salmon -- usamriid. the fbi collected the ames strain of bacillus anthracis from laboratories around the world and their investigation focused on determining the similarity between the end of the dingy resembles and this collection. the fbi connected the letter materials to a particular flask, called flask are a more- 1029 that was housed at usamriid. -- flask rmr-1029 that was housed at usamriid. in september 2010, the fbi asked the national academy of scientists -- of sciences to convene a committee to conduct an independent review of the scientific approaches used during the anthrax investigation. in july 2009, we brought together a dedicated group of talented experts to begin work on the report you see today. our committee members were experts in the field of microbiology, medicine, physical chemistry, statistics, biochemistry, public health, environmental studies, forensic science, and jurisprudence. in the course of our two year study, the fbi provided us with approximately 9600 pages of materials.