Gennadiy N. Lepeshkin: Well, here's a question for you: what do you think of that incident with the mailing...
Richard Spertzel (regarding the dog): He wants to go out.
Lepeshkin: ...in the United States, in 2001, of anthrax?
Spertzel: To start with, Bruce Ivins couldn't have done it. The... He was working in a full suite. The USAMRIID is divided up to... they have half suites, and full suites. In a full suite, a particular scientist doesn't work in isolation. There are other... could be three to five scientists working in there, because... there's six or eight rooms in a suite. And... so there's no way he could have been doing this kind of work that the FBI alleges, and other people in that suite not know about it. My personal opinion is: there is a source that knows how to make it, had the equipment, had the strain, and frankly the motivation. I'm referring to Iraq. And from 1994 on, Iraq and Syria intelligence services were working together for the mutual advantage. Syria had the equipment and the manpower and the knowledge, as did the... Iraq. But Iraq had to worry about the inspectors. Syria didn't have that concern.
Lepeshkin: And so the powder could have been smuggled into the US.
Slava Paperno (interpreting): And then that it could be... the resulting agent could have been smuggled into the US?
Spertzel: Absolutely. At that time it would have been no problem in...
Paperno: The airports.
Spertzel: ... airports. You know, you could walk in with the vial of finished product in a pocket, and so... nobody... you know, unless you have guilt written all over you...
Lepeshkin: Yes, I agree. [Switches to English.] I agree. [Switches to Russian.]
Of course, a very potent formula was used, which...
Paperno: Potent, in the sense of virulent?
Lepeshkin: Well, in the sense of virulent, yes, and with topnotch manufacturing techniques used as well. You know. The agent could have been prepared only in a good fixed-site laboratory facility, using good equipment, by skilled professionals.
Paperno (interpreting): That... that quality of the agent could have been produced only with very very good equipment.
Lepeshkin: Your theory could well be true.
Bruce Ivins: Bruce Edward Ivins, American microbiologist.