AP -Congress Demands Answers on Anthrax

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-fbi-anthrax,1,7322154.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


Congress Demands Answers on Anthrax

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
7:42 AM PST, December 12, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Thirty-three members of Congress have written Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanding that the FBI update lawmakers on the investigation into the anthrax attacks five years ago that paralyzed the nation with bio-terror fears.

The bipartisan letter escalates efforts by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., to get the FBI to tell lawmakers what it has learned during the five-year case that remains unsolved. The FBI has refused, citing concerns about possible leaks.



The lawmakers said any leakers of prior information about the anthrax case inside the FBI or Congress should be punished but that such concerns do not justify keeping information from lawmakers so they could perform their required oversight of the FBI's performance.

The case remains unsolved five years later.

"As an institution, Congress cannot be cut-off from detailed information about the conduct of one of the largest investigations in FBI history," the lawmakers wrote. "That information is vital in order to fulfill its Constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight." ......