No conclusion in 4-year-old anthrax case

WASHINGTON — Richard L. Lambert, the FBI inspector in charge of the investigation of the deadly anthrax letters of 2001, testified under oath for five hours last month about the case.

But Lambert was not testifying in a criminal trial. He and his teams of FBI agents and postal inspectors have not found the culprit. Instead, he and six other FBI and Justice Department officials have been forced to give depositions in a suit over news-media leaks filed by Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, the former Army biodefense expert who was under intensive scrutiny for months.

Four years after an unknown bioterrorist dropped letters containing a couple of teaspoons of powder in a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., what began as the largest criminal investigation in American history appears to be stalled, say scientists and former law-enforcement officials who have spoken with investigators.

The failure to solve the case that the authorities call "Amerithrax" is a grave disappointment for the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service, the investigative arm of the Postal Service. The letters were the first major bioterrorist attack in American history and killed five people, sickened 17 others, temporarily crippled mail service and forced the evacuation of federal buildings, including Senate offices and the Supreme Court.

A former law-enforcement official who keeps up with several investigators said, "From the people I've talked to, it's going nowhere." The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity over leaks in the case, said some agents still formally assigned to the investigation were mostly working on other cases, because "there's nothing for them to do."

FBI Spokeswoman Debra Weierman said 21 agents from the bureau and nine postal inspectors were assigned to the inquiry, a far cry from the hundreds of the early months, but still a major commitment. She said that investigators had conducted more than 8,000 interviews and served 5,000 subpoenas and that the case remained "intensely active."

Hatfill was the focus of public attention from anthrax investi- gators in 2002 and 2003, when his apartment near the fort and places he had lived or visited were searched. Two years ago, Hatfill sued the bureau and the Justice Department, saying leaks to the news media about him and the public description of him by Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "person of interest" in the case had destroyed his reputation.

Judge Reggie B. Walton of U.S. District Court in Washington recently let Hatfill's lawyers begin questioning people about the reported leaks. According to a Hatfill lawyer, Thomas G. Connolly, among the six people who have been deposed so far are Lambert; Brad Garrett, another longtime agent; and Weierman.