exhaustive search of laboratory records determined that the eight genetically identical samples found in the FBIR were solely related to RMR-1029. In other words, the only complete genetic match to the evidence comes from RMR-1029 and its offspring.
Questions have been raised publicly challenging the validity of the science underlying this genetic match. As was described more fully in the Genetic Analysis section, supra, a genetic mapping and comparison project such as the one successfully achieved here had never been undertaken. These doubts about the potential reliability of genetic testing of anthrax were rebutted both by the fact that extensive validation studies were conducted prior to the examination of the evidence, and by the fact that there was so much consistency identified across the RMR-1029-related samples.[1]
- 3. Dr. Ivins’s suspicious lab hours just before each mailing
Dr. Ivins created RMR-1029 in his lab, B-313 in Building 1425 (also referred to as “B3” or the “hot suites”), and stored the flasks in the walk-in cold-room there, among hundreds of other flasks. By all accounts, Dr. Ivins was the sole custodian of this material. Investigators interviewed every co-worker of Dr. Ivins and every researcher at USAMRIID with access to the cold-room in which RMR-1029 was stored, and everyone agreed that no one at USAMRIID legitimately used quantities of RMR-1029 without the authorization and knowledge of Dr. Ivins.[2]
In order to be able to grow the amount of material needed to fill the attack letters, especially at the level of purity and concentration observed in the evidentiary material, the mailer would have needed access to sophisticated lab equipment such as that housed in B-313. Otherwise, he would not have been in a position to grow and store the material without being noticed or raising concerns.[3] Dr. Ivins’s own comments upon examining the evidentiary material support the conclusion that the anthrax spores used in the attack letters were not created
- ↑ In the summer of 2009, the National Academy of Sciences began an 18-month study to review the scientific conclusions in the case.
- ↑ When investigators pressed Dr. Ivins’s two lab technicians to describe what RMR-1029 looked like, neither of them could do so. They were aware that Dr. Ivins had created a spore-preparation called the “Dugway Spores”–which Dr. Ivins explained to the prosecution team was another name for RMR-1029. However, neither lab technician was aware that the “Dugway Spores” were contained in two flasks, eventually reduced to one flask, and neither knew what any flask containing the “Dugway Spores” looked like.
- ↑ A leading anthrax researcher who assisted the investigation expressed his expert opinion that 100 ml would have been required to create sufficient material to be used in one letter, for a total of 500 ml for the five letters. Nonetheless, we cannot say with certainty how much material was used in the letters.
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