Anthrax probe turns to labs

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is preparing to give lie detector tests to hundreds of federal workers at two facilities where anthrax is stored, hoping to identify suspects in the letter attacks, a law enforcement official said Monday.

Beginning in June, the government will administer the tests to workers at Fort Detrick, Md., about 40 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., and at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

The government will focus on workers who had expertise in preparing anthrax for use as a weapon and those who may have had access to it, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

ABC News, which first reported the plans for testing, said some former employees of both facilities might be given polygraph tests as well.

The law enforcement official said the plan to test employees does not mean the government already has a suspect.

The investigation into who sent several anthrax-laced letters last year has produced few leads, and investigators acknowledge the trail is growing cold. The government has begun a strategy of focusing on possible sources of anthrax rather than identifying suspects from the few clues gained from the letters.

Army scientists in Utah have been developing a powdered form of anthrax for use in testing biological defense systems, military officials have said.

The Army said in a recent statement that small quantities of anthrax have routinely been produced at Dugway, and then shipped to the Army’s biodefense center at Fort Detrick.

Fort Detrick, which also is home to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, has anthrax samples from other sources as well.