The FBI's inquiry into the anthrax attacks has stumbled in several areas and may have missed opportunities to gather valuable evidence as criminal investigators have been unable to fully and quickly grasp the scientific complexities of the case.
Government officials, scientists and investigators said that the FBI's initial unfamiliarity with the intricacies of anthrax had contributed to a series of missteps and other possible errors.
The FBI came under criticism this week in Congress for the lack of progress in the investigation and bureau officials acknowledged in interviews that they had been forced to turn to outside experts for advice on how to investigate the most serious bioterrorism attack in the nation's history. But they said the inquiry was following a logical strategy.
In a plan announced on Thursday by Attorney General John Ashcroft, the bureau, as well as other components of the Justice Department, would be revamped to better prevent terror attacks.
Shortly after the first case of anthrax arose, the FBI said it had no objection to the destruction of a collection of anthrax samples at Iowa State University, but some scientists now say that collection may have contained genetic clues valuable to the criminal inquiry.
Investigators have not visited many of the companies, laboratories and academic institutions with the equipment or capability to make the kind of highly potent anthrax sent in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. At places they have conducted interviews, the investigators often seemed to ask general questions unlikely to elicit new evidence, several lab directors said.
Meanwhile, the FBI said it will soon release what its behavioral scientists have concluded about the person responsible for mailing the letters, based on an evaluation of the letters.
Investigators believe the suspect is an adult male from the US who is not a Muslim.
The analysis will be based on writing contained in anthrax-contaminated letters sent to Daschle in Washington and two news agencies in New York City.
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