Anthrax blend led FBI to Ivins

latimes.com ^ | August 4, 2008 | David Willman

[Free ThinkerNY]

Its origins pointed to one conclusion: that only the government scientist could be behind the 2001 attacks.

Federal investigators cinched their case against alleged anthrax mailer Bruce E. Ivins after sophisticated genetic tests by a California firm helped them trace a signature mixture of anthrax spores, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Well before the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings, Ivins, through his work as a government scientist, had combined anthrax spores obtained from at least one outside laboratory, people familiar with the evidence said.

With the help of leading outside geneticists and a fresh look at the evidence by a new team of street-savvy investigators, the FBI concluded in recent months that only Ivins could reasonably have perpetrated the crimes.

Ivins, 62, a senior microbiologist at the government's elite biodefense research institute at Ft. Detrick, Md., died last Tuesday in an apparent suicide as federal prosecutors prepared to bring murder charges against him.

Records reviewed by The Times and interviews with people knowledgeable about the investigation provide new details about the trail of evidence that finally led to Ivins.

Since 1980, Ivins had specialized in developing vaccines against anthrax and other biological weapons. He experimented with animals, including monkeys, rabbits and guinea pigs.

Ivins had mixed spores shipped to Ft. Detrick from the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, a facility operated by the Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio, a private contractor that performs top- secret work for the CIA and other agencies.

[Paleo Conservative]

I think Molly Ivins would have been a more likely source.

[muawiyah]

Molly Ivins ran with the crowd that proposed the entire scenario of disgruntled white male lone scientist ~ the FBI hasn’t pursued any ideas beyond that, mostly wasting the money allocated for the investigation draining lakes and living well on travel.

[weegee]

a fresh look at the evidence by a new team of street-savvy investigators

WFT(sic)?? What does "street savvy" investigation have to do with domestic or international terrorism as refined in a laboratory?

[weegee]

the Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio, a private contractor that performs top- secret work for the CIA

I hope THAT detail wasn't a secret. The Boosh administration will be in big TROUBLE for "leaking" again...

[Minutemen]

Anthrax blend led FBI to Ivins

Whoopeee........Only took 'em 7 years!!

[zipper]

From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man. The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121789293570011775.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

[bimbo]

The Media is ready to close the case without seeing any evidence against Ivins.
I'd like to know what treatment Ivins was given during two weeks at Shepherd-Pratt (They can administer some psychotropic drugs that would frighten any sane individual.)
I'd also like to see some collaboration about Ivins threats to his therapy group that was alleged by Duley, after his Shepherd Pratt treatment.