Report examines FBI anthrax investigation

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A U.S. review has faulted some of the science the FBI used in its investigation of anthrax letter mailings that killed five people in 2001, officials said.

A National Research Council committee report says it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in letters mailed to New York and Washington based solely on the available scientific evidence, a National Academy of Sciences release said Tuesday.

The council said the genetic analysis "did not definitively demonstrate" that the mailed anthrax spores came from the laboratory of Dr. Bruce E. Ivins, the late Army microbiologist blamed by authorities for the attacks.

However, the report said the evidence did support an "association" between spores found in the mailed letters and spores from a flask found in Ivins' laboratory.

In early 2010, the Justice Department closed its investigation of the anthrax mailings, concluding the attacks were carried out by Ivins, a scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases who committed suicide in July 2008.

"We believe this independent review -- done at the FBI's request -- will help strengthen the law enforcement and national security community's scientific and analytical capabilities in future investigations," Alice P. Gast, chairwoman of the committee and president of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., said.