http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyID=78992
Scientists: FBI destroyed Ivins’ matching anthrax sample
Originally published August 19, 2008
By Justin M. Palk
News-Post Staff
WASHINGTON — Contrary to initial reports, Bruce Ivins did give investigators a sample of the anthrax the FBI has identified as the same type used in the attacks, but they destroyed it because it didn’t meet their standards for evidence.
FBI scientists released that information Monday in a briefing at FBI headquarters, where researchers who assisted in the investigation discussed the scientific process they used to track the anthrax used in the 2001 mailings back to Fort Detrick and Ivins.
...Ivins submitted two sets of samples to the FBI. The first, sent in February 2002, did not meet the standards the FBI had set for a library of samples it was building, said Vahid Majidi, assistant director of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. The FBI destroyed that sample and Ivins submitted another set in April 2002.
Ivins’ first sample would have been scientifically valid but difficult to use as evidence in court because it was gathered in a different manner than the other samples in the library, said an FBI scientist who refused to identify himself at the briefing.
...In 2006, investigators went to Dr. Paul Keim, a Northern Arizona University biology professor who had been helping them identify the anthrax, and Keim gave them duplicates of all the anthrax samples, the unnamed FBI scientist said. Keim had kept his copy of Ivins’ February 2002 sample, and testing identified it as RMR-1029.
Chris Hassell, head of the FBI laboratory, said he couldn’t explain why Ivins would submit one sample of anthrax matching RMR-1029, then later submit a sample that did not match.
...Out of 1,070 samples gathered, eight matched the powder used in the mailings, Majidi said. All of them were from RMR-1029 or its descendant.
More than 100 people at two labs — USAMRIID and a lab officials refused to identify — had access to RMR-1029, Majidi said. Officials did not explain how they eliminated those other people from their investigation.
Anthrax suspect’s attorney chides FBI’s ‘evolving’ case
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1462645
WASHINGTON - While the FBI and federal prosecutors are confident the case against the sole suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks would have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, Bruce Ivins’ attorney says the government is not providing enough information to allow the public to judge for itself.
Attorney Paul Kemp tells WTOP the FBI and prosecutors are tweaking the case against Ivins in a way that wouldn’t be allowed in court.
“They get to control the flow of information and are doing so selectively and speculatively in a way that they’re trying to implicate Dr. Ivins.”
...Given the government’s ability to control evidence, Kemp doesn’t think Ivins will ever be judged fairly in the court of public opinion.
“I bet if you asked Steven Hatfill in 2002, ‘Is there any hope that your name will be restored?’ He would have said, ‘No, I don’t think so. Not when you have all the might and weight and finances of the federal government.’ If you asked him today, he’d say ‘My reputation still has not been restored, no matter what sum of money they agreed to pay me. My reputation is worth far more than any dollar amount that anybody could place on it.’ So, I’m not optimistic.”
...At times, the officials and scientists contradicted themselves, even down to the number of flasks containing the anthrax Ivins had. They eventually agreed it was one one-liter triangular flask capped with cheesecloth that linked Ivins to the attacks.
“Every day you can see this case evolving and it goes from, ‘He’s the only person who had access to the anthrax’ — to — ‘More than a 100 people had it, but we’re convinced he is the one that did it.’”