They have worked for almost seven years in secret. Most people
did not know that the work in Ray Goehner's materials
characterization department at Sandia National Laboratories was
contributing important information to the FBI's investigation of
letters containing bacillus anthracis, the spores that cause the
disease anthrax. The spores were mailed in the fall of 2001 to
several news media offices and to two U.S. senators. Five people
were killed. Sandia's work demonstrated to the FBI that the form
of bacillus anthracis contained in those letters was not a
weaponized form, a form of the bacteria prepared to disperse
more readily. The possibility of a weaponized form was of great
concern to investigators, says Joseph Michael, the principal
investigator for the project. This information was crucial in
ruling out state-sponsored terrorism. In fall of 2001, the FBI
considered how to best investigate the anthrax letters. The
agency convened two blue ribbon exploratory panels, and Sandia's
name came up during both