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 ...
I believe they are lying through their teeth again, as well. If they wish to start a new "file" on me, as well, then so be it. They can file it right alongside the old one...
the infowarrior
From the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/washington/08scientist.html
...Jeffrey Adamovicz, who was Dr. Ivins’s supervisor at the time, remembers the day the scientists opened that envelope, placed in a double-sealed bag inside a protective hood designed to deal with dangerous pathogens.
“The anthrax was floating around inside the bag,” Mr. Adamovicz said. “It was very scary.”
He said he turned to Dr. Ivins and said, “That stuff is amazing.”
“Yes, it is unbelievable,” he recalled Dr. Ivins replying. “I have never seen anything like that.”
....
He was particularly struck by the airborne nature of the deadly strain of anthrax found in the letters. Ellen Byrne, the wife of Dr. Byrne, remembers Dr. Ivins explaining how crafty the perpetrator had been to get the anthrax to be so finely ground that it was almost as light as air.
At a party, Dr. Ivins leaned over and, with his long, bony fingers, illustrated how the powder just sort of floated.
“He was just astonished,” Mrs. Byrne said. “Flabbergasted.”
“This was something that none of us ever dreamed of,” she remembered him saying. “It just could not be weighed. It could not be measured. It just hovered.”
“The evidence that they are incompetent is as compelling as is their evidence that this Ivins guy is guilty.”
That’s the money quote of the thread.
The more I read, the more convincing it the case for FBI incompetence.
The more I read, the less convinced I am this man committed this crime.
It sounds like Mr. Ivins had many friends at the lab.
It will probably take alot of courage to buck the FBI and write a book about all the ins and outs in that lab.
But I suspect someone who worked with him will eventually contradict the FBI’s case with their eyewitness testimony.
I’m beginning to wonder if they knew he was depressed and suicidal and intentionally drove him into the ditch.
an expert I talked to who knows this stuff questioned how Ivins was able to dry that much anthrax..its evidently a hard thing to pull off
“its evidently a hard thing to pull off”
I’m sure it is.
And I’m sure the real experts here are not the FBI investigators - but the men and women who were working in that lab alongside Dr. Ivins.
I will be waiting for their opinions, articles, and books.
Amazing! Laying groundwork for future “dead guy did it” investigations? High strangeness on the order of the zoom-climb TWA video produced by the CIA. (see Jack Cashill video “What’s the Matter with California?” during the Q&A near the end) “Still shaken that tree Boss!” IMHO
For my money,the picture of Dr. Ivins being “hounded into suicide” doesn’t quite work.
At this point, I have no reason to dis-believe the FBI’s conclusions,especially on learning he was in the habit of “just going off” on long trips (and turning back the odometer so his wife wouldn’t know.)This makes a trip to Princeton entirely feasible-although his motives for doing so-other than mis-direction-are hard to figure out.
His suicide seems to have been planned out. You don’t just whip up a batch of sedatives,scarf it down, and hope for the best. You have to get the drugs,research them, etc.
Finally, his suicide accomplished something vital: the total preservation of his (post-mortem)employee benefits.
He had not been charged or indicted.He was under suspension because of concerns about his psychological state:concerns he may have deliberately inflated to insure he was officially on disability status.
His wife will be entitled to a survivor portion of his retirement pension (assuming he made that election)-and may even be entitled to some form of disability award.Assuming his life insurance had passed the “incontestability period”-usually 2 years-she would also be entitled to that.
Not much different from a situation most of us are familiar with: the cop who is in deep trouble, and “eats his gun” before he can be charged.
This could be a movie with treachery by the FBI. I'm not happy with the way they've smeared this man without positive proof...
I hate to resort to profanity, but, totally f*cking ridiculous.
Does anyone seriously believe this rubbish? It literally becomes more preposterous by the day.
So does Barack Obama.
Here's my 2 cents. Sounds like this anthrax was something unique and highly engineered, perhaps beyond the bounds of what this govt lab could achieve, perhaps not.
So Dr. Ivins may have tracked down and deducted which facilities had the capability to perform this minute and precise an engineering process. There couldn't be that many around the world, and as an expert in the field, Dr. Ivins may very well have followed one of Sherlock Holmes' maxims, and tracked down the source.
Remember a poster named BettyJo.
BioPort.
If Dr. Ivins had come up with a reasonable speculation as to where it came from, the who might have suggested itself.
At which point all he could do was off himself, naturally.
Read today’s post by peer review journal and add another comment.
http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/
August 8, 2008 - People on an email forum have been discussing what was found in an Associated Press article yesterday. The article says this:
Separately on Thursday, the FBI said in an affidavit that computers recently seized from a Frederick, Md., library may hold clues about Ivins and the mailings.
Ivins used the computers for about 90 minutes on July 24 to read e-mail and review a Web site dedicated to the anthrax investigation, Special Agent Marlo Arredondo wrote in the seven-page document. Ivins went to the library on the day he was released from a two-week psychiatric hospital stay that followed his counselor’s petition for a protective order — and just a few days before he took his own life.
A check of my web site logs found a visit at 6:13 p.m EDT from www.fcpl.org, which is the Frederick County Public Libraries. Assuming that was Ivins, he just looked at the main page, not going anywhere else. But the main page on that day had my comments for July 24, 2008 which were all about Kelli Arena’s interview with FBI Director Mueller which include a link to the video and these quotes from Director Mueller:
I’m confident that it [the anthrax case] will be resolved.
I tell you, we’ve made great progress in the investigation. It’s in no way dormant.
I never got any emails from Ivins, as far as I know, and I know all the people who sent me emails on July 24. I’ve had a great number of visits from Frederick County Public Libraries over the years. I have no way of knowing how many were from Ivins. He may not have aways used the same computer, maybe not even the same library.
The visit from the Fredrick County Public Libraries on July 24 was the result of a Google search for “Ed Lake.” That might seem creepy or ominous, but, in reality, it’s the way a lot of people access my site - if they don’t use a bookmarks/favorite list. It allows them to type in a minimal number of characters to get to my site.
I don’t know who to contact at the FBI to tell them this, but, since there doesn’t seem to be anything “confidential” about it, putting it on my web site seems as good a way as any. The FBI can call me if they need more details.
Post #56 says it all.
Before this case can be considered closed
(which I doubt ever will happen)
the FBI will have to reveal the location of BL4 lab
where it was produced
and the equipment used to make it.
#62 Yes what is described in the NYT article has been confirmed
by other independent sources.
One prominent expert
(I forget who)
said the powdered anthrax floated like smoke.
They never had seen anything like that before.
Re CSRS/FERS retirement ~ the spouse gets the spousal benefit if you die on the job. You don’t have to make an election beforehand. It’s only when you retire that you have to make the election.
If Ivins had “communist ties” they were probably with some of the same folks Obama’s commie connections originate.
Sorry I forgot to ping you on this one.
Thanks. I’m in a state system,which works a bit differently.
We were forced to make an election-or refuse the election:decision generally irrevocable.
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