Three dozen members of Congress demanded that the FBI brief them on the still-unsolved 2001 anthrax attacks.
The members, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., sent the letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday.
It demands an updateon the attacks that killed five people, including two D.C.-area postal workers, and sickened dozens.
The anthrax attacks came barely a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
It’s been years since Congress was briefed on the FBI’s investigation, which has been code-named “Amerithrax.”
In a letter to Holt in September, the FBI said it was refusing his request for a briefing because previous briefings had been leaked to the public.
Monday’s letter scoffed at the FBI’s concern for leaks. It cites the ongoing civil suits against The New York Times, filed after the paper named biochemist Stephen Hatfill as a “person of interest” in the case.
FBI officials were apparently the “anonymous sources” for the stories.
“We’re seeing more and more agencies thwart the constitutional responsibility of Congress,” Grassley said in a news release issued Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the FBI’s refusal to provide briefings to Congress following the 2001 anthrax attacks appears to be the rule rather than the exception.”
Holt said the FBI’s refusal was “unprecedented and inexcusable.”
FBI officials did not respond to requests for comment. But it says on its Web site that the investigation is one of the largest it has ever undertaken, with 17 agents and 10 postal inspectors assigned to investigate the attacks full time.
