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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2008
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Contact: Zach Goldberg
202-225-5801 (office) |
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HOLT STATEMENT ON NEWS REPORTS ABOUT
ANTHRAX INVESTIGATION DEVELOPMENTS
Holt Also Sends Letter to FBI Director
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(Washington, D.C.) – The following is a statement from Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) in response to today’s news reports of developments in the anthrax investigation. The attacks evidently originated from a postal box in Holt’s Central New Jersey congressional district, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of many of his constituents:
“The public, the victims’ families, and law enforcement would like to know that the book is closed on this investigation. The FBI has not briefed me about today’s news reports, so I cannot say whether that is the case. What we learn will not change the fact that this has been a poorly-handled investigation that has lasted six years and already has resulted in a trail of embarrassment and personal tragedy.”
Also today, Holt sent a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III requesting an update in the status of the investigation. The letter is below.
August 1, 2008
Robert S. Mueller, III
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Dear Director Mueller:
In light of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s recent settlement with Dr. Steven Hatfill, as well as today’s news regarding the apparent suicide of Dr. Bruce Ivins—who the media is characterizing as the Bureau’s latest suspect in the anthrax attack investigations—I am requesting an update from you as to the status of the investigation.
As the FBI was reportedly preparing to seek an indictment of Dr. Ivins in anthrax attacks case, some news outlets are reporting that the FBI essentially believes that Dr. Ivins’s apparent suicide closes the case. Other media outlets have reported that you have yet to decide whether to close the case. The public and the Congress deserve an answer from you.
I hardly need to remind you of my strong interest in this case. As you know, the attacks evidently originated from a postal box in my Central New Jersey congressional district, and they disrupted the lives of my constituents. For months, Central New Jersey residents lived in fear of a future attack and the possibility of receiving cross-contaminated mail. Mail service was delayed and people wondered whether there was a murderer at large in their midst. Further, my own Congressional office in Washington, D.C., was shut down after it was found to be contaminated with anthrax.
If the investigation is being closed, I would ask that you appear before the House Committee on Appropriations’ Select Intelligence Oversight Panel to provide an account of the investigation, to include any lessons learned from the investigation, and how (if at all) those lessons are being applied by the Bureau in its approach to counterterrorism and other criminal investigations.
Sincerely,
RUSH HOLT
Chairman
Select Intelligence Oversight Panel
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