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1 1 Q R 7 92f ' e " ALL IIiIFElPli_@iTIClI'I' CUIJTAILIEDF EFD302 Rem 1o_6_95! . HERE I111 I S UNC LAB S IFIED i
.- DATE 12-09-2008 BY 60324 uc hai-i;'rs_.*'lsg
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On March 31, 2005, BRUCE EDW DS IVINS, PhD, date of
birth April 22, 1946, Social Security A count Numbe i -1
_ vwes interviewed by Su ervisorv S ecial A entI P SSA!;@_ and Inspector] Fof the ederal Bureau of
ii Investigation FBI!. The interview was conducted at IVINS place
2;, of employment, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of;§ Infectious Diseases USAMRiIDl:ii:f?r:Dejrick, Maryland. IVINS; ~ office telephone number is
4 IVINS is employed as a Research Microbiologist in the
.i investigation. The purpose of the interview was to elicit
ii* additional details concerning specific topics of heightened
imfj relevance to the investigation.
1 Q,,;. Prior to the commencement of the interview on March 31,
3 2005, IVINS was presented with a NonDisclosure Agreement which he
{§¢s reviewed and signed. IVINS signing of the form was witnessed by
$*,§ the interviewing Agents as memorialized on the form. The Non-
2Why Disclosure Agreement is filed in the 1A section of the file along
*q~ with the notes of the interviewing Agents and documents shown to
} Ivins during the interview.
$3, : ~;.i IVINS Collection of Environmental Samples at USAMRIID
3- 1,11% K,ilx ADMINISTRATIVE: Ivins was questioned regarding
~§ information he previously provided during an interview on April 24-
i; 25, 2002, concerning his unilateral decision to collect
3*, environmental samples swabs! from his USAMRIID office work space
E4 and other areas in December 2001 and April 2002. The results of
i this prior interview are memorialized in an FD302 which is
3 serialized at 279AWF-222936-302 Serial 1700.
' IVINS explained that in De n office -92 Room|:|Buildi§".ig 1425! with
Y"h* During this time eriod . i»;ri:";_'1r ' I ' D . . I Igi;f*- an worke in Ehel Division. i IalsoYqfh worked in the Division but was ' I
hr, The purpose
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4 5 Investigation on O3/31/2005 at Ft . Detrick, Maryland
xi 64-'7 53FiIe# 279A-WF22293¬ Date dictated 04/01/2005P ssA|
ixpé by Inspector| | I
Ru.'1 ," .oi~,M. This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency;> MM ~ ,4 d . . . -1 i x »iix"? i I Luis 1......4 L; Bacteriology Division of USAMRIID and was so employed at the ti P
Hiii of the fall 2001 anthrax attacks. IVINS has been.interviewed 4
,f'§ numerous times throughout the course of the AMERITHRAX
; ,1 ;';i-, an its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency. OQ
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279AWF222936USAMRIID
1mmmmon®amor Bruce Edwards Ivins ,OnO3/31/2005 ,Pge 2
of[::::::::::]was to assist with the in d kl d '~ [;::l crease wor oa in
that division occasioned by t e all 2001 anthrax attacks.
By way of background, Ivins related that in October 2001,the Daschle letter was initially weighed in Room? |and then
processed and photographed in Rooms These rooms
are part of the Special Pathogens Branch of DSD and are biosafety
level two BSL2! facilities. All three rooms are located in
Building 1425. Following the initial rocessing of the Daschleletter, IVINS was tasked by[::::::::::?::] to assess the
concentration of the anthrax powder in the Daschle envelope. Toperform a colony count, IVINS took the Daschle letter to Room[:::::]
in Suite B3.
IVINS identified two reasons.for his decision to swab his
office space in December 2001. First, IVINS did not believe that
h schle letter should have been processed in Room[:::::]andE:f:¬ibecause the biosafety level category i.e., BSL2! was not
adequate to contain aerosolizable anthrax powder. Consequently, hewas concerned that some anthrax may havetEZE?n$d_LhQ_£Qn£in5? of
these two rooms. Second, IVINS '
commented "daily" to him during
tha employee lab practices were unsafe. complained
abou is "man times," he said. Based on claims, IVINSF22n221JmatE:::E:::Enad1ertentlz_may_haxe_contaminTted the office' ly,IVINS decided to collect environmental samples fromtéffffiffdesk,
chair, tele hone and com uter IVINS did not ' P P -area i.e., desk, chair, computer! or that of[f%f?:&if:f%f:f¬?ij
even though they all shared the same room. IVINS collectedapproximately 20 individual swabs from[:::::::::hork area.
When queried as to why he swabbed only[::::::::]
-1 workspace, IVINS sac ' ision was predicated on the la er ofV dust he observed onl idesk and the fact that as the
only one | Iwho had been workin where lab
safety procedures were believed to be substandard. IVINS also
offered that the air flow of the heating/ventilating/airconditioning HVACi system in the room placed his desk and[:::::::]d k ' . es "upwind" from desk so that he did t any
errant anthrax spores to have settled on his or desk.
IVINS advised that his culturing of the environmental
samples fron1[:::::::::::::]produced "a few presumptives" i.e.,
colonies that visually appeared to be Bacillus anthracis.
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279AWF4222936USAMRIID
mmmmmnmamor Bruce Edwards Ivins ,On03/31/2005 ,Pge 3
Specifically, about one-half of the twenty samples he collected
appeared to generate anthrax colonies when cultured. IVINS did not
subject these "presumptive" positives to any confirmatory analysis.
In res onse to these presumptive positives, IVINS said he cleanedup [::ii::::]desk and left it at that. He took no further actions
to decontaminate the room. When questioned as to why he took no
remedial measures beyond cleaning up[::::::::]desk, IVINS advised
that he did not consider the level of contamination indicated by
his sampling to be significant, stating that he did not find
"hundreds or thousands" of spores but only a "few presumptives."
IVINS said he did not believe a full decontamination of the room
was warranted based on his findings, and he did not perceive
himself or his office mates to be in any danger.
I 'rmed that he did not tell bout hisswabbing ofYf%f:ffEfjworkspace nor did he advise f the
presumptive positive results. IVINS did tell about his
findings. He did not suggest to either co-worker that antibiotic
prophylaxis might be appropriate. IVINS again reiterated that
based on the level of contamination he observed, he did not
perceive himself or his coworkers to be at risk.
IVINS confirmed that he undertook the collection of
environmental samples from his office space on his own initiative
and without any prior authorization from superiors. When queried
as to why he did not seek permission to swab or voice his concerns
about the ossible contamination to USAMRIID's| I
or others, IVINS predicted thatl hould have
een ismis ive of his concerns and would have told him to "forget
about it." VINS related that[:::::::::]angry reaction when
E::::::]learned of IVINS environmental sampling confirmed IVINSsuspicions that[::::%:::hould be opposed to such swabbing. IVINSopined that despite 1S outward response,[:::::::]inwardly seemed
"sort of leased" with IVINS finding of contamination because itallowed[:E:::::]to "point a finger" at[:::]for poor laboratory
safety procedures.
IVINS also reemphasized that there was a longstanding
political rivalry between DSD and the Bacteriology Division.
According to IVINS, Bacteriology Division employees felt somewhat
ostracized and belittled by DSD researchers who were reportedly
loathe to consult Bacteriology employees concerning matters within
Bacteriology employees superior expertise. The pathto swab was the path that the Daschle letter took fromi%2§f:fEfijto
and through the passbox in the wall of suite B3. IVINS believed
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279AWF222936USAMRIID
nmwmmonmamof Bruce Edwards Ivins ,OnO3/31/2005 ,h@ 4
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b7C any contamination would most likely have occurred along the same
path took. IVINS also re orted that he had no concernsabou competency as a[:::::?::::::]and his decisionswab work area was not influenced by any perception that[E?:::::]
was negligent in[:::]safety practices.
IVINS was also questioned concerning information he
previously provided during an interview on April 24-25, 2002,
concerning his unilateral decision to collect environmental samples
swabs! from areas associated with Suite B3 in Building 1425 in
April 2002. IVINS advised that he made the decision to
unilaterally swab areas ' ' ite B3 when he learnedthat USAMRIID researcherEffffiiif§:ifE:fjhad recently conducted an
environmental sampling of the B3 lab which produced several
presumptive positives for Bacillus anthracis. [:::::::]reportedly
undertook this sampling effort in response to a suspected spill
which occurred during an experiment being conducted by researchers
As a precautionary measure, nasal
swabs were taken from
In addition to th ' ' e possible spill and
nasal swab, IVINS also recalled that Suite B3 is where he
had conducted plating and colony counts on the Daschle letter.
Consequently, he suspected that stray spores may have aerosolized
during that effort.
IVINS advised that the December 2001 and April 2002
environmental samplings represent the only two times he has ever
swabbed in the cold areas of USAMRIID outside of the hot suites.
IVINS related that during the early 1990s he performed a lot of
swabbing inside the hot suites as part of USAMRIID's routine
environmental monitoring program. He conducted this sampling at
the direction of his superiors. These samples were collected as a
routine safety precaution and, unlike his December 2001 and April
2002 collections, were not performed in response to a specific
concern or suspected contamination. IVINS has since been excluded
from the task of any such monitoring.
IVINS reported that no isolates related to his December
2001 or April 2002 swabbing initiatives remain in existence. IVINS
said he threw them away after obtaining the presumptive positive