Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

FBI Hitting Streets Around Princeton, New Jersey With Photo in Anthrax Investigation

Aired August 14, 2002 - 12:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI is hitting the streets around Princeton, New Jersey with a photo in the anthrax investigation, and the person portrayed may look familiar. It's being shown near a mailbox where anthrax-laced letters may have been mailed last fall.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve brings us details.

Hi, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

The photograph being shown to merchants, and workers and residences within several blocks of the mailbox is said to look an awful lot like Dr. Steven Hatfill, according to people who've been interviewed and to law enforcement sources.

Among those canvassed, John Trouby (ph), a financial consultant in Princeton. He said he did not recognize the man in the photo, neither did his coworkers, but, he says, the FBI agents confirmed to him that it was Hatfill, who Trouby (ph) had seen in media reports the day before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I made some comments about the picture, and then about the news conference yesterday, and one of the agents said, well, this guy is the same one, but the picture they had, which was in color, and he had a T-shirt on, he had a mustache, he had a fuller head of hair, and from what I recall, what I saw on TV yesterday, I couldn't believe the two were the same one, but I did not argue with them, they said that, and I took them at their word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Steven Hatfill is the former U.S. Army scientist and bioweapons expert who gave an impassioned statement Sunday, proclaiming that he had never worked with anthrax and had nothing to do with the October attacks. He said he had become a fall guy for the FBI, and the subject of a smear campaign in the media. The FBI is saying nothing about Hatfill publicly, but government sources do tell CNN that he is one of roughly 20 persons of interest in the investigation, one reason, his work at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute in Fort Detrich, Maryland, once headquarters for the U.S. bioweapons program.

A spokesman for Hatfill says that canvassing the photo was a legitimate law-enforcement technique. But he asked why, if there are 20 or so persons of interest, only one photograph is being shown. Meanwhile, the mailbox in question has been removed and another one put in its place, it is one of about 600 that feed into the Hamilton, New Jersey processing facility that were tested for traces of anthrax. But with about 40 samples still outstanding, it is the only one that has come back positive. These preliminary tests are sometimes unreliable, so further testing is being done at a U.S. Army Facility in Aberdeen, Maryland.

A postal inspections service official says those test results could come back later this week. The hope is that those tests will tell investigators whether this mailbox is indeed where some of the fatal anthrax letters were mailed -- Carol.

LIN: Thank you very much, Jeanne Meserve, live in Washington.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com