By RICHARD POWELSON
Friday, November 17, 2006
A Senate committee chairman has complained to the Justice Department about the lack of progress in the five-year-old anthrax mailing investigation and asked for a detailed briefing by Nov. 21.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recently that the FBI's long record of not briefing key members of Congress on the investigation "may be a symptom of a larger problem at the FBI. The agency's lack of response to congressional requests ... and what appears to be little progress in the investigation leads me to question whether the culture has really changed."
Among Grassley's top questions is why the FBI a couple months ago replaced Richard Lambert, its director of four of the past five years of the task force of FBI and postal investigators, and transferred him to the Knoxville, Tenn., FBI field office. Was there a dispute between Lambert and others "about the proper scope and focus" of the FBI's inquiry? Grassley asked the attorney general.
A spokesman at the FBI's Washington field office did not return a call for comment.
However, Lambert, 45, in a phone interview, said he heard of the opening in the top management job at the Knoxville field office, remembered fondly his 10 childhood years in the Nashville, Tenn., area and decided to try to win the Knoxville slot. He said that he and his wife also wanted to live again in the same city; she had remained at their home in San Diego during his temporary duty in Washington, D.C.
"Knoxville is considered a prime office within the FBI," Lambert said. "The work is good, the people are wonderful, the law enforcement liaison relationships are fantastic and it's just a highly desirable and very sought-after office to be in. There's the cost of living _ no state income tax, reasonable housing and the list goes on and on."
The deadly East Coast anthrax mailings began soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Over multiple weeks anthrax was mailed to some in the news media and to Congress, infected part of the Postal Service system, killed five people and infected 18 others. Thousands of Americans were panicked into seeking the antibiotic Cipro.
The incident spurred major, permanent changes in handling federal mail that still detour, screen and treat dangerous substances sent through the system.
Lambert said he could not discuss details of the anthrax investigation, but he is optimistic that the culprit or culprits will be identified and caught.
He said he worked with excellent managers at the FBI and Postal Service who can maintain continuity in the anthrax probe since his departure at the end of August.
"I am absolutely confident that it will be solved. It does represent the worst biological attack in U.S. history," he said. "I am confident that we are getting there."
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