Posted on 08/03/2008 1:31:44 PM PDT by Perdogg
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 as early as 2002, and reinterviewed numerous times. Their labs were searched, and their computers and equipment carted away.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Once the case is closed, the FBI and Justice Department will face questions — and possibly public hearings — from congressional oversight committees, which have been largely shut out of the case the past five years. The investigators have cited the ongoing nature of the case, as well as accusations of leaks to the media, for the information blackout to Capitol Hill.”
Predicition: the Feds will create a new category of case, “Case of Suspended Interest” or close to that, in which the Feds can imply the case is solved, but not reveal anything about it.
This is odd. I know this was around 9-11 but it seems to me, like the article said, it would be difficult to make it without being detected.
The anthrax was really easy to make when they wanted to frame a guy, Hatfill, who clearly had no ability to refine the stuff.
This time it’s “highly refined” and because Ivins actually dealt with anthrax...well, story is unsure. Was there silica present?
The only clear thing—the FBI was sa incompetent its primary goal was to fight shining any light on their actions. A few weeks ago some retired agents expressly called the investigation incompetent.
Case of Suspended Interest”
Oh GREAT!!!
Is that what they did with TWA 800 and Flight 587 and....sigh!.......
Anyone look into his real medical condition? I mean not the one that a social worker who graduated from nausea university with a BA in social work, but a real physician? Did he have cancer? Other reasons to be depressed?
Something like this perhaps:
2005 : (PAKISTAN : RAUF CASE PUT ON INACTIVE STATUS) Last year [2005], in an acknowledgment of the impasse in its four-year joint investigation with Pakistan, the FBI officially put the [Rauf] case on inactive status. "We will never close the door, but the chances of getting him into the United States are slim to none," said one U.S. intelligence official, who, like others, agreed to discuss the case on the condition that he not be identified by name.... With the evidence against Rauf, some U.S. officials say they are perplexed about why Pakistani authorities have refused to further pursue him, while acknowledging that the case presents both legal and political difficulties for Pakistan.------Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case - Scientist With Ties To Group Goes FreeWashington Post ^ | October 31, 2006 | Joby Warrick Posted on 10/31/2006 2:52:25 PM PST by RDTF
I think, judging from the way it looks it my timelines, that the anthrax case is so intertwined in the GWOT that to put forth an indictment would put too many other terrorist cases at risk, and other cases relating to proliferation. The defense team would have a field day making the prosecution put forth a case while having to fight off the defense team's requests to interview every single major player in the GWOT and in A Q Khan's circle of friends, or see some evidence that is still useful-but only if kept secret- to the prosecution of the war.
I wonder about these stories from before 9/11 ; I don't think I've seen any followup on them:
SEPTEMBER 8, 2001 : (ATLANTA, GA : LETTER CONTAINING A POWDER THAT WOULD LATER TEST POSITIVE FOR ANTHRAX IS MAILED TO THE ADDRESS OF A KENYAN DOCTOR) ----- "Postal route in N.J. tracked; 8th case confirmed; anthrax studies suggest cases linked," By Frank D. Roylance and Marego Athans, Sun Staff, The Baltimore Sun, October 20, 2001Copyright © 2002
SEPTEMBER 9, 2001 : (FL : PALM BEACH COUNTY : 1606 DORAL DRIVE, FAIRWAY ISLES SUBDIVISION, IN THE TOWN OF GREENACRES) : WITNESS SEES AL MASRI FAMILY PACKING UP AND LEAVING IN A HURRY- THEY LEFT SO FAST THEY DIDN'T CLEAN UP THE FOOD ON THEIR TABLE) Lisa Dickerson said she watched Mohamad Almasri hustle his family into their car on Sept. 9, 2001. She said that a few days after the attacks, when news reports began focusing on possible connections between the terrorists and the nearby Lantana airport, she called a special national FBI hot line. "It was just the way he put them in," Dickerson said. "It happened so fast." ... According to state records, others who lived at the house in the upscale neighborhood near Jog Road and Forest Hill Boulevard were Madawi Almasri, 26, Turki Ma Almasri, 22, and Afaf I. Arif, 47. Neighbors said Almasri lived at the home with his wife, a son and daughter in their late teens or early twenties, and a younger son and daughter. -- FBI searches Saudi family's former home," By Scott McCabe and Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Wednesday, January 22, 2003 [* A place called 'Greenacres' comes up in another terror investigation regarding an Aussie suspect named Habib]
The very vaccine he had helped to create. He knew that the adjuvant, an oil, was causing problems.
I think he was worried about having to vaccinate everyone and having a quarter of them die with reactions to the adjuvant. Merle Nass comments are on another thread.
In plain sight in the news stories about Dr. Ivins is that he was a scientific prodigy (with all the usual "nerdiness"), family man, devout Catholic. No wonder he's an easy target.
I seem to recall two or so. Didn't one jump off a bridge or something?
There was a list of 43 I think....some actual suicides, many suspicious deaths. Young, healthy people dying, you gotta shake your head.
To be sure they aren't outdone in trash journalism, the New York Post picks up on the Baltimore Sun theme above and raises the level of character defamation a few notches, quoting Dr. Ivins' brother referring to his tragically deceased brother as a "wussy." This is the same gentleman who stated that the accomplished scientist, owner of two patents, "thought he was God." Perhaps the real story is a case of malicious sibling rivalry.
Also, the Post couldn't resist the "...and he bought a handgun!" angle, complete with pictures. So, there you have it: nerdy scientist who was pro life, owned a handgun, had thought about killing someone (and was innocent enough to admit it), has a paranoid social worker, has comments added to his social worker's file in pen (as in, after the fact, perhaps), had a jealous brother, and stood to make "tens of thousands of dollars" by carrying off an evil mail order campaign.
Case closed?
Hardly.
The therapist sounds like she could have been a witness in the Fell Acres case.
He was a Harvard trained Dr. Don Wiley- his specialty was not anthrax. He was in Memphis to attend a conference. It wasn't considered suicide. They thought he may have accidently fallen after suffering a seizure. Not sure how they came to conclude that, if they settled on it.
The medical examiner in the case was also the guy who examined Katherine Smith, the license examiner who was killed in a burnt-up car.
The examiner was attacked physically and the office he worked in was earlier discovered to have bombs planted around it.
The info should be on Shermy's old
What was the MOTIVE supposed to have been for this guy Ivins? Sex?? Drugs?? Money??? Or was poisoning the US Senate office building with anthrax supposed to improve his golf game????
That would compel anyone to reverse the entire course of his distinguished life and become a serial killer, wouldn't it?
The NY Post angle.
The story makes my blood boil, but I suppose his social worker would say that makes me dangerous.
Here is a list before Dr. Ivins' suicide.
They claim he could not make the aerosol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.