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New break in the anthrax investigation? This from the Associated Press:
Federal agents investigating the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks searched homes Thursday belonging to the founder of an organization 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 similar search occurred in New Jersey.
Property records list the New York homes as the past and present addresses of Dr. Kenneth Berry, 48, who founded PREEMPT Medical Counter-Terrorism in 1997. It was not immediately known why the agents searched the homes. Berry is a bioterrorism expert who once advocated the distribution of anthrax vaccine.
In New Jersey, agents searched a lagoon-front bungalow and hauled out garbage bags that neighbors said appeared to be filled with bulky contents. Authorities also removed boxes with clear plastic bags in them. Two sport utility vehicles remained parked outside the home Thursday, along with two white rental vans.
It was not immediately known who owned the property in Dover Township, about a half-hour north of Atlantic City.
An FBI spokesman in Washington said the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service were searching multiple locations in Wellsville and Dover Township as part of the anthrax probe.
"There is no present danger to public health or safety," Joe Parris, FBI supervisory special agent said.
Anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed in the fall of 2001 to news media and government offices, including those of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Five people were killed and 17 sickened, further rattling a nation already on edge after Sept. 11.
FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman said authorities have conducted 5,200 interviews in connection with the attacks. She said 30 FBI agents and 13 postal inspectors are currently devoted solely to the investigation.
In a 1997 USA Today interview, 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.
Over 30 FBI agents friom Buffalo, Maryland and Pennsylvania closed down two streets in Wellsville because of what they call an "anthrax investigation incident." They are searching the Pearl Street home of a Wellsville resident and his old apartment on Maple Avenue. Agents have removed boxes and bags from the apartment and were searching through the resident's home with white glove. More updates to follow on www.wellsvilledaily.com. [Wellsville] Daily Reporter photo by Kathryn Ross.
More on Dr. Kenneth Berry:
Buffalo News (New York)
March 9, 1999HEADLINE: DOCTOR CHARGED WITH FORGING WILL
A Jones Memorial Hospital emergency room director was accused last weekend of forging the will of a deceased colleague.
Dr. Kenneth Berry, 41, was charged with two counts of second-degree forgery, state police said. Berry allegedly signed the forged will of 46-year-old Dr. Andrew Colletta, who died of an apparent heart attack last May.
Berry was arraigned in Wellsville Town Court and released on his own recognizance pending a March 17 court appearance.
The hospital's board of directors will wait until court proceedings are over before deciding what action to take against Berry, officials said.
Allegany County prosecutor Terry Parker said investigators believe the will was signed after Colletta's death.
And:
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
June 14, 1997HEADLINE: LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS ARE TRYING TO BETTER PREPARE FOR FUTURE TERRORIST ATTACKS
REPORTERS: STAN BERNARD
JOHN SEIGENTHALER, anchor:
The bombing in the Oklahoma City has also heightened the fear of other terrorist acts in the United States. Today, experts from the medical, military and law enforcement communities were trying to figure out how to be better prepared for the next terrorist threat. NBC's Stan Bernard has that story.
STAN BERNARD reporting:
A hymn for those who died and suffered in acts of terrorism opened the Philadelphia meeting. It was a forum of officials from Washington and citizens, many from medical institutions and police and fire agencies. They are trying to improve the response to threatened acts of domestic terrorism. The Oklahoma City tragedy, while the worst domestic terrorist act, was just one among many incidents discussed here. The serin gas attack in Tokyo's subway was brought up. So was the false alarm outside the Washington headquarters of the B'nai B'rith, which appeared to be a biological threat.
The organizers of the Philadelphia meeting said what America needs now is better training at the local level for thousands of medical and emergency services personnel.
Dr. KENNETH BERRY (Academy of Emergency Physicians): For any response to be successful, it must begin at the local level, since response time is the critical factor.
BERNARD: He called for a program which would eventually train hundreds of thousands of personnel across the country. It would start with 200 being trained and they would train 2,000, and eventually 200,000. They would have to learn how to protect themselves while trying to save others. Congressman Curt Weldon is chairman of a subcommittee looking in to the terrorist threat.Representative CURT WELDON (Pennsylvania): We in the security committee see two major threats emerging. One deals with missile plethoration and the other deals with the threat of terrorism, and both of them involve weapons and mass destruction . . .
You will remember the 1997 B'nai B'rith bacillus cereus incident was also of great interest to another subject of interest in the anthrax investigation.
Amazing the people who were on the DoD payroll as consultants to be protecting the country from bioterror have turned out to compose the small pool of suspects in the crime of killing Americans with anthrax.
Berry was a consultant on WMD to the Defense Department, and the FAA, and a part time pilot. But how did he ever presumably get access to anthrax?