Committee formed to review FBI anthrax investigation

fredericknewspost ^ | July 02, 2009 | Justin M. Palk

[Justice Department]

The public has 20 days to comment on the makeup of an independent committee being assembled to study the science the FBI used in its investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings.

The 14 provisional members of the National Academy of Sciences study committee include medical doctors, chemists, microbiologists and a U.S. District Court judge.

The academy will consider public comments on the proposed committee membership before finalizing the roster.

The FBI requested the study last year, after critics questioned the validity of the science it used in matching the anthrax used in the 2001 mailings with that in a flask controlled by Bruce Ivins, a Fort Detrick microbiologist.

Ivins committed suicide on July 26, 2008.

According to the academy, the review will examine the techniques the FBI used for their scientific reliability and use in forensic validation.

It will also examine whether the FBI reached appropriate conclusions based on its use of those techniques.

The study will specifically not examine how persuasive the scientific evidence might be in regards to an investigation or any prosecution or litigation. It will also not make any determination about the guilt or innocence of any person in regard to the anthrax mailings.

The study will take 18 months and will cost approximately $880,000.

[Justice Department]

Ping.

[EdLake]

The NAS should be able to answer - once and for all time - whether or not the attack anthrax was "weaponized" and whether or not a single person could have prepared it using the equipment available to Dr. Ivins at that time.

The NAS won't address the question of WHO did it, but before any Congressional Committee (or the public) can intelligently discuss the case against Dr. Ivins, we need to eliminate the arguments from the conspiracy theorists who claim that it was impossible for Dr. Ivins to have done it - because he didn't have the equipment to "weaponize" the spores.

I'm looking forward to reading the NAS review when it comes out in 18 months or so.

And I also hope there will be Congressional Hearings to review the criminal case against Dr. Ivins after the FBI and DOJ close the case and make the case documents available to outsiders. I expect the case to be formally closed in the next month or two.

Ed at www.anthraxinvestigation.com