The latest twist and turn in the search for the perpetrators of the anthrax attack on America is a Newsweek story that "government sources" have told the magazine that a secret new analysis shows that the anthrax found in a letter addressed to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy was ground to a microscopic fineness NOT achieved by U.S. biological-weapons experts. This suggests a foreign source, not the domestic loner or right-winger previously suggested by the FBI.

The Newsweek account follows a report on ABC News by Brian Ross that federal investigators say they have no suspects and few clues but continue to believe the person responsible for the anthrax attacks is likely a current or former U.S. scientist, perhaps a prominent one. It is apparent that the incompetence and/or corruption in the FBI has not been resolved. It is possible that these conflicting media reports may all be true, showing how disorganized the bureau has become in trying to find those who killed five Americans last year.

In an amazing turnabout, Brian Ross said the FBI started investigating someone who was asked for help in finding the perpetrator. The FBI had gone to Dr. Ken Alibek, a Soviet defector who made weapons-grade anthrax. Alibek, who ran the secret Soviet and Russian anthrax program, said he has the expertise to make the material that was sent in the American anthrax letters. "Yes, it would be easy to do," he said. Then, Alibek was told he had to take a lie detector test if he wanted to continue to help the FBI. Ross reported, "He confirmed he had to answer questions including ‘Did you do it?’ and ‘Do you know who did it?’" Alibek said he passed the test.

The focus on Alibek and other foreigners may have been prompted by something that Newsweek highlights – that "investigators question whether any laid-off U.S. government scientist is able enough — and has access to the right equipment — to produce the unusual substance found in the Leahy letter." Newsweek also said it was "coated with a chemical compound unknown to experts who have worked in the field for years; the coating matches no known anthrax samples ever recovered from biological-weapons producers anywhere in the world, including Iraq and the former Soviet Union."

Media such as the Washington Times had been suggesting that a former U.S. government scientist was behind the attacks. But Newsweek now says the possibility cannot be dismissed that the anthrax was produced by a team assembled by a foreign government." The magazine added that U.S. investigators "can’t rule out the possibility that a foreign government, perhaps Iraq but more likely the former U.S.S.R., could have put together such a team." Another theory is that a former American scientist bought the anthrax from a foreign government.

A former commander of the U.S. bioweapons program told Brian Ross that "a lot of good has come" from the attacks because about $6 billion has been put into the new budget for defending against bioterrorism. But who is the enemy? The FBI doesn’t seem to have the ability to find out. And the media coverage reflects that cold hard fact.

Reed Irvine can be reached at ri@aim.org