Posted on 08/07/2008 11:30:43 PM PDT by CutePuppy
August 7, 2008 · The FBI says that, with scientist Bruce Ivins' suicide, the case against him is effectively closed. Doubts are emerging, however, as to whether he really was the 2001 anthrax killer. His handwriting does not match up and he could not have possibly done it all alone, fellow scientists say.
FBI Details Case Against Anthrax Suspect
The Justice Department on Wednesday said Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins was "the only person responsible" for the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks.
Justice officials unsealed 14 search warrants and affidavits, outlining a damning but still largely circumstantial case against Ivins, who committed suicide late last month.
When asked about the strength of the case and their seeming certainty of Ivins' guilt, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey Taylor replied, "Circumstantial evidence? Sure, some of it is. But it is compelling evidence."
Ivins' attorney, Paul Kemp, said the evidence is anything but compelling and attacked not only the accuracy of the government's findings, but its very focus on Ivins, a suspect whose death now prevents either side from proving its case once and for all.
Ivins' Lawyer: 'He Didn't Do It'
"The idea that anyone could say they could convict someone with what they have is stunning," Kemp said. "They have nothing. There was not a single piece of evidence produced from all those search warrants and all those affidavits. He was a weird, bookish, nerdy kind of man. But he didn't do it. He was an open, caring, honest man with a great sense of humor who was beloved by his friends and family."
The case against Ivins largely rests on new scientific techniques that investigators believe directly link the anthrax used in the attacks to Ivins. According to the documents, genetic analysis of the spores show they match a batch of spores from the Army's lab at Fort Detrick, Md., and that Ivins was the "custodian" of them.
Taylor said Ivins was one of fewer than a dozen people in the country with the knowledge, capability and equipment necessary to pull off the attack. He said the flask investigators recovered from the lab was the "parent flask" of the anthrax that was sent through the mail, and he said that flask belonged to Ivins. Taylor called the flask "the murder weapon."
But on Wednesday, Kemp countered that hundreds of people had access to the flask and that the science behind the investigation is not as solid as it is being made out to be. He also added that Ivins cooperated with the investigation every step of the way.
False Samples Cited
That is a far cry from the picture Justice Department officials painted Wednesday. They say Ivins not only dodged their inquiries, but also tried to outright "mislead" investigators. They say Ivins submitted false anthrax samples from his lab to throw off investigators.
In one instance, the documents say, investigators asked Ivins for a specific sample of anthrax they needed. Ivins gave a sample, but when they went to the lab themselves and took the sample, it did not match what Ivins had given them. When they confronted Ivins, the documents say, he denied it was true.
Kemp says when investigators asked Ivins for an anthrax sample, he thought they were asking for a pure culture sample. It wasn't until six weeks later that they called and said they had wanted something else.
Kemp says Ivins never denied to the FBI that the anthrax could have come from his batch.
Ivins was restricted from the lab on Nov. 1, 2007, some six years after the attacks, according to an Army spokesperson.
A Deeply Troubled Man
What both Kemp and Justice officials agree on was that Ivins was struggling with his mental health. But they disagree as to the extent and relevance of his mental state.
The documents reveal a man deeply troubled for many years. The records show he sent an e-mail to someone he knew a few days before the attacks warning that "bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas" and have "just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans." The language is strikingly similar to the warning scratched across the anthrax letters, which said, "We have this anthrax ... Death to America ... Death to Israel."
Ivins told a co-worker he was suffering from serious mental health troubles, saying he feared he might not be able to control his behavior. A couple of months after the attacks, Ivins sent an e-mail to someone he knew, which included several poems he wrote about himself.
One said: "I'm a little dream-self, short and stout. I'm the other half of Bruce — when he lets me out. When I get all steamed up, I don't pout. I push Bruce aside, then I'm free to run about."
In an earlier e-mail, Ivins talked openly about his depression and paranoia and seeking help.
In 2000, he wrote: "The thinking now by the psychiatrist and counselor is that my symptoms may not be those of a depression or bipolar disorder, they may be that of a 'Paranoid Personality Disorder.' "
Kemp says Ivins "had mental troubles. But he always sought treatment for them. He was aware of his mental state, and he sought to correct it and took medication for it. He never denied it."
Taylor described Ivins as "a prolific letter-writer," who often sent mail under assumed names and from post office boxes. Taylor said Ivins mailed more than 68 letters to Congress and media organizations alone, the two targets of the deadly letters sent through the mail.
After-Hours At The Lab
The documents also reveal a sudden "spike" in Ivins' after-hours activity at the lab where the bacteria were stored in the weeks leading up to the attacks. Officials say when they asked Ivins why, he said only, "Home is not good."
Kemp says the government is mischaracterizing the "spike" and that over the course of his years working at the lab there were numerous instances when Ivins worked late. Kemp says Ivins also gave investigators information about the work he was doing that kept him there.
The documents do not fully explain why a man so beloved by his friends and co-workers would want to kill people with lethal bacteria. But the FBI asserts in the documents that Ivins was under pressure to help a private company produce an anthrax vaccine and that the company had just lost its Food and Drug Administration approval, suggesting he might have been trying to make the anthrax threat more pressing and real.
The Sorority Obsession
There were parts of Ivins' life that were unusual, including his apparent fascination with the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. The government described this interest darkly, as an obsession that dated back 30 years.
Officials offered a message he posted online under a different name:
"I like individual Kappas enormously, and love being around them. I never choose an enemy, but they've been after me since the 1960s, and REALLY after me since the late 1970s. At one time in my life, I knew more about KKG than any non-Kappa that had ever lived."
But Kemp says Ivins was merely interested in the idea of secret societies in the past, never had any obsession with any of the women and told investigators about the old interest freely.
Taylor said investigators had called Kemp recently to set up a meeting to outline their case against Ivins. But before the meeting could take place, Ivins committed suicide.
At Ivins' memorial service Wednesday, an Army official said a couple hundred people showed up at the Fort Detrick chapel for an hourlong service. Many were crying, and four colleagues spoke about him being a brilliant scientist, a mentor with a quirky sense of humor. They also talked of his scientific accomplishments and sang "Amazing Grace" at the end.
Taylor said Ivins' statements were inconsistent over time and failed to explain the evidence against him. He said, "We are confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks."
Now that Ivins is dead and the evidence will never be evaluated in court, there will always be some doubt as to whether that is in fact the case.
- This story was reported by NPR staffers Dina Temple-Raston, Ari Shapiro, Laura Sullivan, David Kestenbaum, Nell Greenfieldboyce, Allison Keyes, Tom Bowman and Katia Dunn. It was written by Laura Sullivan.
Thanks for posting that additional info, piasa.
The people who did the anthrax mailings are CONNECTED TO IRAQ according to the International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, March 2007 issue :
http://newsdetails.blogspot.com/2007/05/technical-intelligence-in-retrospect.html
Experts say the Ames anthrax didn’t match any of the Fort Detrick components.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation, suspecting that components from the Delta trainer might have been used to make the anthrax mailed in late 2001, examined the unit, officials and experts said. But investigators found no spores or other evidence linking it to the crime, they said.”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE6DB133AF931A35754C0A9659C8B63
Hi Dr. ZZ.
I assume you read all the links posted in post no. 4.
I’ll also post this for you.
If you any additional info you believe the FBI may be lacking,
please contact them.
I’m just a housewife and posting on this thread as a fyi courtesy.
#
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/august08/amerithrax080608.html
“ANTHRAX INVESTIGATION
Closing a Chapter”
08/06/08
PRESS RELEASE SNIPPET: “That science—creating a DNA equivalent of a fingerprint—allowed investigators to pinpoint the origins of the anthrax. The FBI Laboratory, in conjunction with the best experts in the scientific community, developed four highly sensitive and specific tests to detect the unique qualities of the anthrax used in the 2001 attacks. This took several years to accomplish, but in early 2005 the groundbreaking research successfully identified where the anthrax used in the mailings had come from.
Another key piece of evidence was provided when investigators were able to identify a limited geographic area where the anthrax envelopes were purchased based on a forensic investigation that revealed printing defects in certain batches of envelopes.”
adding 1 word to post no. 23: If you HAVE any additional info...
That has no bearing on the point I was making.
His lawyer is the one who claims he was beloved by his friends and family.
I just pointed out that the lawyer isn’t being entirely honest. He knows about the estranged brother, and he knows it isn’t truthful to imply that he was beloved by his whole family.
Anthrax case : Ivins is innocent, suspected for political reasons - VANITY
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2058470/posts
Ivins’s writings didn’t match the letters’s samples.
The letters were written by “non English native Speaker” according to studies.
It is a proof Ivins simply did not write the letters. So FBI is lying when it says Ivins is the only one responsible.
This “Amerithrax” investigation is pure crap.
Thanks for your feedback Dr ZZ.
If you have information for the FBI here is there web site:
Have a good day.
According to Senator Grassley, there will be a full Congressional investigation into the matter. Knowing him, there will not be any stone left unturned.
If there is a problem, and judging by the evidence, he** will be raised.
A lawyer not being entirely honest? You are kidding!
But, just for the heck of it, let’s parse what the lawyer actually said. Does “family” include only immediate family or parents and all siblings who were not living together with Bruce Ivins? And am I just not seeing the “whole” quoted in “his friends and family”? And is “estranged brother” that had not seen Bruce Ivins for 20 years and said he “was not sorry to see him dead” really a “family”?
And do we really need to be like some in FBI and nitpick a “family” to “prove” that his lawyer “isn’t being entirely honest”? I’ll take it as a given.
Obviously, there are elements within the government — Clintonoids, for starters — who are as dedicated to the “Bush Lied” mantra as the whackjobs over at DU and Daily Kos. They would have a vested interest in seeing to it that Iraq is not connected with the anthrax letters, a certain sign that Saddam not only had WMD, but was using it.
The Left’s entire house of cards is built on the “Bush Lied” meme. When you consider that, so many things that seem perplexing become crystal-clear.
So...did this paranoid, prolix, prolific encre pisseur pause to pen a suicide note?
No, not even something like “WSJ slimed me” by late Vince Foster...
Maybe he expected people / FBI would find it in his palindromes...
Oh, but wait, that’s one of the best parts in FBI theory - they watched him sneaking into the library, and using 2 computers to get his email and they suspect that a suicide note might be on one of them, so they “requisitioned” these 2 computers (apparently librarians didn’t object the intrusion into privacy in this case) to find his “suicide note”. Would not it be fascinating if they find a “note” where he described exactly how and why he did what he did and what reasons led to him choosing all “his” victims?
It’s not “some in the FBI” nitpicking his famly to prove a lawyer was lying, it was me.
I just made a comment that pointed out a fact, no need to get all emotional about it.
Of greater concern is an apparent relationship to Dr. Meryl Nass, and choice of lawyer. Ivins may have been responsible for putting some of the heat on Hatfill and others; that and a relationship with a peculiar leftwing Cuban-indoctrinated no-account anti-vaccine Dr. from Maine, who belongs to a little outfit called Physicians for Social Responsibility, [see Win Without War] an organization that was aiding the regime of Saddam Hussein on the matter of sanctions, should raise an eyebrow at minimum, particularly because while Nass’s friends on the left were taking potshots at other scientists, they overlooked both Ivins and al Timimi.
It may be Nass overstated her familiarity with Ivins. That’s what I thought at first, and I assumed he was getting the Hatfill treatment and she was just sticking her nose in to promote her website. But that may not be the case. I suggest taking a breath before automatically assuming he’s another Hatfill getting railroaded by the eeeeevil FBI. More than the FBI Hatfill was attacked by the left.
I’m not sure about Ivins and he shouldn’t be assumed to be anything at this point. One thing I don’t believe is that if he is guilty he was alone. I don’t think this was a one-person job, and I don’t think an anti-abortion stance was the motive, though if he is guilty that will be the press’s angle on it, rather than on his other politics. I have thought all along that the anthrax attackers were linked to the anti-vaccine effort, and a true link to Nass should- pardon the pun- raise red flags.
I’m not convinced of Ivins’ guilt. I have a vague recollection that I read somewhere yesterday or the day before that Ivins was working on an athrax vaccine. If he were opposed to vaccines, then why would he be trying to develop one. The FBI was suggesting that Ivins had a financial motive for the anthrax mailings and that he wanted to scare lawmakers and the public into funding vaccine research.
I’m too lazy at the moment to try to find where I read such. I could have heard it on the radio. Who knows! :-)
Or maybe, I became obtuse due to temporary lack of quality sleep and meat and bacon in my Kibbles and Bits. This too shall pass, FRiend.
Now, to the meat of the issue. Considering (from what I read) that Ivins was an active Democrat (though, apparently, anti-abortion) and must have had Democrat friends, the "choice" of lawyer may not be surprising. I don't know who recommended CCA for his counseling (and how and why Duley with her police record became his "counselor"), and I don't know who recommended (or imposed) this lawyer to him.
I asked some of these questions here : http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2057540/posts
I can only surmise that when the left found Ivins was the subject of FBI investigation they wanted to take control of the spin and be on the inside of the investigation (through his lawyer) no matter what Ivins' "involvement" with Amerithrax was - an expert, helping investigators and co-inventor of vaccine, or perpetrator. Reminds me a little bit of Libby who was answering question hoping to help Plamegate "investigation"...
One thing that could help find this out would be to learn when Paul Kemp became his lawyer, and correlate that with when he became a "subject" of FBI investigation. We need a lot more information than bits and pieces provided so far by FBI. There must be some people in Maryland who could help provide some of these answers.
I don't make any conclusions about guilt or innocence of Ivins, in fact I don't know that much about the case, just trying to find and post some relevant information and ask some questions. And so far, on the basis of what FBI produced and the caliber of their witnesses (like Jean Duley) compared to opinion of many of his colleagues at the lab (who hardly have much of a reason to cover things up, especially after Hatfill experience), it's very thin, to say the least. It's like they are throwing multiple charges against the wall, hoping that one or the other will stick with one or the other "groups" of people - after all, they are taking their case to the "court of public opinion". And they are playing what amounts to "identity criminal politics" with this case.
Most of Ivins' idiosyncrasies could be easily explained by psychology of many brilliant men, which he undoubtedly was, and the stress of being under investigation and harassment. Whether Ivins was a willing or unwitting participant, or not a participant at all in the anthrax attacks, this case should not be "closed" - and that's exactly what [some people at] FBI and DOJ are so obviously anxious to do, for whatever reasons, and in a very deceitful way. And that raises yet another "red flag". And that's exactly why we should keep questioning entire Amerthrax investigation, and keep digging the facts from [more] reliable sources.
That's one of the "theories" about "motive" that FBI is throwing out, but it's very doubtful. Ivins was on the "inside" and after the attacks could simply suggest this to appropriate people without raising his profile, and he was smart enough to know to keep low profile, yet he seemingly was doing exactly the opposite, writing letters and emails. There was enough panic about anthrax and potential follow-up attacks and daily talks about Cipro and vaccines.
Now, the "avian flu" and need for vaccine or facing the death of quarter of Earth population, on the other hand, was mostly hype.
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