* Bruce Ivins Wasn’t the Anthrax Culprit

Richard Spertzel wrote in the Wall Street Journal (8-5-09) …

• Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001.
• But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case.
• I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.
• The spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it.
• Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute.
• The latest line of speculation asserts that the anthrax’s DNA, obtained from some of the victims, initially led investigators to the laboratory where Ivins worked. But the FBI stated a few years ago that a complete DNA analysis was not helpful in identifying what laboratory might have made the product.
• The FBI has not officially released information on why it focused on Ivins, and whether he was about to be charged or arrested.
• And when the FBI does release this information, we should all remember that the case needs to be firmly based on solid information that would conclusively prove that a lone scientist could make such a sophisticated product.
• From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man.

Mr. Spertzel, head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom from 1994-99, was a member of the Iraq Survey Group. Read the entire article at … http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121789293570011775.html

LMW COMMENT …

It seems that the case against the FBI is far stronger than the FBI’s supposed case against Dr. Bruce Ivins. It is infuriating that the FBI would charge a man in a crime of mass murder with so little factual basis to support its conclusions.

It was skepticism like that expressed by Mr. Spertzel that prompted me to write CASE CLOSED. My focus in the novel is on why the FBI failed to solve the case. It is my theory that they were told not to.

Who would have the power to divert the FBI investigation?

And why would they do it?

see an introduction to CASE CLOSED at … * see CASE CLOSED VIDEO on YouTube

CASE CLOSED is on amazon (Kindle now, paperback in mid-June) … * purchase CASE CLOSED at amazon (Kindle format)

* Evidence revealed by the scientists investigating the US anthrax attacks shows how the FBI pinned the attack spores to a single flask, but doesn’t nail FBI suspect Bruce Ivins.

Debora MacKenzie writes in Scie3nce Direct (2-29-09)

• KEY forensic evidence in the US anthrax attacks of 2001 has been revealed. The FBI had previously prevented the scientists involved from speaking publicly about their findings in case this interfered with court proceedings, but last August, after chief suspect Bruce Ivins committed suicide, the case collapsed and the FBI lifted many of the restrictions.
• This week, some of the scientists involved revealed their results at a scientific meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.
• These show how the FBI traced the spores used in the attacks to a single flask at a US government lab, but they don’t explain why the FBI made Ivins – who worked at the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) – the chief suspect.
• The FBI may have evidence to show Ivins was the link between RMR-1029 and the envelopes, though with civil suits from Ivins’ and the victims’ families pending, the bureau won’t be revealing it soon. For now, the researchers say their studies nail the spores as coming from the flask, but not the identity of the attacker.

Go to the article at … http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B83WY-4VPV7F4-N&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=931bdc0a93f4e2998c4092dbae38bcd5

 

LMW COMMENT … more support for the essential premise of my novel CASE CLOSED, which is that the FBI has failed to solve the case. My novel asks the question why?

see an introduction to CASE CLOSED at … * see CASE CLOSED VIDEO on YouTube

CASE CLOSED is on amazon (Kindle now, paperback in mid-June) … * purchase CASE CLOSED at amazon (Kindle format)