Free Republic

WASHINGTON — After four years of painstaking scientific research, the F.B.I. by 2005 had traced the anthrax in the poisoned letters of 2001 to a single flask of the bacteria at the Army biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., according to government scientists and bureau officials. But at least 10 scientists had regular access to the laboratory and its anthrax stock — and possibly quite a few more, counting visitors from other institutions, and workers at laboratories in Ohio and New Mexico that had received anthrax samples from the flask at the Army laboratory. To get that far, the Federal...

While counselor Jean Duley said the late Bruce E. Ivins expressed homicidal intentions, threatened her and said he "would go out in a blaze of glory" in the face of a pending FBI indictment, as least one former colleague believes the Fort Detrick scientist is being used as a scapegoat in the high profile anthrax poisoning case that paralyzed the nation -- again -- shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Arthur O. Anderson, a medical doctor and scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, said Duley's description of Ivins doesn't...

For nearly seven years, scientist Bruce E. Ivins and a small circle of fellow anthrax specialists at Fort Detrick's Army medical lab lived in a curious limbo: They served as occasional consultants for the FBI in the investigation of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, yet they were all potential suspects. Over lunch in the bacteriology division, nervous scientists would share stories about their latest unpleasant encounters with the FBI and ponder whether they should hire criminal defense lawyers, according to one of Ivins's former supervisors. In tactics that the researchers considered heavy-handed and often threatening, they were interviewed and polygraphed...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Bruce E. Ivins, the government biodefense scientist linked to the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001, stood to gain financially from the huge federal spending in the fear-filled aftermath of those killings, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Ivins is listed as a co-inventor on two patents for a genetically engineered anthrax vaccine, federal records show. Separately, Ivins is also listed as a co-inventor on an application to patent an additive for various biodefense vaccines. Ivins, 62, died Tuesday, apparently in a suicide. Federal authorities had informed his lawyer that criminal charges related to the mailings would be filed. As a...

(From newspaper local to Fort Detrick) In 2003, the Defense Department gave Bruce Ivins its highest civilian honor for his work on an anthrax vaccine. Friday, the government had little to say about him, following his apparent suicide and media reports that the FBI was preparing to charge him with the 2001 anthrax mailings. Ivins was a Frederick resident who worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, was a member of St. John Evangelical Catholic Church and a volunteer with the American Red Cross. He once said he taught himself to juggle to correct his nature...

FREDERICK — During a two-week period in April four years ago, officials at the Army’s lead biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick discovered anthrax spores had escaped carefully guarded suites into the building’s unprotected areas. The breach called into question the ability of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to keep its deadly agents within laboratory walls seven months after the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the anthrax mailings that autumn. The 2002 incident was considered a containment breach because anthrax was found outside a containment suite, which is a group of laboratories and administrative rooms....

WELLSVILLE -- Despite having three places he was involved in searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, Dr. Kenneth M. Berry, 46, of Wellsville, was arrested, but on a domestic violence charge in New Jersey. Point Pleasant Beach (N.J.) Police charged Dr. Berry with four counts of assault and a temporary restraining order was issued by Judge James A. Ligouri. Agents from the FBI executed a search warrant at two homes in Wellsville Thursday as part of an investigation into "the origin of the anthrax-laced letters mailed in September and October of 2001 which resulted in the deaths...

<p>FREDERICK, Md. - Bruce E. Ivins was a juggler, a gardener, a church musician, a Red Cross volunteer — and a suspected multiple murderer, according to federal authorities.</p> <p>Some people who knew him scoffed at the government’s assertion that Ivins sent the anthrax letters that killed five people and sickened 17 in the fall of 2001. But court documents indicate the outwardly mild-mannered Ivins had a menacing side.</p>

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

Scientist reportedly commits suicide as FBI closes in on 2001 anthrax

One of the nation’s top biodefense researchers has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailing assaults of 2001 that killed five, the Los Angeles Times has learned.Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the past 18 years worked at the government’s elite biodefense research laboratories at Fort Detrick, Md., had been informed of the impending prosecution, people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and with the FBI investigation said.Ivins’ name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case that disrupted mail service...

It was Dreaded Don Imus, whose scowl might have been due to the salty tongue lodged inside. "I've come for you, Imus," said Big Bill. "Nobody calls one of my staffers a 'sniveling little weenie' and gets away with it." Dreaded Don flashed a Jack Palance smirk from his chair by the stove. "I wouldn't push too far, Billy Boy," he said. Big Bill cupped his hand by the six-gun at his side. "Billy Boy, yourself," he challenged. "And I'm not a 'fat sissy,' either. You're dead wrong about that!" -snip- "We were friends once," Big Bill said, glaring at...

Ivins Criticizes Newspaper Cuts, Says Bloggers Need More Reporting Experience By E&P Staff Published: March 23, 2006 2:51 PM ET NEW YORK Molly Ivins criticized newspaper cost-cutting in today's installment of her syndicated column. "(M)any of the geniuses who run our business believe they have a solution," Ivins wrote. "Our product isn't selling as well as it used to, so they think we need to cut the number of reporters, cut the space devoted to the news, and cut the amount of money used to gather the news, and this will solve the problem. For some reason, they assume people...

Molly Ivins, battling breast cancer afresh, sounds as feisty as ever. The South Austin resident continues writing her left-of-center column, raising money for the journal where she forged her tart take on politics and, of course, cheerfully gigging Republicans such as the well-coifed governor of Texas. Ivins, 61, tongue-in-cheeked that Gov. Rick Perry's trip to Iraq this week will slow anti-American insurgents. "The mere sight of his hair will do a world of good," she said. She chatted with two visitors to her home office in Travis Heights without donning her wig of reddish-blond locks; her pate was nearly bald....

AUSTIN, Texas (Creators Syndicate) -- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president. Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

Reprinted from NewsMax.comFriday, Jan. 20, 2006 5:19 p.m. ESTMolly Ivins: I Won't Back Hillary "I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.” With that pronouncement, liberal syndicated columnist Molly Ivins begins a blistering column that castigates Hillary and the Democratic Party for failing to take a strong stand on a variety of issues important to liberals like her. Et tu, Brute? "Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone,” Ivins writes in her column on CNN.com. "Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable...

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently ran a Molly Ivins column that repeated the hoax about the U Mass Student who claimed to have been visited by Federal agents for wishing to check Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” out of the library. The story was fishy from the start, but the Left – ever ready to believe that Bush is a Nazi – bit on it and it became a story in the outermost fringes of the kook Left including Molly Ivins and Ted Kennedy. This became a discussion topic on FreeRepublic.com and I subsequently e-mailed the editorial page editor, Paul...

AUSTIN - I'm so sorry, but we are having a constitutional crisis. The timing couldn't be worse. Right in the middle of the wrapping paper, the gingerbread and the whole shebang, a tiny honest-to-goodness constitutional crisis... **snip** The Department of Defense has just proved this yet again with its latest folly of mistaking a flock of Florida Quakers for a threat to overthrow the government. A few months ago, a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth tried to check out a copy of Mao's Little Red Book and wound up being interviewed by two feds. Cointelpro and all...

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Big Whew blew over Texas, leaving Port Arthur underwater and whole lot of stress across the state. It is highly stressful to be in a car with two adults, three children, the dog and the cat for a 12- to 20-hour trip from Houston to Austin, Dallas or San Antonio. It is also stressful to have two adults, three children, their dog and their cat move into your 1,200-square-foot house with you, especially if your sister-in-law thinks anyone who criticizes George W. Bush is a tool of Satan. Stress-sensitive groups like Alcoholics Anonymous were doing land-office...

SOLIDARITY Forev ... ooops, make that, Solidarity Later. Organized labor is weak, but unorganized labor is a hell of a lot weaker. That's what's splitting the AFL-CIO. You may think this is none of your beeswax, but if you work in this country, you owe labor, big time. And I'm talking to you, white-collar worker. This is not about the old stuff -- 40-hour workweek, unemployment insurance, health benefits, safety regs, etc. This is about right now, today. The money that controls this administration is out to screw you -- it's your pension on the line, your salary on the...

What's that familiar reek in the air? By Molly Ivins AUSTIN - As the judge in the Judith Miller-Matt Cooper case said, it just gets "curiouser and curiouser." For starters, Miller of The New York Times, who never wrote a word about Valerie Plame, is in prison, while Robert Novak, who broke the story and printed the name, may be weekending at his posh house on Fenwick Island, Del. Meanwhile, a truly phenomenal case study in the art of spin has been launched on behalf of Karl Rove, a.k.a. Bush's brain, now that we know he was Cooper's source on...

I cannot post from Alternet but Drudge has picked this up so you can get it there. Molly Ivins eats crow over her claims that more civilian deaths have occured since US liberated Iraq than under Saddam''s benevolent care.She was abit off on her math ....New Math? the crow eating begins towards the bottom of the column. Its funny

Dan Green of New York City says of the election results, "You can't be depressed now, the worst is yet to come." Following that good advice, I intended to keep my indignation dry and save the outrage for when it is really needed, kind of like saving room for the pumpkin pie after Thanksgiving dinner. If we're going to get through the next four years, we have to pace ourselves, I concluded. But here it is, not even three weeks into the new Bush regime, and already I'm jaw-dropped, you've-got-to-be-kidding mad. Here's the record so far: Republicans somehow managed to...

NEW YORK On daily newspapers' opinion pages, columnists come and go. But the dumping of an increasingly popular conservative at the Virginian-Pilot in Hampton Roads, Va., got more of a public airing than usual. The newspaper's public editor, Marvin Lake, announced in a column responding to a reader's complaint about editorial balance at the paper that Michelle Malkin, who had been added to give "another voice to the conservatives," had been dropped as a columnist because she was "too stridently anti-liberal." Lake explained that "readers often took issue with her seemingly mean-spirited rantings and suggested that she be dropped. Well,...

AUSTIN, Texas -- My, my, gonna be a long four years. House Republicans have rewritten the ethics rules so Tom DeLay won't have to resign if indicted after all. Let's hear it for moral values. DeLay is one of the leading forces in making "Republican ethics" into an oxymoron. The rule was passed in 1993, when Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was being investigated for ethics violations. And who helped lead the floor fight to force him to resign his powerful position? Why, Tom DeLay, of course. (Actually, it's sort of a funny story....

AUSTIN, Texas -- I finally put my money down on Tuesday, a whole week out. Kerry over Bush by two to three points in every state that matters except Florida. For those who find this an appalling, Bill Bennett-like display of disrespect for both good money and Our Nation's Future, I say, hey, no guts, no glory. Besides, Ladbrokes, the English betting firm, is offering 6 to 5 on Kerry...

Well! If you have never seen a flock of enraged birders, you don't know what danger is. These people don't just watch pewits and tweety-birds, they're into raptors, too falcons, eagles ... they know how to swoop and strike. If we find Rove beaten to a pulp with binoculars, it will be no surprise. How could he ignore the immemorial warning, "Beware the wrath of the birding legions!' Back to business. There's no way to keep up with the Bush administration's assaults on the environment, they're just endless. Most notable lately was the decision to let mercury pollution, which is...

New York, California, Texas, and 28 other states considered 'out of play' for 2004 election; will be spared most of ad barrageAUSTIN, Texas – Strange peaches. All of us out here in the boonies should be aware this is a truly weird political year. For one thing, nobody has ever seen this much money involved. What can $200 million do in a political race, answered, we presume, by at least $100 million by the Democrats? No one knows. And now brace yourselves for the really bad news. All this money, intensity and advertising are not going to be spread out...

AUSTIN, Texas — Living proof that the Democrats haven't gotten any smarter since the last time they ran a candidate for president. Much huffing (and a huffy Democrat is a terrifying sight) over the fact that George W. Bush used images of 9-11 and of the firefighters at Ground Zero to tout his candidacy in his first campaign ad. How crass, said the D's. Exploiting a national tragedy for political purposes — oh, how tacky. Dammit, the problem is not that the ad is in bad taste, the problem is that Bush screwed the firefighters in a famous case of...

AUSTIN, Texas -- So the Democrats have a candidate at last, and he is about bent over double with gravitas. I think that means he doesn't a have humorous bone in his body. It's a good thing there's at least one serious person in this race -- the Bushies are getting sillier and sillier. Just when you thought no one could top Rod Paige calling the teacher's union "a terrorist organization," along comes Veep Cheney with this gem, "If Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two-to-three years, the kind of tax increases both Kerry and Edwards are talking...

A few days ago, a Respected Party Elder advised me to stop dissing John Kerry on account of, ''He will be our nominee.'' He may be ''our nominee,'' but he'll still be a boring stiff. OK, sort of an impressive boring stiff. So far, this is a swell race, and we're in for another terrific week if both Kerry and John Edwards do the issue stuff they're both well-placed to do. Kerry has a strong, well-thought-out healthcare plan, and he should make it his signature issue -- and put some passion into it, if he's got any. Edwards, with his...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Love those Iowa results. Nothing better than a huge political scrum where the front-runner stumbles, the guy everyone wrote off for dead six weeks ago comes roaring back, an unknown emerges, an old war-horse drops out -- a wonderful scenario. Let's hear it for upset, confusion and the conventional wisdom with egg on its face. A banana cream pie right in the kisser for everyone who pretends they know how a political race will turn out. Happy days. Ain't democracy grand?     Not saying I necessarily agree with the conclusions reached by the Iowa caucus-goers, but I...

Bush immigration proposal brings back a business-friendly guest worker program AUSTIN, Texas -- In Texas, where the border is a constant presence in our lives, no one is mistaking President Bush's immigration proposal for a brilliant new departure in immigration policy, or even for a ploy to get Hispanic political support. What we have here is the old bracero program, a guest worker program, and it primarily benefits one group and one group only -- big business. And that would be OK, if other parts of the program totaled up to a net improvement in the current situation. That's what...

Molly Ivins No cheering for this state government SYNDICATED COLUMNIST Friday, January 9, 2004 Sigh. I just hate when Tom DeLay and Karl Rove get away with a dirty deal like this. The University of Texas is now represented by Lamar Smith of San Antonio, I'm in a district that runs to the Mexican border, and two blocks north of me, they're in with Houston. As one who relishes our state's bizarre political mores, I must confess I love the sheer awfulness of this map. It is awesome and worthy of the noble tradition of lunacy for which Texas is...

This lineup is ... ah ... By Molly Ivins Creators Syndicate Oh, good. It looks as though we're going to have as big a fight over postwar plans for Iraq as we did over the war itself. Just what we need -- more of everybody being at everybody else's throat.Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who seems prepared to run the world, favors one Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile-emigre group, as postwar leader (read figurehead-puppet). Chalabi is bitterly opposed by both the State Department and the CIA.According to Knight-Ridder's Jonathan Landay, American military planes flew Chalabi and 700...

I am going to vomit! I don't know what station I'm listening to, but one of the speakers is Molly Ivins! here are just a couple of her 'feelings': 1. I did not allow my children to watch Mr Rogers. He was 'Too unctuous'. I made them watch Seasame Street instead. 2. Dan Rather was 'tough' on sadaam (??) She is still talking out of both sides of her mouth .. luckily she wears her pants around the biggest one! :>)

I just love the fine print in the president's tax cut plan. I grant you, the overall effect is pretty spectacular, too -- a plan that has almost no stimulative effect but still opens a future of zillion-dollar deficits to drag down the economy. That's the backasswards of what we need, but it's not the fun part. Look at these little goodies:• You think because you have money in the stock market you might have a stake in eliminating the dividend tax, the centerpiece of the president's tax cut -- $300 billion over 10 years? (You probably think you have money...

AUSTIN, Texas -- One interesting aspect of the Seriously Dumb Tax Cut we are watching develop in Washington is that we are simultaneously witnessing the effects of Seriously Dumb Tax Cuts at the state level. The states are plotzing right and left, caught in hideous binds -- whether it is better to release dangerous prisoners or cut back the schools, cut back health care for kids or nursing homes for old folks.Politically, it's notoriously difficult to oppose tax cuts precisely because the trouble doesn't show up until after the next election, but this time we have are having our noses...

One interesting aspect of the Seriously Dumb Tax Cut we are watching develop in Washington is that we are simultaneously witnessing the effects of Seriously Dumb Tax Cuts at the state level. The states are plotzing right and left, caught in hideous binds -- whether it is better to release dangerous prisoners or cut back the schools, cut back health care for kids or nursing homes for old folks. Politically, it's notoriously difficult to oppose tax cuts precisely because the trouble doesn't show up until after the next election, but this time we are having our noses rubbed in the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- He was the rarest of all rare breeds -- a mensch from Minnesota. But this is not a column about Paul Wellstone. No one has to wonder for a minute what he would have wanted, "What would Wellstone do?" The answer all but roars back, "Don't mourn, organize!" The contrast between Paul's passionate populism and this dreary mid-term election is as sad as his death. There's many a contest between political pygmies this year -- we're down to seeds and stems again --- but even in proud Texas we have to admit that this year's palm for...

Perhaps I am too cynical, but I believe there is a separate class of people in this country called Too Rich to Go to Prison. With the peerless John Ashcroft at the helm of the Justice Department, I don't think any of the now-infamous CEOs need to lose sleep over the prospect. It's not exactly like Bobby Kennedy going after Jimmy Hoffa. On the other hand, the only AG we've got did instigate a 13-month-long undercover investigation that resulted in the arrest of 12 prostitutes in New Orleans. Amazing - they found 12 whores in New Orleans. Surely Osama bin...