BIOWAR: Anthrax raid focuses on NY doctor

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- New York state physician Kenneth M. Berry has replaced "person of interest" Steven Hatfill at the center of the search for the murderer who killed five people three years ago by sending anthrax-laden letters through the U.S. postal system.

A search warrant executed in Wellsville, N.Y., targeted a home reportedly owned by Berry, who has a business interest in biodefense. Police in the town of Wellsville, located in the southwestern part of New York state, confirmed the house being searched was located on Pearl Street, matching the street name given in reports of Berry's residence. Phone and e-mail efforts to contact Berry directly about the house and search were unsuccessful.

Federal law enforcement officials also searched a Wellsville apartment used by Berry, according to the local newspaper, the Wellsville Daily Reporter. At least one other search was conducted in Dover Township, N.J., though it was not clear if it was related to Berry. The house in question is a rental unit, said an editor at the Ocean County Observer. There is no indication the owner of the rental property was the target of the New Jersey search. Efforts to contact the owner were unsuccessful. It is not clear who, if anyone, currently resides at each location.

"These searches are related to the FBI's ongoing investigation into the origin of anthrax-laced letters mailed in September and October 2001, which resulted in the deaths of five individuals and serious illnesses in 17 others," Debbie Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington, D.C., Field Office, told United Press International.

Code named "Amerithrax," the investigation is run by the Washington Field office.

Weierman acknowledged that the searches were the conducted by FBI agents and U.S. Postal Service inspectors but would not comment on the goal of the searches, saying the details of the warrants were sealed. News reports indicate some 30 agents conducted the search in Wellsville alone.

The FBI's approach is quite different from that taken during searches in July at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md. In that and earlier searches, the agency refused to confirm or deny the efforts were tied to the anthrax case.

This time, Weierman confirmed that the action was tied to Amerithrax. Because property ownership generally is a matter of public record, it would be highly unlikely the identities of the owners of the properties at the center of the high-profile searches could remain confidential.

As of Thursday, no arrests were made in relation to the searches, Weierman said, and reports about the searches have not indicated whether anyone was occupying the homes at the time. The New York Times reported Friday that Berry had been arrested Thursday on domestic assault charges at Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. He was released on bail.

The circumstances of Thursday's actions are eerily reminiscent of searches at the residence of Steven Hatfill, another physician involved in biodefense and training. Hatfill was named a "person of interest" by Attorney General John Ashcroft and became the subject of intense FBI scrutiny and pressure for well over a year. Never arrested, Hatfill lost his job and is now suing the Department of Justice and others over his treatment.

A Web site associated with Berry, and containing a picture matching one published by the New York Times in relation to the Point Pleasant arrest, shows a physician with a keen interest and financial investment in preparing the nation for a bioterror attack.

Berry describes himself on the site as the national coordinator of the "Planned Response Exercises and Emergency Medical Preparedness Training" program. The site also includes a business plan for PREEMPT Systems Inc., a firm seeking to organize training for first responders.

The PREEMPT plan, according to a 1997 letter transcribed on the site, was an ambitious one, involving the "formulation of a national program, which will provide effective emergency response training to 200,000 local primary responders over the next five to 10 years."

The letter was read at an unidentified forum hosted in 1997 by former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga. Another letter Berry wrote to Nunn on Sept. 5, 1997, gave an update on PREEMPT and asked for help in getting federal funds into the hands of local emergency providers. The letter also requested an introduction to Vice President Al Gore in his capacity as head of the National Security Council.

Berry helped sponsor conferences from 1997 to 1999, but the Web site shows few updates until 2004. In June of this year, Berry appears to have given a presentation on behalf of PREEMPT Systems in Gothenburg, Sweden. He proposed a national program that would link buildings with embedded sensors. The goal is to anticipate, and perhaps ameliorate, the impact of a bioterror attack.

The varying fortunes of Berry's company reflected on the Web site trace the rise and fall of federal interest in bioterror defense over the last eight years.

During the late 1990s, President Clinton, prodded by counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke, took a strong and personal interest in biodefense. Though there had been attempts to use bioweapons before, the sarin gas attack by Aum Shinri Kyo on March 20, 1995, in Tokyo -- and the little-known, failed attempt by the same group to use anthrax -- lit a fire under the administration. Funding for federal activities to counter bioterrorism jumped sharply and key defensive and recovery programs were put into place.

The drive behind the programs gradually faded with time, however, and the administration was further distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal starting around 1997.

Over the last three years, one of the widely suggested motivations for the still-unidentified anthrax killer has been a business interest in an expanded biodefense effort. The experience of dealing with the letters, and the stark lack of emergency preparation revealed by the attacks in New York and Washington, kicked the federal government into high gear once again. A large part of the funds now being expended go to training first responders, an area relevant to PREEMPT's original business interests. Many companies, however, were chasing biodefense dollars at the same time PREEMPT was trying to capture funding and interest.

--

E-mail ddivis@upi.com