agents at McDermott's office in Thurmont.

McDermott said the agents again asked questions about the anonymous letter and implied that it might be linked to the anthrax attacks. Agents also asked Assaad whether pre-stamped letters were available at Fort Detrick; McDermott said they were not.

In recent telephone interviews, Assaad recalled that agents asked him in May about the process of refining anthrax. He said he told the agents that it was not necessary to know that process, because the anthrax in labs was already in that form, and that there was a "long history" at Fort Detrick of people pilfering "anthrax and everything."

He said he then told agents that he suspected that current or former Fort Detrick employees were involved in the anthrax attacks and tried to make him a "scapegoat."

Assaad said he provided the agents with records from a conference in Crystal City that showed he was there when the first batch of anthrax letters was sent from New Jersey.

At one point, Assaad said, his attorney asked agents whether he was a suspect. "They said, 'Absolutely not.' They repeated that twice," he said.

Frederick Mayor Jennifer P. Dougherty said she expects that the FBI will remain a presence in her community in the months ahead, adding that the FBI "made it clear from the start that agents would be back regularly until the investigation is completed."

"I hope there is a resolution, but I hope the person comes from Poughkeepsie, not Fort Detrick," she added. "We hope it's not someone who's a neighbor, either past or current. You don't want to be the one on the evening news saying, 'He seemed like such a nice guy.' "