Posted on 07/31/2008 10:29:15 PM PDT by hole_n_one
One of the nations top biodefense researchers has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailing assaults of 2001 that killed five, the Los Angeles Times has learned.
Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the past 18 years worked at the governments elite biodefense research laboratories at Fort Detrick, Md., had been informed of the impending prosecution, people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and with the FBI investigation said.
Ivins name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case that disrupted mail service and Senate business three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Maryland scientist had for years played a pivotal role in research to improve anthrax vaccines, preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.
Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins also had helped the FBI analyze the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senators office in Washington, D.C.
Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after having ingested a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, said a friend and colleague who declined to be identified out of concern, he said, that he would be harassed by the FBI.
The death -- without any mention of suicide -- was announced to Ivins colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, through a staffwide e-mail.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
The way we mocked the Justice Department’s press conference about Hatfill in 2002?
You were here back then. I’m sure you remember those.
Agreed, but add me to the list of people who are very skeptical. This reeks to me of total disinformation, and a very nice and handy way to "wrap up the case", and get people off the FBIs back about the anthrax.
If it's true though, and this really was the guy, then that means all the people who thought Hatfill did it were wrong.
What do you guys think about this bit of news?
Interested in hearing your thoughts here...
Understood.
Ivins didn’t have the skill set to make tyhe powder that was sent to Daschle. He may have stolen a powder from Detrick. The forensic evidence is the key. If they close the case now, it means no trial and no forensic evidence will ever have to be released. This is very convenient.
It’s inconceivable to me that anyone could trust anything the FBI says about this investigation at this point.
In seven years, they have nothing but a $5 million tab for smearing an innocent man. Now, out of the blue, we have a dead guy and a closed case? I don’t think so.
If our old pal “The Great Satan” were still here, I suspect that he would say this is the true wrapup of “Operation Amerithrax”!
My thought too. As a supposed murderer, using weapons-grade anthrax, you’d think he would choose a cleaner method.
hm.
bttt
Ping.
Someone NOT on that list. Dr. Phillip Zack
This thing is a major cover up.
A name the FBI managed not to leak until now? I'm shocked.
Wonder what his internet handle was?
Hmmm.
Dangerous job.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but this is pretty weird.
I don’t think the public will EVER find out who sent the anthrax letters.
A name the FBI managed not to leak until now? I'm shocked.
Wonder what his internet handle was?
I would think that if this guy really was about to be indicted that the "friend" and colleague would already have been thoroughly harassed by the FBI by now. And if the friend and colleague doesn't like being harassed why would he or she go to the press and for all practical purposes beg to be harassed by them instead? What kind of a friend tells the world that their dead buddy overdosed before the obit even makes the news?
I agree and I don't either, but the majority of people who don't follow this sort of stuff as closely as we do here at F.R. will generally swallow most of what they hear.
Most people are just going to assume that this guy was guilty all the way. But had Hatfill given up and committed suicide years ago instead of deciding to stand and fight, would people have believed the same thing about him? Almost certainly so.
Already, friends and colleagues of Ivins are beginning to come out to say that they don't believe he had anything to do with this.
Wow!
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