THE US: The focus of the FBI search for the country's anthrax killer has narrowed to one specific former government research worker, according to the Washington Times.
The report, the first in months to suggest a serious breakthrough in the case, says the authorities have interviewed several times an unnamed scientist who used to work in the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and had twice been fired from government jobs.
The paper cites anonymous law enforcement sources and a named biochemistry industry source, claiming that the man has been identified from among 50 government researchers known to have the skills to make weapons-grade anthrax.
Some 300 people involved with government programmes have been interviewed.
It has been strongly suspected for some time that the anthrax, sent in letters to politicians and media outlets in Florida, Connecticut, Washington and New York, was domestically produced.
The strain, in the particularly refined form used, contains a silicon compound particular to US labs and does not contain bentonite which is found in other countries' supplies. Five people died in the mail attacks, and a further 13 were taken ill.
The unidentified scientist is reported to have been dismissed twice from government jobs and to have threatened after September 11th to use anthrax.
His home has been searched and, although chemicals were found, there was no trace of anthrax.
Ms Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a microbiologist at State University of New York, and chair of the biological arms panel of the Federation of American Scientists, told the Times the FBI has been "working on a short list of suspects for some time" and has narrowed the list "to a particular person . . . a member of the biochemical community".
Ms Rosenberg said she and several colleagues have wondered why the FBI has failed to bring charges in the case and speculates that it may be connected to the embarrassment of having to admit publicly the extent of its biochemical research.
"Is the FBI dragging its feet? I just don't know. And if so, I don't know why," she is quoted as saying.
The FBI has continued to insist that the investigation, involving hundreds of agents and the US Postal Service, is on track.