FBI probed PETA over alleged anthrax plot

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2013: (Actually published on November 20,  2013.)

NORFOLK––Documents received by PETA in February 2013 through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the FBI investigated the organization in 1997-1998 for allegedly plotting to release anthrax at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick,  Maryland. Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reporter Corinne Reilly obtained copies of the FBI documents from PETA after PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk mentioned the investigation in a letter published in the November 2013 edition of Harper’s magazine.  The investigation apparently began,  Reilly wrote,  after an unnamed lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve told the FBI he had heard about the alleged plot from an unidentified source who claimed to have links to PETA. The investigation of PETA came four years before five people were killed and 17 others fell ill in October 2001 after opening anthrax-filled envelopes.  The FBI in August 2008 identified U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases anthrax researcher Bruce E. Ivins as the probable sender of the envelopes.  Ivins,  62,  had committed suicide on July 29,  2008,  after learning he was likely to be indicted for murder.