Anthrax raids on bio-terror businessman

By Ben Dobbin

FEDERAL agents investigating the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks searched homes Thursday belonging to the founder of an organisation that trains medical professionals to respond to chemical and biological attacks.

More than three dozen agents, some in protective suits, combed through two homes in this upstate New York village at the same time as a similar search occurred in New Jersey.

Authorities provided few specifics about the investigation, other than to say that FBI and US Postal Inspection Service agents were searching multiple locations in Wellsville and Dover Township, New Jersey, as part of the anthrax probe.

The searches raised the prospect that authorities may be closer to a break in a case that has baffled investigators for nearly three years. Five people were killed and 17 sickened in the anthrax attacks, further rattling a nation already on edge after September 11.

Property records list the New York homes as the addresses of Dr Kenneth Berry, 48, a bioterrorism expert who once advocated the distribution of anthrax vaccine in major cities. It was not immediately known why the agents searched the homes, and attempts to reach Dr Berry by telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful Thursday.

In New Jersey, agents searched a lagoon-front bungalow and hauled out garbage bags that a neighbour said appeared to be filled with bulky contents.

Authorities also removed boxes with clear plastic bags in them. Two flatbed trucks hauled two vehicles away from the property, said neighbour Adam Fadel.

FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman declined to confirm who lived at the New Jersey home, located on the Jersey shore about 65km north of Atlantic City. A telephone listing for the address was under the name of W. Berry. The phone rang unanswered overnight.

Ms Weierman said no one had been charged or taken into custody as of Thursday evening.

She said authorities have conducted 5200 interviews in connection with the attacks, in which anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed to news media and government offices including those of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and another Democrat, Senator Patrick Leahy.

Ms Weierman said 30 FBI agents and 13 postal inspectors are currently devoted solely to the investigation.

Dr Berry founded PREEMPT Medical Counter-Terrorism in 1997. In a USA Today interview that year, Dr Berry said: "We ought to be planning to make anthrax vaccine widely available to the population starting in the major cities." The remarks were made soon after the Pentagon announced it would begin inoculating all 2.4 million military personnel against anthrax.

Dr Berry pleaded guilty in 1999 to disorderly conduct to settle charges of forgery. State police said Dr Berry’s signature was on a fake will of the late Dr. Andrew Colletta, according to The Wellsville Daily Reporter.

While initially charged with two counts of second-degree forgery, the plea to a lesser violation allowed him to keep his medical license.

Wellsville Mayor Brad Thompson said the small village of 5000 residents in the Allegany foothills was surprised by the FBI activity.

"I’d be amazed if this is connected back to Wellsville," the part-time mayor said, "but it just goes to show you it can happen anywhere."

Associated Press writer Jeffrey Linkous in Dover Township, New Jersey, contributed to this story

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