Congress demands anthrax probe answers

FBI had refused, citing concerns about possible investigation leaks

By Joel Seidman and Ken Strickland
Producers
NBC News
Updated: 3:20 p.m. ET Dec 12, 2006

WASHINGTON - In a strongly worded letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanding an FBI briefing for members of congress on the ongoing investigation into the anthrax attacks five years ago, thirty-three lawmakers, from both sides of the aisle, joined Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., in demanding investigators tell them what they have learned in the unsolved case.

The FBI has, so-far, refused, citing concerns about possible leaks. But the lawmakers say in their letter that the FBI's response - a blanket prohibition against any further anthrax briefings - is out of line. The letter states that FBI agents themselves may have been leaking sensitive information about the case to the news media when a former scientist who once worked at the Army's infectious disease laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., became the focus of the investigation. continued