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FRONTLINE: The Anthrax Files

A researcher wears a biohazard suit at Fort Detrick, Md., where the FBI says Army scientist Bruce Ivins produced the deadly anthrax used in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people. After Ivins committed suicide in 2008, the FBI accused him of the crime.
Courtesy of Olivier Douliery/ABACAUSA.COM
A researcher wears a biohazard suit at Fort Detrick, Md., where the FBI says Army scientist Bruce Ivins produced the deadly anthrax used in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people. After Ivins committed suicide in 2008, the FBI accused him of the crime.

Airs Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV

In the fall of 2001, envelopes carrying deadly anthrax were delivered to U.S. Senate offices, network news divisions, and a tabloid newspaper. Five people were killed, many more infected and the nation was terrorized.

Seven years later the largest criminal investigation since 9/11 ended when the prime suspect, Army scientist Bruce Ivins, committed suicide. The FBI insists they found the murderer. But ten years after the attacks new questions are being raised about the FBI’s investigation of the case and whether Ivins really was the anthrax killer.

In "The Anthrax Files," FRONTLINE, ProPublica, and McClatchy Newspapers take a hard look at the FBI’s handling of the country’s most notorious act of bioterrorism. After months of investigation, review of more than 27,000 pages of documents, and interviews with central figures in the case—including the head of the FBI’s anthrax task force and the top assistant U.S. Attorney on the case—"The Anthrax Files" reveals new information that challenges some of the FBI findings and examines how the government attempted to solve the case.

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FRONTLINE takes a hard look at the FBI’s investigation of the country’s most notorious act of bioterrorism: the anthrax attacks of 2001.