Posted on 08/07/2008 11:49:06 AM PDT by Shermy
WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday outlined a pattern of bizarre and deceptive conduct by Bruce E. Ivins, an Army microbiologist who killed himself last week, presenting a sweeping but circumstantial case that he was solely responsible for mailing the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people in 2001.
After nearly seven years of a troubled investigation, officials of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department declared that the case had been solved. Jeffrey A. Taylor, the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, said the authorities believed “that based on the evidence we had collected, we could prove his guilt to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Lawyers for Dr. Ivins reasserted their late client’s innocence and criticized the government for presenting what they called “heaps of innuendo” that failed to link him directly to the crime and would never have to be tested in court. “It was an explanation of why Bruce Ivins was a suspect,” said Paul F. Kemp, who represented the scientist for more than a year before his death on July 29 at age 62. “But there’s a total absence of proof that he committed this crime.”
The conflicting views of Dr. Ivins emerged in a day of emotional crosscurrents. At a morning memorial service at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., weeping Army scientists praised Dr. Ivins as a beloved colleague “known for his patience and enthusiasm for science,” as a written program put it. At the same time, at F.B.I. headquarters in Washington, the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, and bureau officials were explaining to survivors of the anthrax attacks and relatives of the five people who died why they believe Dr. Ivins was a mass murderer.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That “acted alone” phrase sure sounds familiar .
Maybe now they can catch Whitey Bulger.
‘presenting a sweeping but circumstantial case’
How profound.
It's not really that suspicious once you accept the magic envelope theory.
He wrote scores of letters to members of Congress and the news media, sometimes under assumed names, the documents said. Investigators wrote that the mailings were “significant since all of the anthrax-laden letters were sent to” media organizations and Congress.But see here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0806081anthrax5.html
The FBI said "hundreds" of letters to and FROM "various members of society". Only "Among others" were to Senators and "various news organizations" (I bet mostly his local paper)>
Then the next paragraph focuses on media and Senate.
But there is nothing in this, when examined closely, that says letters to Senators and media were more than 1% of the letters. Maybe 5%. If it were 95% the FBI would be waving that flag. Additionally, did he write before to any of the victims?
“acted alone”
So what was the ‘until very recently’ heavy promotion of the angle that Hatfill was the one behind it?
Before the genetic analysis, all we knew was that it was the Ames strain and could have come from any number of labs around the world. But apparently the cost of sequencing a particular sample has come down a thousand fold between 2002 and now (I read an estimate of $500K to $500). Of course, the whole conclusion turns on the validity of the new techniques.
You're lying.
Again.
Love,
L
Surprise, surprise. No mention in the NY Times about Ivins being a long time and active Democrat.
Confirms one suspicion I’ve long held; at least some Democrats write scores of letters under assumed names - lying effectively - in order to make their numbers seem larger than they are or conceal biases.
Do you think this is true? Do we know this from any other source but the FBI?
The Bruce Ivins Memorial Poetry Nook
http://exiledonline.com/the-bruce-ivins-memorial-poetry-nook/
Rats Live On No Evil Star
(Ed Ode)
(A palindrome reads the same forwards and backwards)
Ma handed Edna ham
Ma is as selfless as I am
Kayak salad, Alaska yak.
Campus Motto: Bottoms up, Mac
Wow! Sis! Wow!
Wonton on salad? Alas, no, not now!
“Desserts, sis?” (Sensuousness is stressed).
Desserts I desire not, so long no lost one rise distressed.
“Do nine men interpret?” Nine men, I nod.
Doc, note I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.
May a moody baby doom a yam?
Marge let a moody baby doom a telegram.
Oh who was it I saw, oh who?
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo?
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
War! I saw ‘Nam — man was I raw.
We panic in a pew.
We’ll let Mom tell Lew.
‘Tis in a DeSoto sedan I sit.
To Idi Amin I am an idiot.
Race fast, safe car.
Rats live on no evil star.
Toot! Toot!
Too hot to hoot.
Stop, Syrian! I start at rats in airy spots.
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots.
Trap a rat! Stare, piper, at star apart!
Trade ye no mere moneyed art.
If I had a hi-fi!? If I had a hi-fi!?
I, madam, I made radio. So I dared! Am I mad? Am I?
Ah! A mop, a man, a map: Omaha!
Was it felt? I had a hit left, I saw.
Solo gigolos.
So many dynamos.
Oh, no! Don Ho.
Ogre, flog a golfer. Go!
Ten animals I slam in a net.
Pets, Ed, I sidestep.
Yo Bob, mug a gumbo boy!
Young Sten nets gnu! Oy!
Nurse, save rare vases, run!
Now, sir, a war is won.
Mad? Am I, madam?
Madam, in Eden, I’m Adam!
Reviled did I live, said I, as evil did I deliver.
Revered now I live on. O did I no evil, I wonder ever?
Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
Are we not drawn onwards, we few, drawn on to new era?
Dr. Nass notes the “overtime” before the first wave of letters is suspiciously the same over three days: 2 Hours, 15 minutes. Excerpt from Firedoglake’s timeline.
___________________________________
Spring 2001: Ivins taken off Special Immunization Program
September 7, 2001: Ivins put back on Special Immunization Program
September 14, 2001: Ivins works late for 2 hours 15 minutes
September 15, 2001: Ivins works late for 2 hours 15 minutes
September 16, 2001: Ivins works late for 2 hours 15 minutes
September 18, 2001: Less lethal “media” anthrax letters postmarked
...
September 28: Ivins works late for 1 hour 42 minutes
September 29, 2001: Ivins works late for 1 hour 20 minutes
September 30, 2001: Ivins works late for 1 hour 18 minutes
October 1, 2001: Ivins works late for 20 minutes
October 2, 2001: Ayaad Asaad interviewed about claim he was a bioterrorist; Judy Miller’s Germs published; Ivins works late for 23 minutes
October 3, 2001: Ivins works late for 2 hours 59 minutes
October 4, 2001: Ivins works late for 3 hours 33 minutes
October 5, 2001: Ivins works late for 3 hours 42 minutes; Bob Stevens, photo editor of Sun newspaper, dies
October 2001: Ames strain at Iowa State destroyed with consent of FBI
October 9, 2001: Ivins works late for 15 minutes; Daschle and Leahy letters postmarked
_______________________________________________
The good doctor thinks these identical times are a clerical error.
I think not.
I think they are a clerical malfeasance, of a mild sort, and more likely, Ivins did not do the overtime on those days.
I bet dollars to doughnuts Ivins had monthly or quarterly hour requirements for his job, that he missed a lot of days do to his troubles, and a helpful clerk entered bogus overtime to prop up his friend. Kind of like Hillary’s time records at her law firm.
Happens all the time. Since he was probably on salary, no overtime payouts would be a consequence. No money harm, no foul.
Here is what Dr. Nass says about Matsumoto
12. Ivins cursed about giving journalist Gary Matsumoto information requested in a Freedom of Information Act request. Matsumoto is a most peculiar journalist. We had a number of conversations. He would not get off the phone, sometimes staying on for an hour or more. He would harass me, in an attempt to shape the story. He worked very hard, trying to force me to say that the only problem with anthrax vaccine was its squalene adjuvant, although there were many reasons to question that assertion. I hung up on him more than once, exasperated, and no doubt I used some foul language describing our conversations to others.
“acted alone”
I can beat that,
“sole custodian”
BTW, did the documents reveal any “forensic psychiatrists” who labeled Ivins a “Homicidal maniac” or close to that? If so, that could mean that the FBI told that to Social Worker Duley, who told a judge “top forensic psychiatrists” made that conclusion.
The outrageous thing is the U S Attorney and FBI coming out and trashing a dead guy who cannot defend himself. Up front they concede it was a highly unusual step to speak about a case where the target had died and there was not a conviction or even charges filed BUT...we want to put the case in its best light now because the good Doctor cannot show how badly they bungled this investigation. The government can crush anyone. Ask Richard Jewell. These people are gutless wonders.
Some survivors of the attacks and members of Congress said they were persuaded by the evidence against Dr. Ivins, laid out in hundreds of pages of applications for search warrants unsealed for the first time. But some independent scientists, friends and colleagues of Dr. Ivins remained skeptical, noting that officials admitted that more than 100 people had access to the supply of anthrax that matched the powder in the letters.
I don’t believe it.
For one thing, how did this suspect know that the newspapermen killed in Florida, had a real estate agent wife who once helped the 911 hijackers find a place to live?
Whoever did this not only had anthrax, but what must have been secret information.
You're lying.
LOL.
I wonder what's harder to believe--
That the FBI is lying . . .
Or that the government allows a "homicidal" maninac with a history of psychological problems, to work in its deadly germs lab?
Some good blasts from the past:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/1873368.stm
‘Asked if he was tested for the germ that has killed three people already this month, or if he was taking precautionary antibiotics, Bush replied simply: ``I don’t have anthrax.’’
At least some White House personnel were given Cipro six weeks ago. White House officials won’t discuss that, or who might be receiving the anthrax-treating antibiotic now.
``If the White House were to start to reveal the security measures including health protections that are in place for the president ... people who would want to do harm to the president would know what protections are in place and therefore they could shift their tactics,’’ Fleischer said.
On the night of the Sept. 11 attacks, the White House Medical Office dispensed Cipro to staff accompanying Vice President Dick Cheney as he was secreted off to the safety of Camp David, and told them it was a precaution, according to one person directly involved.
At that time, nobody could guess the dimensions of the terrorists’ plot. ‘
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