* from DXer … Dr. Bruce Ivins had group therapy sessions scheduled on both September 17, 2001 and on October 8, 2001, the same dates the FBI says he was mailing the anthrax letters
Posted by Lew Weinstein on March 9, 2010
.
The New York Times says the FBI’s anthrax case has “too many loose ends.” Find out where some of those looses ends might have originated in my novel CASE CLOSED. Sure it’s fiction, but many readers, including a highly respected member of the U.S. Intelligence Community, think my premise is actually “quite plausible.”
* buy CASE CLOSED at amazon *
.
.
DXer said
The United States government has spent more effort studying the aerosolization of ebola as a bioweapon than — before Dr. Ivins suicide — it spent confirming that he attended his group therapy session with an addictions counselor on the nights it alleged he had mailed powderized anthrax.
How hard would it have been to do that? What would the effort required have been? Why didn’t they do it before his death?
Vet Pathol. 2012 Dec 23. [Epub ahead of print]
Pathology of Experimental Aerosol Zaire Ebolavirus Infection in Rhesus Macaques.
Twenhafel NA, Mattix ME, Johnson JC, Robinson CG, Pratt WD, Cashman KA, Wahl-Jensen V, Terry C, Olinger GG, Hensley LE, Honko AN.
Source
Fort Detrick, MD, USA.
Abstract
There is limited knowledge of the pathogenesis of human ebolavirus infections and no reported human cases acquired by the aerosol route. There is a threat of ebolavirus as an aerosolized biological weapon, and this study evaluated the pathogenesis of aerosol infection in 18 rhesus macaques. Important and unique findings include early infection of the respiratory lymphoid tissues, early fibrin deposition in the splenic white pulp, and perivasculitis and vasculitis in superficial dermal blood vessels of haired skin with rash. Initial infection occurred in the respiratory lymphoid tissues, fibroblastic reticular cells, dendritic cells, alveolar macrophages, and blood monocytes. Virus spread to regional lymph nodes, where significant viral replication occurred. Virus secondarily infected many additional blood monocytes and spread from the respiratory tissues to multiple organs, including the liver and spleen. Viremia, increased temperature, lymphocytopenia, neutrophilia, thrombocytopenia, and increased alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, total bilirubin, serum urea nitrogen, creatinine, and hypoalbuminemia were measurable mid to late infection. Infection progressed rapidly with whole-body destruction of lymphoid tissues, hepatic necrosis, vasculitis, hemorrhage, and extravascular fibrin accumulation. Hypothermia and thrombocytopenia were noted in late stages with the development of disseminated intravascular coagulation and shock. This study provides unprecedented insight into pathogenesis of human aerosol Zaire ebolavirus infection and suggests development of a medical countermeasure to aerosol infection will be a great challenge due to massive early infection of respiratory lymphoid tissues. Rhesus macaques may be used as a model of aerosol infection that will allow the development of lifesaving medical countermeasures under the Food and Drug Administration’s animal rule.
DXer said
GAO should make availabe this handwritten note written by Dr. Ivins on September 17, 2001 being withheld by DOJ.
A trash cover on ______________________________________________ at approximately 12:50 AM on August 04, 2008 refers to an item submitted to evidence
“17 Sep – group at Dr. Levy’s ~ 5-6PM [illegible]”
The FBI did not release it but should. The public may find that what Dr. Ivins wrote about his September 17, 2001 session at Dr. Levy’s to both be legible and relevant exculpatory evidence.
DXer said
Dr. Ivins had an alibi. He had a group therapy session scheduled at the time of first mailing. So anyone who didn’t have an alibi — for example, someone who was not living his wife and kids — would be a better prospect.
The sincerity of Mrs. Ivins’ belief in his innocence is revealed by her poignant note to him on the day of his death.
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_editorial.htm?StoryID=117013
Flawed science
Originally published February 21, 2011
The FBI’s weak case against Bruce Ivins, the lone suspect in the Amerithrax attacks, was dealt an embarrassing blow with Tuesday’s release of a report by the National Research Council.
The 170-page document, a review the FBI itself requested, stated that the case for Ivins’ culpability in the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001 was based largely on flawed science, and that the strength of that evidence was overstated by the FBI.
According to the report, over the course of its investigation, the FBI devoted 600,000 hours to the case and assigned 17 special agents to a task force along with 10 U.S. postal inspectors. The investigation spanned six continents and involved more than 10,000 witness interviews, 80 searches, 26,000 e-mail reviews, and analyses of 4 million megabytes of computer memory. It resulted in 5,750 grand jury subpoenas issued.
Twenty-nine government, university and commercial laboratories assisted in conducting the scientific analyses that were a central aspect of the investigation.
Despite all that, the council’s reports states: “It is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the B. anthracis in the mailings based on the available scientific evidence alone.”
In other words, despite what the FBI and Justice Department claimed, no one really knows where the anthrax came from that was used in the fatal mailings.
The council could not determine how skilled the manufacturer needed to be to produce the spores, which could have taken anywhere from two days to months to prepare. Also overturned was a conclusion by the Justice Department that the anthrax came from a flask created and maintained solely by Ivins.
From a purely scientific standpoint, there is no smoking gun to tie Ivins to the anthrax mailings.
The FBI, in our opinion, built their case on largely circumstantial evidence — that Ivins had to be the one because he fit the psychological profile.
With the science that underpinned that finding now in doubt, the FBI’s case is in tatters. We will probably never conclusively know if Ivins was guilty. And that the FBI used shoddy evidence to push him as the suspect, pre-emptively wrapping up the case after Ivins’ suicide in 2008, does not fulfill due process and is an injustice.
Even worse, if Ivins was not the anthrax mailer, the real killer, or killers, is still on the loose.
DXer said
When does Ed claim that Dr. Ivins travelled to mail the letters? And what is his evidence?
http://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/from-dxer-dr-bruce-ivins-had-group-therapy-sessions-scheduled-on-both-september-17-2001-and-on-october-8-2001-the-same-dates-the-fbi-says-he-was-mailing-the-anthrax-letters/
DXer said
A trash cover on ______________________________________________ at approximately 12:50 AM on August 04, 2008 refers to an item submitted to evidence
“17 Sep – group at Dr. Levy’s ~ 5-6PM [illegible]”
The FBI did not release it but should. The public may find that what Dr. Ivins wrote about his September 17, 2001 session at Dr. Levy’s to both be legible and relevant exculpatory evidence.
DXer said
The FBI can’t state a time when he travelled because there was no opportunity for him to travel. He had an alibi for the window of mailing — once it was revealed after his death.