>> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. and by reva and david logan. committed to investigative journalism as the guardian of the public interest. additional funding is provided by the park foundation. dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting and enterprise journalism. >> one florida man is in the hospital with anthrax. >> ...is hospitalized with inhalation anthrax. >> narrator: in october of 2001, just weeks after 9/11, there was a chilling new wave of attacks. >> a 63-year-old man diagnosed with anthrax has died. >> anthrax reported at a florida hospital. >> the disturbing news from boca raton, florida... >> another anthrax case, this one in new york... >> five more people in florida have tested positive. >> narrator: five deaths, attacks in florida and new york. >> ...anthrax anxiety... >> narrator: tens of thousands of americans were given antibiotics. >> ...anthrax exposure... >> ...through the mailrooms of every major newspaper, television network... >> newsrooms looked like crime scenes. >> narrator: the nation's capitol was hit. >> ...anthrax scare has now reached capitol hill... >> i just talked to leader daschle. his office received a letter, and it had anthrax in it. they will not take this country down. >> narrator: a massive fbi criminal investigation would soon be underway. >> the letter arrived in senator daschle's office on friday, and was opened and handled by an intern this morning. >> as an eager senate intern, the first thing that they needed us to do was open the mail. >> narrator: the envelope was on the top of the stack. >> i remember looking at it, and it looked like children's handwriting, and the return address was the fourth grade class. so i took the scissors and cut into the corner of the letter, just about an inch, and white powder immediately fell out all over me. >> she sees spores, and immediately puts her finger bravely on the ripped bit of the envelope to protect everybody from more spores coming out. >> it looked like baby powder. i was wearing a dark gray skirt and black shoes, and you could see it just vividly on the dark colors. >> narrator: the powder was anthrax, a deadly bacteria. >> it was a crime in progress because it is live anthrax spores. the fear was that it was absolutely spreading through the entire senate office building. >> narrator: this particular anthrax was highly floatable and potentially quite deadly. >> it travels hundreds and hundreds of feet. it takes months to decontaminate these offices. the spores are everywhere. they keep popping up. >> narrator: the contaminated buildings were closed. the intern and members of congress were given antibiotics. washington was in full crisis mode. >> we're looking, we're on the search to find out who's conducting these evil acts. >> narrator: the presidents' security advisors now had a new item on their agenda. >> not only are we dealing with the aftermath of 9/11, but suddenly, we have people concerned about anthrax being delivered in envelopes. >> narrator: the president demanded answers from the fbi. its new director was robert mueller. >> the internal pressures to solve that crime as quickly as possible must have been almost impossible to imagine, that somebody could sit with that and not feel a sort of daily, hourly, weekly sort of crushing weight. >> narrator: for the fbi, the powder was the murder weapon. but right away, they had a problem-- the fbi lab was not equipped to handle a bio-weapon like anthrax. >> it became important to get that evidence and get it processed, and in the laboratory, we realized we couldn't process it there, and we were going to... it was going to require that the evidence be taken somewhere else. >> the fbi had never dealt with a crime like this. they didn't have the tools, the expertise or anything else. those tools and expertise were at usamriid. >> narrator: usamriid-- the u.s. army medical research institute of infectious diseases. located in maryland, usamriid is the center of the army's bio- defense effort. they took the powder there to the lab of one of the army's top anthrax vaccine experts, dr. bruce ivins. >> his reputation was that of an extraordinary microbiologist. he did the truly preliminary snapshot assessments of this material because he was so good at what he did. >> he was just fascinated with the way it was just like a mist. it was so light, you couldn't weigh it. it was very dangerous stuff. >> narrator: ivins and the scientists at the army's bio-lab said this was something new. unlike the wet anthrax they worked with, the powder was dry and very deadly. >> he was the first one to describe it as "energetic." the material literally would float and waft within the bag, for instance. and so, when anyone brought a hand near the bag, a lot of these spores would migrate towards the hand. >> narrator: they knew this highly floatable anthrax was something special. ivins wrote a report for the fbi. "these are not garage spores. the nature of the spore preparation suggests very highly that professional manufacturing techniques were used in the production and purification of the spores." bruce ivins had spoken-- only a professional could have done the job. now, the fbi wanted to know where it had come from. they flew samples of the anthrax on a private jet to a high-tech lab in arizona. >> i went out and met the plane when it landed at the flagstaff airport. the ramp came down and this woman came off the plane with a box. i went over to meet her and she said, "dr. keim," and i said, "yes." she said, "this is the anthrax." and i said, "oh." >> narrator: dr. paul keim's specially equipped lab could tell the difference between the dna of one type of anthrax and another. >> we had one of the of the largest collections of different types of anthrax-- what we call strains of anthrax-- from around the world. >> narrator: when they looked at the fbi's spores, they were stunned-- all of them came from a single strain of anthrax, the ames strain. >> we were surprised it was the ames strain. and it was chilling at the same time. >> narrator: because it was so virulent, the ames strain was the anthrax of choice for the u.s. army's bio-weapon vaccine program. >> once you heard it was the ames strain, you began to think to yourself, "ah. this doesn't sound like a job from the outside. it sounds much more like an inside job." >> narrator: the home of the ames strain was the hot suites back in maryland at usamriid. >> oh, yeah, that pointed right at usamriid. that was our bug. that made it usamriid-- i mean, in my opinion. >> narrator: for decades, the labs there had been at the heart of america's bio-warfare program. they made germs there on an industrial scale. but by the '70s, bio-weapons were banned and the army focused on bio-defense. now, the fbi was beginning to believe someone had resurrected the dark arts of bio-weapons. >> is it a scientist that's gone rabid, basically, and decided they needed a cause for whatever reason to send out these mailings? >> there was a behavioral profile put together that suggested that it wasn't a foreign al qaedaist actor, it was more of a domestic type threat, you know, a dysfunctional adult in the united states who did this. >> narrator: they gave the investigation an official fbi name-- "amerithrax." the agents reasoned that the killer was a homegrown scientist, maybe even one of the scientists helping them on the case. >> that's quite a dichotomy, to have the experts who were helping you also be the suspects. but i think that's just the nature of this kind of event. it's the nature of this kind of crime that the people you have to rely on are the ones who are themselves capable. >> narrator: almost everyone was a suspect. >> we were heroes in the morning and suspects in the afternoon. and that, literally, was, on many days, how it played out. >> they had a list of questions, and one of the questions was, "did you do it?" i guess they have to ask that question. you know, "did you do it or do you know anybody that you think might have done it?" >> they would even suggest people. they would say, "what do you think about so and so?" and i'm a little afraid to tell you who they asked about, that one could get me in trouble, but it was... i laughed. >> the fbi begin to follow their playbook. this is a maddeningly slow process, and the political level wants results. they want the damned case cracked. >> without a clear suspect, the government has been frustrated for months. >> ...an unsolved puzzle... >> the hunt for a perpetrator is floundering. >> there's a growing sense of urgency. >> narrator: it was growing into one of the largest fbi cases ever. thousands of interviews, dozens of agents, millions of dollars. the white house continued to pressure fbi director robert mueller for answers. >> we met every day, and that was a subject that was a daily subject for months and months. >> you can imagine, the director of the fbi, bob mueller, comes in each time with a set number of things he plans to brief the president. and much to poor bob mueller's chagrin, president bush or the vice-president would say to bob, "so, how are we doing on the anthrax case?" and you could see poor bob mueller's shoulder's slump. he's like, "we're working on it." >> months go by. the case doesn't get immediately resolved because this is a stone-cold whodunit, and so the pressure starts to mount from outside. >> narrator: then, a columnist at "the new york times" entered the fray. >> "i think i know who sent out the anthrax last fall. he is an american insider, a man working in the military bio- weapons field." >> narrator: nicholas kristof began to insist the fbi pursue a man he thought could be the killer, a scientist he called "mr. z." >> he started running column after column, referring to z in various euphemistic ways, but all of us who were on the story knew exactly who he was talking about. >> narrator: according to kristof and others in the media, dr. steven hatfill had access to anthrax when he worked at the army's lab in maryland. >> nick kristof is not small potatoes. he is a well-respected, pulitzer prize-winning columnist. and he was hammering this point. >> he had access to anthrax spores. he's certainly got an incredible past that bears scrutiny. in his lectures, for example, he has talked a great deal about anthrax. >> we read the newspapers, we hear the news, we know what's going on out there. that asserted a lot of pressure on us, a pressure to "look, guys, we got to get this done." >> narrator: the fbi playbook calls for pressure, pushing a suspect for a confession. they decided to squeeze steven hatfill. it started with what the fbi calls "bumper lock"-- 24-hour surveillance-- and they let him know they were doing it. >> management was convinced he was the right guy. and so, as a result, there were intense surveillance-- bumper- lock type surveillance-- of dr. hatfill that went on for months. >> there is a brutal, sustained attempt by the fbi in these cases to turn or crack the suspect, and it doesn't look much like what happens on tv. it can be quite rough. and what they were doing to hatfill clearly was an effort to create pressure in the hope that he would crack. >> narrator: another playbook tactic is search and seizure. hatfill's apartment was taken apart. >> when they showed up for the raid, they brought the press. they brought the press en masse. they had them all over the place with their trucks, with their helicopters. >> he returns to his home to find a full-blown media circus-- helicopters swooping in the air, all kinds of camera crews around as his place is kind of being ransacked. >> today, the fbi searched the apartment of a former government scientist. they're looking closely for any clues... >> items taken from throughout his apartment will be analyzed. >> the apartment belongs to a former employee at the army's bio-warfare laboratory. the man... >> i think the public got the point. it meant, you know, this is probably the guy. "we got him. we're on him. relax. the case is going to get cracked." >> narrator: the fbi was hoping to find physical evidence that tied hatfill to the mailing, specifically, stray anthrax spores. but inside the apartments of both hatfill and his girlfriend, there were no telltale spores or equipment that could have been used to produce anthrax. >> what the fbi ultimately couldn't find was a spore or any kind of evidence that he had carried this out. >> i didn't see any real evidence. and that... you know, that obviously was troubling to me. and i had a lot of conversations with the case agents about, well, you might be onto the right guy, but you're not coming up with any evidence that says he's the right guy. >> the fbi, here, dealing with something very frustrating, which is they feel they've got their man but they can't find any spores. "where are the damn spores?" >> narrator: despite the lack of physical evidence, at headquarters, director mueller insisted his agents stay after hatfill. >> many people in management, in upper management, were convinced that dr. hatfill was the right guy. i mean, it was just very clear. and that they were not going to get off that train. >> narrator: mueller and the fbi wanted to ratchet up the pressure even more. and across the street at the justice department, mueller's boss, john ashcroft, did just that at a press conference. >> i'd be pleased to respond to questions. yes, sir? >> sir, is steven hatfill still a suspect in the anthrax case? >> mr. hatfill is a person of interest to the department of justice, and we continue the investigation. and for me to comment further would be inappropriate. >> this was really an extraordinary moment. their lips may have been saying, "we will not confirm that dr. hatfill is under investigation," but their body language was saying, "look, here. this is the guy." >> narrator: but steven hatfill did not do what the justice department and the fbi intended- - break under the pressure. instead, he went on the offensive. >> hatfill doesn't fold. on the contrary, the very sort of gregarious, energetic core of hatfill becomes filled with rage. "how dare they take me on?" >> i want to look my fellow americans directly in the eye and declare to them, i am not the anthrax killer. i know nothing about the anthrax attacks. i had absolutely nothing to do with this terrible crime! >> we were surprised. we weren't expecting him to do that. we didn't think it was at a point where he was going to go public with a position. >> john ashcroft has now twice publicly told the american people that i am a "person of interest" in last year's anthrax attacks. >> it was his life. it was his anguish. and he was not guilty of what he was being charged with. >> mr. ashcroft has not only violated justice department regulations and guidelines, which bind him, as the nation's top law enforcement official, but in my view, he has broken the ninth commandment: "thou shalt not bear false witness." >> he says that the fbi has mistreated him. what is your response to that? >> i have no comment in that respect. >> narrator: without a confession or hard evidence, the attorney general still couldn't seek an indictment against hatfill. director mueller was frustrated. his agents resorted to a technique rarely used by the fbi-- calling in bloodhounds. >> and their secret weapon has been a three-member team of bloodhounds. >> just stand still. don't move, please. >> many people in the fbi would say this was probably one of the low points. >> the team includes this dog, named lucy, from the long beach california police department, and two others from california, tinkerbell and knight. >> narrator: the anthrax letters had an unusual scent. the fbi said the dogs picked up that scent at the exact same place-- steven hatfill's apartment. >> ...former u.s. government scientist, steven hatfill... >> to the people who saw him as a viable suspect, the dogs were just one more piece of a matrix of circumstantial evidence. >> narrator: then, after a tip, the fbi thought the bloodhounds had found the location of hatfill's bio-weapons lab, supposedly hidden near a pond in the maryland woods. >> it seemed a bit of a stretch that you could track an odor or a smell to a location months and months and months after someone had been to a particular spot by a lake. but they believed that that had some real potential. >> narrator: investigators had come to believe hatfill somehow had produced the deadly anthrax powder in an improvised underwater lab. >> engineers are draining a maryland pond today... >> ...draining a pond looking for evidence related to the anthrax attacks. >> ...almost a million and a half gallons... >> the pond is a huge undertaking that will take three to four weeks and cost of about a quarter million dollars... >> i think the draining of the pond is the most outstanding example of really loony tunes behavior, instead of whatever kind of deliberate investigatory techniques should have been used. >> in one of these ponds, they found a plastic box with a hole in the side of it. and they brought it down and they showed it to everybody. and they said, you know, "what do you think this is?" >> narrator: they thought they might finally have something. they took it to usamariid, the army lab. >> he brought down this plastic container. the fbi had brought... they had delivered to usamriid. >> narrator: dr. john ezzell, who worked at the lab, was also a consultant for the fbi. his speech is now impaired by parkinson's disease. ezzell had bad news for the fbi. >> to me, it looked like some sort of a version of a turtle trap. dave wilson from the fbi turns around and starts walking out of the lab and says, "my god, you mean i just spent $20,000 today on a turtle trap?" and i say, "well, you may have." ( laughs ) >> a turtle trap. yes, they did find a turtle trap. we were chuckling. but of course, for steve, it's a bittersweet chuckle, because he's still on the receiving end of the joke until his name is clear. >> narrator: it would take nearly five years before hatfill was officially cleared. he won a $5.8 million judgement against the united states government for invasion of privacy. at the white house, the president continued to insist the fbi wrap up the case. >> five years into this case, there's still no suspect. and that was unacceptable in the biggest case in fbi history, the biggest act of bioterrorism on u.s. soil. >> narrator: mueller reassigned the chief investigator and brought in a new team. >> the mandate was to look at it with fresh eyes and determine, is there something that needs to be done with the investigation that hadn't been completed yet? >> narrator: ed montooth had worked counter-terrorism and homicide. science and bio-weapons weren't his strong suit, but he believed they held the key to the case. >> the fbi has been locked in for way too long on the wrong track. at this point, science is going to take a major role in this investigation. >> narrator: there was a promising new lead in the science-- a clue from the spores-- at a civilian lab run by top genetics expert claire fraser-liggett. >> the idea is very much like the way that dna sequence is used in human forensics today. >> narrator: the idea was simple-- comb through the dna of the ames strain found in the letters. >> that could be used as a way to trace back to a potential source flask and do attribution. >> narrator: the scientists found a marker, a way of tracing the dna of the ames-- microscopic mutants known as morphs. >> that is potentially very valuable i