A series of four suspected anthrax
contaminated mail incidents occurred at military and civilian facilities in the
Washington D.C. metropolitan area during the period between 14-18 March 2005.
These incidents precipitated high level biodefense emergency response operations at four different sites in the Washington D.C metropolitan area,
including two military installations (the Pentagon, Bolling Air Force Base), a
U.S. Postal Service mail processing facility and a commercial office complex.
Neither of the two commissioned studies of these incidents conducted by the
Rand Corporation and the Government Accountability Office contains a summary of
the all the bioterrorism response operations that occurred during this period.
The present analysis, however, provides a summary and timeline of the events connected with all four of the interrelated biological agent emergency response operations conducted during March 2005, within a broader contextual framework
that allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the spatio temporal
interrelationships between the various biodefense response operations that
occurred during this period.