News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page
NewsMine — deceptions — plagues — anthrax-attacks — berry — Viewing Item |
FBI searches homes in anthrax probe Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040805_1794.htmlhttp://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040805_1794.html
Feds Search Homes in 2001 Anthrax Probe
FBI, Post Office Searching Locations in N.Y., N.J. in Probe of 2001 Anthrax Attacks
The Associated Press
WELLSVILLE, N.Y. Aug. 5, 2004 — Federal agents investigating the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks searched homes Thursday belonging to the founder of an organization that trains medical professionals to respond to chemical and biological attacks.
More than three dozen agents, some in protective suits, combed through two homes in this upstate New York village at the same time as similar search occurred in New Jersey.
Authorities provided few specifics about the investigation, other than to say that FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents were searching multiple locations in Wellsville and Dover Township, N.J., as part of the anthrax probe.
The searches raised the prospect that authorities may be closer to a break in a case that has baffled investigators for nearly three years. Five people were killed and 17 sickened in the anthrax attacks, further rattling a nation already on edge after Sept. 11.
Property records list the New York homes as the addresses of Dr. Kenneth Berry, 48, a bioterrorism expert who once advocated the distribution of anthrax vaccine in major cities. It was not immediately known why the agents searched the homes, and attempts to reach Berry by telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful Thursday.
In New Jersey, agents searched a lagoon-front bungalow and hauled out garbage bags that a neighbor said appeared to be filled with bulky contents. Authorities also removed boxes with clear plastic bags in them. Two flatbed trucks hauled two vehicles away from the property, said neighbor Adam Fadel.
FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman declined to confirm who lived at the New Jersey home, located on the Jersey shore about 40 miles north of Atlantic City. A telephone listing for the address was under the name of W. Berry. The phone rang unanswered Thursday afternoon.
Weierman said no one had been charged or taken into custody as of Thursday evening.
She said authorities have conducted 5,200 interviews in connection with the attacks, in which anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed to news media and government offices including those of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Weierman said 30 FBI agents and 13 postal inspectors are currently devoted solely to the investigation.
Berry founded PREEMPT Medical Counter-Terrorism in 1997. In a USA Today interview that year, Berry said: "We ought to be planning to make anthrax vaccine widely available to the population starting in the major cities." The remarks were made soon after the Pentagon announced it would begin inoculating all 2.4 million military personnel against anthrax.
|
| Files Listed: 4 |
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material
available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political,
human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research and educational purposes. For more information,
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use
copyrighted material from this site for purpose of your own that go beyond
'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
