Aired June 9, 2003 - 17:00 ET

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Highlights of the Interview:

(...) Joining us now to talk about all this, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI, Skip Brandon.

Skip, thanks for joining us.

In your history, a long history with the FBI, can you ever remember the FBI doing anything like this, draining a pond?

SKIP BRANDON, FORMER FBI DEPUTY: You know, Wolf, I really don't. I think the last time that I can think of that they did this -- and it goes clear back to the '60s, when they were looking for victims in civil rights cases, when they drained a large pond in Mississippi. (...)

BRANDON: They don't have the evidence. It sounds trite to say it. It's obvious. They're looking for evidence.

I think that they have to be pretty hopeful that they're going to find something, if for no other reason when they thought about it, they knew the media would be all over this. It's just going to resurrect the whole anthrax investigation. (...)

BRANDON: The letters are out there. Again, we don't know for sure what the FBI laboratory may have gotten from the letters. They had a real problem because they were letters that would kill the examiners. So they had a real problem in examining it.

It is a marriage of science and traditional investigation, possibly at the beginning a bit of an uneasy marriage because there was some new science coming along. (...)

For the full interview see below.

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THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Happening right now: action on the anthrax attacks. Death and panic once spread through the mail. Will the mystery will be solved at the bottom of this pond?

(...)

BLITZER: It's Monday, June 9, 2003. Hello from Washington. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

An extraordinary development in the anthrax attacks that killed five people and terrorized the nation two years ago.

Happening right now, FBI and other federal officials are draining a pond just north of Washington, D.C. in Frederick, Maryland, for clues to those deadly attacks. Joining us now with the latest, CNN justice correspondent, Kelli Arena -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, no doubt, a massive undertaking, and one the FBI obviously believes may help provide a break in the anthrax investigation. It's been 20 months since those attacks, and still not a single arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): One investigator called it "a shot in the dark." Another described it as "an obvious next step" in finding out who the anthrax killer is. Approximately 50,000 gallons of water will be drained out of this one-acre pond in Frederick, Maryland, into a nearby pond, a process to take several weeks.

In a statement, the FBI says the purpose of these searches is to locate and collect items of evidence related to the anthrax attacks. The FBI's interest in this state park dates back to December. Officials got a tip back then that someone may have dumped equipment into one of the park's ponds. Officials say they found the tip significant because the park is about 10 miles from Ft. Detrick, where the army has experimented with anthrax.

According to government sources, agents in December found a large plastic closed container with two openings in the side, similar to those used to limit exposure during scientific tests. Several vials were also found. Sources say testing on those items and others continues.

But still, officials say, there is no evidence connecting anything found in the park to the anthrax attacks, nor is there any evidence linking any individual to the deadly anthrax letters. That includes Steven Hatfill, a former research at Ft. Detrick described by the attorney general as a person of interest. Hatfill has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and his spokesman says the FBI is welcome to drain every pond in Maryland.

PAT CLAWSON, HATFILL'S SPOKESMAN: Anything that can be done to clear Steve Hatfill right now, he welcomes. And he knows that the search of the pond in Frederick is not going to lead to anything tying him into the anthrax case because he had nothing to do with the anthrax case. So if it helps prove his innocence, he welcomes it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: By some estimates, draining the pond will cost $250,000, that with no guarantee of finding anything significant -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Extraordinary development. Kelli Arena, thanks very much for that report.

A little background right now. America came face to face with anthrax in the fall of 2001. In September, the first poisoned letters go through the mail targeting news organizations, as some office and postal workers noticed troubling symptoms. October brings the first fatality, a photo editor for a Florida tabloid publisher.

Anthrax-laced letters reached the offices of key U.S. lawmakers as hundreds of employees get tested. Congressional buildings are shut down for contamination. Hardest hit: a Washington postal facility where two workers die of inhalation anthrax despite a massive cleanup operation. It has still not reopened. And despite a massive search for clues, still no named suspect. Joining us now to talk about all this, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI, Skip Brandon.

Skip, thanks for joining us.

In your history, a long history with the FBI, can you ever remember the FBI doing anything like this, draining a pond?

SKIP BRANDON, FORMER FBI DEPUTY: You know, Wolf, I really don't. I think the last time that I can think of that they did this -- and it goes clear back to the '60s, when they were looking for victims in civil rights cases, when they drained a large pond in Mississippi.

BLITZER: That was -- that -- that goes -- so what is the point? What are they -- they really appear to be convinced they know but they don't have the evidence. Is that it?

BRANDON: They don't have the evidence. It sounds trite to say it. It's obvious. They're looking for evidence.

I think that they have to be pretty hopeful that they're going to find something, if for no other reason when they thought about it, they knew the media would be all over this. It's just going to resurrect the whole anthrax investigation.

BLITZER: And if, as Kelli says, it costs,let's say, a quarter of a million dollars to go ahead and drain this pond, they come up empty handed, that's a huge black eye for the FBI.

BRANDON: Well, I don't know whether it's a black eye. They have to take their best shot. I don't think it's an uneducated shot. I think personally I would guess -- and I emphasize guess -- that they have more to go with it. They haven't just picked a pond in Maryland and decided to drain it.

BLITZER: This person of interest, Steven Hatfill. First of all, what is a person of interest?

BRANDON: Well, it's a new legal term, apparently. I've never heard of a person of interest. I would suggest that when that term was raised maybe people raising it might wish now that they hadn't. Maybe we have a pond of interest now.

BLITZER: There was a former State Department official who used to followed by the FBI.

BRANDON: Yes.

BLITZER: He was suspected of being a Russian spy in the old days during the height of the Cold War, Felix Block. You remember. He was followed everywhere he went. Media used to follow him.

The other day Steven Hatfill was followed by the FBI. Apparently, he's constantly being followed. And they had some incident, they ran over his foot and he was -- a minor little injury. What do you make of this spectacle that's unfolding?

BRANDON: They're not doing it just fooling around. There's a lot of resources that go into this. If the FBI is following Steven Hatfill, they have a pretty strong reason to believe that he may have been involved in this. I think that's very clear.

BLITZER: It's a huge case involving science and a traditional manhunt.

BRANDON: Yes.

BLITZER: And as a result, is that why it's so difficult? Because as you know, there are a lot of clues out there. All those letters.

BRANDON: The letters are out there. Again, we don't know for sure what the FBI laboratory may have gotten from the letters. They had a real problem because they were letters that would kill the examiners. So they had a real problem in examining it.

It is a marriage of science and traditional investigation, possibly at the beginning a bit of an uneasy marriage because there was some new science coming along.

BLITZER: And what do you make of the fact that apparently since the initial attacks, it went dry. There have been no more.

BRANDON: We have never seen it with anthrax letters before. We've never had it. But we've seen it with people who have been serial killers, things like this, they go dormant. They go quiet for a long period of time. It is a mystery. It's an obvious thing to say. It's a real mystery.

BLITZER: We'll continue to watch what unfolds. Skip Brandon, as usual, thanks very much.

BRANDON: Surely. (...)

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