* the FBI’s Amerithrax Investigation site offers little information, nothing at all after August 2008, no response at all to the many valid questions that have been raised

The FBI’s Amerithrax Investigation web site (http://www.fbi.gov/anthrax/amerithraxlinks.htm) contains the following …

• Soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01, letters laced with anthrax began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five Americans were killed, 17 were sickened, and the nation was terrorized in what became the worst biological attacks in U.S. history.
• The ensuing investigation by the FBI and its partners—code-named “Amerithrax”—has been one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement.
• In August 2008, Department of Justice and FBI officials announced a breakthrough in the case and released documents and information showing that charges were about to be brought against Dr. Bruce Ivins, who took his own life before those charges could be filed.
• A public release of evidence regarding a suspect who has not been charged is uncommon, but was undertaken in this case because of the extraordinary public interest in the investigation and, because of Ivins’ death, the government would be unable to take the case to trial and present its evidence.
• During the course of the investigation, the Amerithrax Task Force, comprised of 17 special agents and 10 U.S. postal inspectors, conducted more than 9,100 interviews, executed more than 70 searches, and followed leads across six continents. In addition, new scientific methods were developed that ultimately led to the break in the case— methods that could have a far-reaching impact on future investigations.

For more information on the Amerithrax investigation:

• Science Briefing on the Investigation — August 18, 2008
• Release of Affidavits — August 6, 2008
• DOJ Press Conference — August 6, 2008
• Closing a Chapter on Anthrax — August 6, 2008
• Amerithrax Fact Sheet — September 2006
• Letter to Congressman Rush-Holt — September 28, 2006
• Letter Addressed to Senator Patrick Leahy — November 2001:
• Forensic Analysis: An Interview with Joseph DiZinno of the FBI Laboratory
• The Search for Anthrax
• Press Release of November 19, 2001
• Press Release of November 16, 2001
• Linguistic/Behavorial Analysis of the Anthrax Letters — November 9, 2001
• Statement of Director Mueller — October 16, 2001

 

LMW COMMENT …

That’s the entire article, all the FBI has to tell the American people about their investigation into a case of mass murder that terrorized America.

There is nothing posted by the FBI that deals with all the doubt and skepticism that ensued from their CASE CLOSED announcement that Dr. Ivins was the sole perpetrator. The FBI obviously feels no obligation to convince the American people, or even the U.S. Congress, that it has solved the anthrax case.

Actually, it was a brilliant strategy for the FBI to charge a dead man who could not defend himself. The FBI would never have to prove its case, under oath, in a court of law. No one would ever have to know whether the FBI had actually solved the case.

Consider this quote from the FBI site: “charges were about to be brought against Dr. Bruce Ivins, who took his own life before those charges could be filed.”

• It doesn’t say Dr. Ivins committed suicide because he was about to be charged.
• Did Dr. Ivins know he was about to be charged, or did the FBI make the decision to charge him after he was dead?
• Did the FBI ever actually prove that Dr. Ivins did commit suicide?

What is the link between the $5.8 million payment to Dr. Steven Hatfill, who was the FBI’s prime suspect for over 5 years, just a few weeks before Dr. Ivins’ suicide, and the subsequent charging of the deceased Dr. Ivins? Is it just a coincidence that both events resulted in the FBI avoiding the need to testify under oath?

Fortunately, it may not work out the way the FBI wanted it to.

A flood of questions followed the FBI’s August 2008 announcement that they were about to close the case, from journalists, scientists, and members of Congress. It began to seem impossible to any reasonably informed person that Dr. Ivins could have been the sole perpetrator, or even that he was involved at all.

• Why didn’t the FBI solve the case?
• Why did they attempt to close the case in a manner that avoiding having to prove what they charged?
• Why won’t they answer the excellent questions posed by Senator Grassley and Congressmen Holt, Conyer and Nadler, among others?

After the 2001 anthrax attacks, there were a limited number of suspects, all in the U.S., yet the FBI conducted “9,100 interviews” across “six continents.”

Was it all a smoke screen, a deliberate cover up that persists to this day?

 

In my new novel CASE CLOSED, I develop a fictional scenario to explain why the FBI didn’t solve the case. I present the possibility that the FBI didn’t solve the case because they were told not to. 

Do I think my story represents what actually happened? Of course not. It’s a novel!

But many early readers, including a well placed source in the Intelligence Community, tell me that my novel is, unfortunately, all too plausible.

* purchase CASE CLOSED (paperback)

* purchase CASE CLOSED (Kindle)

* see CASE CLOSED VIDEO on YouTube