Bruce Ivins
Posted on 08/29/2008 7:25:37 AM PDT by Prunetacos
When Norm Covert, a conservative former Fort Detrick public affairs officer, and attorney Barry Kissin, liberal activist opposing Detrick's biolab expansion, agree that Bruce Ivins was not the anthrax killer, either the world's spinning off its axis, or the truth is staring us so hard in the face we'd have to be blind to miss it. Covert's piece this week in thetentacle.com establishes what many in our community, including scientists and support staff at USAMRIID, past and present, know: Bruce Ivins had nothing to do with preparing or sending the anthrax letters. --
(Excerpt) Read more at fredericknewspost.com ...
ping
ping
Safe to say.
“And now, the late Dr. Bruce Ivins, apparently dead of an overdose of medicine, is accused. The FBI says its “creative application” of science led it to identify the DNA of the culprit B. anthracis as being on a beaker in Dr. Ivins’ lab. The evidence does not indicate what implicates Dr. Ivins, except that it was identified as “his” beaker in “his” lab.
Dr. Ivins and more than one hundred researchers, assistants, veterinarians and others have used the lab for its work on the vaccines. They dirtied the lab in analyzing the envelopes and contents, which had been mailed to the Florida editorial office of a weekly tabloid newspaper, NBC News in New York City and the office of Sen. Tom Daschle (D., SD) in Washington.
Scientists at Fort Detrick would love to get their hands on this scientific breakthrough. The FBI says it will ultimately publish peer reviewed papers on it. The bench work probably would constitute a boon to the team at Fort Detrick, which has labored since 1980 to develop an improved medical countermeasure against B. anthracis.
“Alas!” or, “Hark!” whatever the better exclamation, the arrival of envelopes containing “white powder” at Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign offices in Denver, CO, and Manchester, NH, last week sounded a familiar note.......”
August 27, 2008
White Powder and 007
Norman M. Covert
http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2747
mark
From what I can tell, nobody who actually knows the man seems to believe he did it, with the exception of his brother, who appears to have been estranged from the family for like 25 years.
“When a conservative former Fort Detrick public affairs officer, and a liberal activist opposing Detrick’s biolab expansion, agree that Bruce Ivins was not the anthrax killer...”
there is no logic in this leading statement, which makes me think the whole article is junk.
George Bush and John Kerry agree we should spend $50 billion on AIDS in Africa. Does this make it right?
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
“When a conservative former Fort Detrick public affairs officer, and a liberal activist opposing Detrick’s biolab expansion, agree that Bruce Ivins was not the anthrax killer...”
“there is no logic in this leading statement, which makes me think the whole article is junk.”
Yea, you’ve got a good point there.
Is it then fair to say that you believe that Ivins WAS the anthrax mailer?
“Norm Covert, a conservative former Fort Detrick public affairs officer] echoes what is widely reported by reputable scientists. The anthrax in the mailings, he says, was “highly bred, weapons-grade ... with a silica coating and a slight electrical charge so that each particle repelled the other ... each particle no more than five microns.” Ivins had neither the expertise nor the equipment to create such a sophisticated form of anthrax.....”
Who is Norman Covert and what did he know?
Army’s ‘Anthrax Tower’ Still Stands, Sentry to Germ’s Longevity
“When it gets into spore form it can hide just about anywhere,” Covert said of anthrax.
Electric frying pans with a solid form of the compound paraformaldehyde were placed throughout the building then heated, releasing clouds of poisonous gas inside the sealed structure. Bacteria, similar to anthrax, were left inside to serve as “markers” indicating whether the gas worked.
“But, because it was anthrax, they could only say that it was 99.9 percent safe,” Covert said, adding that everything inside the building had potentially been exposed to the microscopic bacterium.....”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,37508,00.html
Sorry-
Ping.
Who is Norm Covert and what does he know:
A History of Fort Detrick, Maryland
Cutting Edge...A History of Fort Detrick, Maryland” was originally compiled and written by Norman M. Covert, Fort Detrick’s public affairs officer and historian from 1977 to 1999.
Mr. Covert has retired from his Fort Detrick position and lives in Frederick, Maryland.
http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/index.cfm
“From what I can tell, nobody who actually knows the man seems to believe he did it, with the exception of his brother, who appears to have been estranged from the family for like 25 years.”
‘Blindsided’ By Suicide
This year, the plan had been for Charles to see Bruce at home in Fredrick, Md., in August. Then the suicide happened. Charles and his son were shocked. Charles said they were “blindsided” by it.
While Charles had been vaguely aware that his brother was depressed and that the anthrax investigation was weighing on him, he didn’t understand how much. He figured it came with the territory.
“I knew that he and just about everyone at Fort Detrick was under a microscope after” the anthrax attacks, he said. “He never did give me any details about what was going on, but I am sure he was being investigated.”
Charles said Bruce just told his older brother that the FBI had questioned him.
“He was feeling pretty depressed over the investigation,” Charles said. “Of course, who wouldn’t? So, I felt like a brother. He needed some support, so I was going to fly up there and be an objective listener.”
Charles had already rehearsed what he was going to say. “I was going to have a little tough-love chat with him about different things,” he said. “You know, one brother to another. Basically, sometimes you need someone in the family to say, ‘Straighten up, feel better and don’t let it knock you down.’”
Charles never got the chance to have that conversation. His brother killed himself just weeks before their annual holiday was set to begin. But even after his brother’s suicide, Charles said it was hard for him to accept the idea that his brother could have been behind the anthrax mailings. “I just can’t imagine that, ever.”
A Look At The Evidence
But it became clear that Charles had never actually seen the evidence against his brother or read the affidavits accompanying the FBI’s search warrants. And as he read the evidence for the first time, wordlessly handing pages to his wife Nita, pointing out passages, darkness crept into his expression.
After several minutes of reading, he looked ashen. “I’m stunned now, I am just totally stunned,” he said.
He picked up the affidavits and straightened them on the table before him. Then he sank into himself and put his face in his hands. “The evidence that you showed me today has really gotten me.” He thought for a moment. “It threw me for a loop, really did, really just flabbergasted me.”
As Charles and his wife read the affidavits, they appeared to fill in the blanks — the way only people who knew Bruce could do. They read the poems he wrote about feeling like he was two people, instead of just one. They read about Bruce sending packages to someone with a fictitious return address. They winced. They seemed to know who Bruce was sending packages to, even though the name on the affidavit was redacted. Then Charles sighed.
“It’s just tough for me to deal with, that’s all. Just tough for me to deal with,” he said.
Asked if it seemed like the brother he knew, Charles said, “No, it does not, that’s the part that just stuns me.”
Did things in the affidavit seemed to ring true? Did others seem hollow or false? Charles shook his head.
“I’m not going to go there,” he said. “I don’t know what to think. It’s difficult.”
Asked if he thought it was possible that the FBI was right, Charles said, “Ah, well, it is always possible the FBI is right.”
Charles emphasized that he didn’t necessarily think the FBI was right this time about his brother. But he didn’t rule it out either.
Related NPR Stories
Aug. 10, 2008
Charles Ivins Says Brother’s Suicide ‘Blindsided’ Him.....”
Bruce Ivins grew up in the City of Lebanon in Warren County.
People who work and live there say they were tipped off that Ivins was part of an FBI investigation. They say FBI agents spent several days in the Warren County community in the Spring asking many questions about Ivins.
Downtown business owner Mike McMurray said, “We didn’t really know what it was so when this news came out it was like, uh oh.”
McMurray also owns the house Ivins grew up in.
“I remember the FBI asking if there was anything in the house unusual,” McMurray added, “I’d say what do you mean, unusual? They said, I can’t say.”
Ivins brother Tom lives in Middletown, about 10 miles from Lebanon. He hasn’t talked to Bruce in 20 years, and said nothing to defend his brother.
“It was his own fault, I thought,” said Tom Ivins. “What he did, he screwed himself up. He got involved with the wrong people.”
Tom Ivins said the FBI asked him a lot of questions too.
“They talked to me about my personal history, relationship with my two brothers,” said Ivins.
Bruce Ivins graduated from Lebanon High School in 1964. His brother describes Bruce as smart. Bruce was involved in a long list of activities including Honor Society, Track, Choir and Science Fair.
The people who run the Warren County History Center in Lebanon say FBI agents spent hours in their library looking for records of Ivins’ family history.
Downtown business owners say agents also stopped in Heritage House Gifts and spent some time in the basement. This is the same building where Ivins’ father ran a drug store years ago. Bruce worked in the store until going to college.
The store owner says agents left her store with nothing.
“There’s a lot of history to the building but who would have guessed this would have been the history,” said Laura Ferguson.
Tom Ivins says his brother probably didn’t work alone.
He’s confident that if others were involved, the FBI will be after them too.”
Bruce Ivins
Conclusive evidence of means, motive and opportunity are missing
Case Analysis in a Nutshell
1. Ivins cannot be placed at the Princeton mailbox at either of the two times he would have to have been there.
2. There are additional hoax letters that have not been discussed by FBI in the information released Wednesday; may we assume Ivins could not be placed at those mailbox locations during the requisite windows of opportunity?
3. No official evidence has come forward indicating the nature of the Daschle/Leahy spore preparation, nor whether Ivins possessed the knowledge regarding its production, or access to the necessary equipment.
4. No convincing motive has been presented, although a variety of implausible motives have been suggested.
5. Although many other people with a strong motive can be identified, there is no evidence they were investigated by FBI and exculpated
6. “The FBI sought out the best experts in the scientific community and, over time, four highly sensitive and specific tests were developed that were capable of detecting the unique qualities of the anthrax used in the 2001 attacks.” However, details about the microbial forensic analysis have not been released, and may not be available for months or years pending publication. Scientists doubt that any forensic analysis can do more than identify the precise strain of anthrax.
7. The pre-franked envelopes could not be identified as coming from Ivins’ post office, as initially claimed, but were instead sold in multiple post offices, none of which was definitely in Frederick.
8. Ivins was not the “sole custodian” of the RMR-1029 strain; over 100 people had access to it and they may have shared it with others. How was Ivins selected as a suspect and the others exonerated?
9. Handwriting analysis has not linked him to the crime.
10. He could not be linked to the Quantico letter that fingered Dr. Assaad. He could not be linked to any efforts to finger Dr. Hatfill.
11. No physical evidence links him to the crime: this includes the tape on the letters, fibers, human DNA, spores in his car, home or personal effects, evidence of any kind he travelled to the areas where the letters were mailed, including purchasing enough gasoline for a 7 hour trip to Princeton, twice.
12. He passed two polygraph examinations at Fort Detrick.
13. Since the FBI has been unable to build a convincing case against any one individual in the 7 years since the letters were sent, why didn’t it focus on identifying a conspiracy of individuals who together may have been able to perform the complex actions required to send the anthrax letters and hoax letters?
Posted by Meryl Nass, M.D.
Kristof Eases Guilty Conscience With a Series of ‘What If’ Scenarios
It’s not easy being mean
You have to give Nicholas Kristof his due, the man is not totally incapable of feeling. After using the New York Times for his personal vigilante crusade to take down the men who instigated the anthrax attacks in 2002, Kristof has been feeling guilt pangs for perhaps being over-zealous with his information to the FBI.
This is relevant now because the man that Kristof originally fingered as the culprit, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, was exonerated while the purported real criminal, Bruce Ivins, recently committed suicide before he was able to be tried. And Nicholas bucks it up like a true gentleman and issues a public retraction and apology to Hatfill, albeit eight years after the fact.
But Nick isn’t content to let the matter drop, and wants the American public to walk a mile in his shoes with these fun hypothetical scenarios. What would you do if you were presented with questionable information of the “maybe wrong” variety but realized you were perhaps sitting on a big story?
Hypothetically speaking, of course, what would you do if:
You learn that the local high school girls’ basketball coach has been repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct and has left three previous schools under a cloud of suspicion. The school authorities seem paralyzed and are encouraging the teacher to move again before the next school year, but the police have not been involved. The coach says he is leaving the area and probably teaching. He pleads with you to let the matter drop and hints that a scandal might drive him to kill himself. Do you write anything?
There should be a whole book of these questions that they pass out in Journalism 101. The line between professional and personal integrity can sometimes be murky, to be sure, but is using an exercise from Donnie Darko really the best method for pleading your case?
“No Duh” is a product of fear, Kristof.
http://www.jossip.com/kristof-eases-guilty-conscience-with-a-series-of-what-if-scenarios-20080828/
The City of Wasilla, Alaska, launched its first website in 2002.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021014100257/http://www.cityofwasilla.com/
Mayor’s Office
Welcome to Wasilla!
We are very excited about our brand new online presence, and we hope our residents and visitors alike will find it useful and informative.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021015063654/www.cityofwasilla.com/mayor/
Maybe Amerithrax, to inspire confidence, just needed a better website?
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