Investigators think same person sent three anthrax-laced letters

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Handwriting analysis and profiling are leading investigators to increasingly suspect that one person wrote the three letters contaminated with anthrax and that the person spent significant time in the United States, officials say.

The officials cautioned Friday they have not identified specific suspects and continue to consider a variety of theories, including that a deranged U.S. resident with a biochemical background, a terrorist or hate group, a foreign country or some combination carried out the attacks.

Officials said, however, there has been no evidence or intelligence to connect Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network to the attacks and that other extremists are being considered.

FBI profilers have examined the significance of the targets chosen so far -- media outlets and a Democratic politician who could be despised by ultraconservative extremists and isolationists.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer for the first time Friday acknowledged the spores could easily have been produced in the United States, by a Ph.D.-level microbiologist in a small, well-equipped laboratory.

FBI agents are scouring U.S. and foreign labs for people who may have had access to the lethal bacteria.