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American Morning
Interview of Candice DeLong
Aired November 12, 2001 - 09:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now turning to the anthrax investigation. Investigators have found more traces of the bacteria in the Hart Senate office building. Police say spores turned up in the offices of five more senators. Authorities believe the source of this new contamination is the anthrax-laced letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle last month. Health officials say the traces pose no health risk.
Meantime, the Brentwood facility in Washington that processed the Daschle letter remains closed. Officials believe the building is so badly contaminated that it could take months to remove the anthrax. Meanwhile, federal officials admit they don't know exactly who is behind the anthrax outbrack -- outbreak, that is, but they now have come up with a profile of the person they think who did it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's a male individual with some technical expertise, a person who tends to be willing to hold a grudge for a while, and to get back at individuals. A person who picks his targets carefully, took right care to have the right addresses and to do things rather scientifically, a person with scientific expertise and capacity. These were all components of a profile announced by FBI.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And, joining us now to discuss the anthrax investigation, former FBI profiler herself, Candice DeLong. Her autobiography is called "Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI." Good to see you again. How you doing, Candice.
CANDICE DELONG, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Thank you Paula, I'm good.
ZAHN: Thanks. So, let's talk a little bit about the significance of what the attorney general had to say. Does that pretty much mean the FBI has come to a conclusion that it definitely is a domestic terrorist that unleashed this letter?
DELONG: No, I don't think they've definitely said that it is a domestic terrorist, but certainly leaning in that direction. And if, although I'm not convinced it isn't state sponsored, if it is not state sponsored and it is a home grown type, then I think their profile is probably accurate. That it is a white male who has scientific skills, possibly has some letters after his name, PH.D., he's got training, he's highly skilled, he's a loner who stays to himself, and I think that is probably going to turn out to be accurate if that is in fact the case, that we're looking for someone from our own country.
ZAHN: Well, you hear this profile. It seems to make sense. Can you describe to us how you come up with these profiles?
DELONG: Well, part of what they're doing is they're using what they know in the investigation so far. They've got the letters. They've had a variety of different specialists look at those letters, including hand writing analysts, linguistics specialists, and, of course, then they went to the lab to forensics.
But then, they're also looking at the content of the letters, they're looking at how the letters were sent, the targets, and also going on, looking at the people that we know committed these crimes, that are in prison for doing similar things, and what were they all about.
For example, you know, part of the reason they came up with the fact that this is -- or, the probability that it's a white male is, there has never been a woman that did anything like this. The people that are in prison for these kinds of crimes are white -- are white men.
ZAHN: I guess the thing that confuses me, in the beginning when Tom Daschle talked about the sophistication of the grade of anthrax that was discovered in his letter, people were saying, immediately, "oh, that must be state sponsored terrorism because it requires millions of dollars worth of equipment," and yet, over the weekend, from FBI sources we read in the newspapers that perhaps you could have equipment that was worth 2500 dollars and be able to refine this stuff. Which of the two is the truth? Or do we simply just not know?
DELONG: They're probably both true. It seems that the experts are disagreeing with each other quite a bit on this case all the way down from whether the Ames strain of anthrax at the University of Iowa should have have been destroyed or not. If it's possible that someone could make this high grade anthrax with a centrifuge and some other equipment, in their basement, then I think without question that the individual certainly has been vaccinated against anthrax, and there is a lead right there. And --
ZAHN: Candice, I have to cut you off. We are just learning from Associated Press there has been a small plane crash in Queens.
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