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Anthrax 2001
About Anthrax 2001
The 2001 anthrax attacks occurred one week after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Letters containing Bacillus anthracis spores were mailed to several news media offices and two US Senators, Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Twenty two people were infected, five of whom died. The attacks prompted a massive FBI investigation codenamed Amerithrax. The spores were identified as the Ames strain, commonly used in US biodefense research. In 2008, the FBI named Dr Bruce Ivins, a vaccine researcher at the US Army Medical Research Institute, as the sole perpetrator. Ivins died by suicide before charges were filed. Some scientists and commentators have questioned the largely circumstantial evidence. The attacks motivated billions of dollars in biodefense spending and expansion of the Strategic National Stockpile. The US Postal Service installed biohazard detection systems. The attacks demonstrated the vulnerability of civilian populations to biological weapons and the difficulty of attribution.
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