WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- FBI agents investigating last fall's series of anthrax attacks on media and political figures searched the Frederick, Md., apartment Thursday of a former researcher at the military's top biological weapons facility, two law enforcement officials told United Press International.
Steven J. Hatfill, 48, gave investigators permission on June 26 to search his apartment and at the time, investigators insisted that he was not a suspect in the case that killed five people and seriously sickened 13 others last October.
But on Thursday morning, agents were denied permission by Hatfill to search the residence a second time. Agents procured a search warrant from a federal judge, according to federal law enforcement sources, and proceeded with a search midday. However, a top Justice Department source said there was no immediate plan to charge Hatfill or seek an arrest warrant.
Law enforcement sources confirmed that the search warrant was based on new information in the case, but refused to comment on its specific nature.
Hatfill could not be reached for comment. During the search in June, Hatfill was represented by Thomas Carter of Alexandria, Va. Carter's law firm -- Carter & Kramer PC -- would not comment on the search and did not return phone calls for additional information.
Hatfill, who holds a doctorate from the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine in Zimbabwe, worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md., also located in Fredrick, from September 1997 to September 1999, according to Chuck Dasey, spokesman for the base. Hatfill's work at the base was part of a two-year fellowship sponsored by the National Research Council. Dasey confirmed that Hatfill was a research associate at the institute's virology department, where he worked on developing a vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus, among other projects. Anthrax bacteria were not studied or used in the virology department, Dasey said.
Federal law enforcement officials have long suspected that the anthrax attacks were conducted by someone with a high level of technical ability in dealing with micro-organisms, as the spores were mailed to a series of victims in Congress and the media. The anthrax sent via traditional mail to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was finely milled and coated to increase its lethal effects and could have only been done by someone with significant lab experience, health officials said at the time the letters were discovered.
Congressional aides said FBI Director Robert Mueller had contacted both Daschle and Leahy in personal phone calls earlier on Thursday to inform them of the search and update them on the investigation, but the aides could not characterize any specifics of the conversations.
Two postal workers at the Brentwood postal facility in Washington were killed by anthrax infection caused by cross-contamination in mail-sorting machines. Two women -- one in New York City and another in Connecticut -- died of anthrax after being infected through their mail, authorities have said. The first victim -- a photography editor at the parent company of the National Enquirer -- also died.
According to his resume, Hatfill worked for the U.S. Army Institute for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg at the same time he served in the Rhodesian Special Air Squadron from 1975 to 1978. The SAS, like the Green Berets, carry out secret, behind-the lines missions.
Hatfill then attended medical school in Rhodesia before a civil war removed the Afrikaners from power and the nation changed its name to Zimbabwe. After graduation from medical school, he moved to South Africa and reportedly joined a counter-insurgency unit called the Selous Scouts, dedicated to overthrowing the new government of Zimbabwe.
After working and living in South Africa and receiving a post-doctorate degree from Oxford University in the United Kingdom, Hatfill returned to the United States in 1995 and began work at the National Institutes of Health. After leaving Fort Detrick in 1999, Hatfill continued to have security clearance to use the USAMRIID facilities for bioresearch as part of his job with Scientific Applications International Corp., a large defense contractor. At SAIC, Hatfill worked to train the U.S. Special Forces along with embassy personnel and other government workers to endure biological weapons attacks.
He was fired in March after some colleagues claimed to have seen him remove biological material carriers from the facility, according to law enforcement sources, but even after U.S. Army officials admitted that he may have used the containers for demonstration purposes, he was not rehired. SAIC did not return phone calls for comment.
FBI agents searched the apartment building at 1711 W. Seventh St. for most of Thursday. A neighbor of Hatfill's, who asked not to be identified by name, said that agents have searched all of the building's public spaces -- in addition to the apartment itself -- and had been refusing to answer residents' questions about any potential biological threat in the building.
"I have asked them for information about what's going on and they won't tell me anything," the neighbor said. "I mean, if this is the guy, we should be told. I share a laundry room with this guy."
The neighbor reported minimal contact with Hatfill in the past and knew almost nothing about him.
