WASHINGTON — A fugitive who is already on the FBI's most-wanted list is believed responsible for hundreds of anthrax hoax letters sent since Sept. 11 to abortion clinics, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Thursday.
The announcement that Clayton Lee Waagner is the chief suspect was a break in the case, which has affected abortion providers across the country.
"The Department of Justice considers Waagner's threats and all anthrax hoaxes to be serious violations of federal law," Ashcroft said. "Perpetrators of anthrax hoaxes and those who threaten abortion providers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
However, investigators seem no closer to tracking down the sender of deadly anthrax spores through the postal system. Since the bioterrorist attack began with letters mailed in September, five people have died of anthrax and at least 13 others have been sickened.
An anthrax-laced letter to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), discovered in quarantined Capitol Hill mail two weeks ago, may be opened as early as today, officials said. Investigators have gone to great lengths to devise a strategy to retain as many spores as possible in the hope that research on them might provide much-needed clues.
The attacks have also bred hundreds of anthrax hoaxes. Letters containing a white powder were opened Wednesday at the Los Angeles consulates of Turkey, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, the FBI said Thursday.
Tests conducted on site were negative, FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin said. Further tests will be conducted at a laboratory. The consulates were briefly evacuated.
Most notable of all the hoaxes, though, were two rounds of mailings to abortion clinics that contained a powder determined not to contain the deadly bacteria. The letters were signed "Army of God," the name of an antiabortion extremist group that has claimed responsibility for several clinic bombings and slayings of abortion doctors.
Waagner escaped Feb. 22 from federal custody in Illinois, where he had been convicted on federal weapons and stolen-car charges. He is a self-proclaimed antiabortion extremist who has vowed to kill abortion providers and claims to have a list of several dozen clinic employees he has targeted for murder.
In an interview published this week on an antiabortion Web site, Waagner said he was responsible for more than 400 anthrax threats mailed to clinics.
