They did a very similar job on Hatfill - leaked very prejudical rumours about him to the media. But he was a stronger character, and faced them down.
Ivins seems to have committed suicide because they got hold of discreditable information about his sex life. He used to have a fetish for wearing women’s knickers, or something (and, therefore, he must be a bio-terrorist! YEAH!) He also used to buy pornographic pictures.
They were making all this public. He should have just faced them down, like that Flynt guy who publishes Hustler, and who said “America is the greatest country in the world, because America is the freest country in the world.”