We May Never Know Who Carried Out the Deadly Anthrax Attacks
In the wake of 9/11, an immediate second wave of terrorism gripped America via a series of letters, sent through the United States Postal Service, that contained anthrax, resulting in five deaths and 17 additional infections. The first of those victims, photojournalist Bob Stevens of Boca Raton, Florida, contracted the disease on Oct. 4, 2001. Six years, nine months and 19 days later, the FBI broadcast to the public the name of the person they believed was the culprit: Bruce Edwards Ivins, a senior researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), whose RMR-1029 flask was determined to contain anthrax spores that were genetically linked to those mailed throughout the country. In what turned out to be one of the largest and most expensive investigations in FBI history, an answer was finally attained—even if, days before the bureau’s press-conference announcement on Aug. 6, 2008, Ivins had taken his own life.
The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11 is not, however, a clear-cut tale. Premiering on Netflix on Sept. 8, Dan Krauss’ documentary is a mystery without an airtight conclusion since, as it lays out, the Department of Justice never got to prove its theory in a court of law—and, to this day, questions remain about Ivins’ supposed guilt. Those doubts stem from the facts of the case and also from two apparent, prior federal government mistakes: the delay in closing down, in a safe and timely manner, the Brentwood postal facility that had handled anthrax letters sent to Senator Tom Daschle and which killed two employees, Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen Jr.; and the six-year-long inquiry into bioweapons expert Steven Hatfill, on whom the FBI could never pin the attacks. Taken together, it’s a snapshot of scientific sleuthing as well as an exposé of a law enforcement effort riddled with errors—and devoid of a satisfyingly persuasive wrap-up.
The Anthrax Attacks efficiently contextualizes its tale in a post-9/11 climate of fear and paranoia born from a sense—especially in New York City—of ever-present danger. Those anxieties became real when Stevens was infected with anthrax through a letter sent to his office, and other such missives subsequently arrived in the mailrooms of NBC (addressed to Tom Brokaw) and The New York Post, and the offices of Senators Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The envelopes contained a brown sugar-sand powder that was identified as anthrax and handwritten missives that proclaimed, “Death to America / Death to Israel / Allah is Great.” A political intent was difficult to miss, and authorities soon deduced that the letters had been sent from Princeton, New Jersey—in particular, a single mailbox that tested positive for anthrax spores.