* from DXer … more FOIA materials not produced? a violation of the law? who is responsible for this?
Posted by DXer on February 23, 2010
CASE CLOSED by Lew Weinstein
is the novel which answers the question …
WHY did the FBI fail to solve the 2001 anthrax case?
check out reader comments at amazon.com
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more FOIA materials not produced?
a violation of the law?
who is responsible for this?
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from DXer …
- Much of the evidence the FBI relies upon might not even be admissible.
- The most central evidence one would want to consider would be the notations he made in his Lab Notebook 4010 on the dates the FBI alleges he was preparing the anthrax that killed 5 people.
- His observations on the health of the animals he made in connection with the animal study he was working on.
- Where has the DOJ provided those pages? They clearly are discoverable under FOIA. They clearly are relevant. Could someone identify for me where they are produced?
- If they weren’t produced, it would be a game of hide-the-ball.
see related posts …
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CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
DXer said
Some people may view the present situation as involving cumbersome tightroping between people who know, people who don’t want to know, and people who don’t want people to know.
It’s simpler: there are people who are part of the solution and people who are part of the problem.
Anonymous Scientist said
Fascinating just released email from the person the FBI claimed knowingly sent a letter full of anthrax powder to AMI in Florida. Note that the drinking water from a stream BS was first suggested by director of HHS Tommy Thompson. Does the below email sound as if it was written by a guilty man? Obviously the FBI prefer to interpret it as a sure sign of guilt.
From: Ivins, Bruce E Dr USAMRIID
To:
Subject: Florida case(?)
Date: Thursday, October 04, 2001 9:57:19 PM
Hi,
I just heard this evening (and read over internet news) that a case of pulmonary anthrax may
have been identified in Florida. Is this true, or is this just hysteria? The only Florida strain of B.
anthracis that I am familiar with is V770, which is the parent of V770-NP1-R, the strain used in
production of the human anthrax vaccine. (I believe that V770 was originally isolated from a cow in
Florida in the early 1950s.) The article said that this person was an “Outdoorsman,” and had drunk
water from a creek in North Carolina. If he really does have anthrax, could he have gotten it this way,
or did he get it by tromping around some dusty field area. (Has North Carolina been dry this summer?)
I know that in the wild in Africa, animals are supposed to be able to get it from water holes by stirring
up spores and presumably ingesting and possibly inhaling them as an aerosol. Could this have
happened? What if an animal had died upstream and the stream was contaminated? (Drinking from a
stream or creek without boiling or purifying the water first is an invitation to intestinal disease or
parasites, but have any other human anthrax cases been documented from people drinking
contaminated water?)
You called me several times in the recent past with regards to another anthrax
issue. If there’s anything I can help with here (if you or coworkers are involved) please let me know. I
don’t know if there’s anything I can do, but I’m certainly willing to provide whatever informational
assistance I can. (I would have been less surprised if the Florida man had been hunting deer in Texas,
where there is identifiable anthrax. I don’t recall North Carolina as having ideal soil for preservation of
anthrax spores or for anthrax cycling of spore-vegetative cell-spore-vegetative cell etc., but I suppose
there could be areas of higher soil calcium and alkalinity.)
Anyway, please don’t hesitate to give me a call if there’s anything I can do. We are currently
testing the virulence (in immunized and unimmunized guinea pigs) of B. anthracis strains from all over
the world, including China, and we’ve come up with some very interesting differences in virulence
among the strains.
Take care of yourself,
– Bruce
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DXer said
Why would the DOJ attorney have unfairly characterized the email — which he did? If it was going to be referenced at all a copy of the email should have been provided. Given that we see the level of mischaracterization of this email, it is even more important that all emails be provided.
Note the implication that he working late because he is hearing that the country may have been attacked with anthrax — and that is his field.
Dr. Hatfill’s timecards similarly show that he was working 13 hour days.
Why should sadness and anger over the 911 tragedy — and a willingness to help — be suspect just because some Quantico profilers were not well read enough to know the intelligence analysis that should have applied. The “FNY” garbage was especially moronic.
Anonymous Scientist said
I would call the level of mischaracterization of this email verging on criminal. It just makes me angry and ever more determined to see a little bit of justice here.
DXer said
If he were alive or if hadn’t been ordered not to talk to anyone about it by his superior, we’d ask Dr. Ivins whether he had gone to the
COMMUNITY FAIR, exhibits of home-grown fruits and vegetables, grains, baked goods, canned goods, jellies and pickles, needlework, arts and crafts and flowers, a grand champion ribbon is awarded in each category, 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday; events include a variety show presented by 4-H Club members, 7 p.m. Friday; a cake auction, 8 p.m. Friday; performance by the Gospel Travelers, 7 p.m. Saturday; refreshments available for purchase, free door prizes, Middletown Elementary School; sponsored by the Middletown Grange, the Braddock Grange, the Maryland State Grange and the Maryland Agricultural Fair Board, 201 E. Green St., Middletown. Free admission. 301-371-6383.
or the WALKERSVILLE GERMAN DINNER, all-you-can-eat buffet with sauerbraten, bratwurst, weisswurst, spatzle, red cabbage, German salads, breads, desserts and more; plus free iced tea and coffee, German beer and wine available for an additional charge, 4 to 7 p.m., Walkersville Fire Hall, 79 Frederick St., Walkersville. $ 10; $ 5, ages 5 to 17; free, ages 4 and younger. 301-845-6597.
or the FOUNTAIN ROCK PLANT SALE, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fountain Rock Park and Nature Center, Fountain Rock Road, take Biggs Ford Road from Route 15 N., 1 1/2 miles from the Frederick city limits. Free admission. 301-694-1646.
or the FREDERICK HISTORY PROGRAM, Civil War medical history, “The Seasons of Antietam,” presented by the Maine Camp and Hospital Association, about Frederick’s role as a hospital site after the battle of Antietam in the fall of 1862, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 48 E. Patrick St., Frederick. $ 6.50; $ 6, ages 60 and older; $ 4.50, ages 10 to 16; free, ages 9 and younger. 301-695-1864.
or the FREDERICK FAMILY COUNCIL, for families with children ages 22 or younger, a meeting of the Family Council to advise the Frederick County Mental Health Management Agency about program and policy issues, sponsored by the mental-health management agency, 7 to 8 p.m., Mental Health Management Agency, 115 N. Market St., Frederick. Free; preregistration required. 301-682-6017.
One of the ugliest things is that he was isolated from his friends and forbidden from talking about these things to his colleagues. Most anyone would have committed suicide under these circumstances.
One would think the least USAMRIID could do was to produce his emails given its role in his suicide.
DXer said
The DOJ says Dr. Ivins hates New York. They glean this from a soft bed he had many years earlier, the fact that he didn’t like the NY Yankees etc. But in mid-September he was saying how sad he felt for the victims of the WTC attack — joining everyone in the country. So it is important to see all the emails so as to see whether the characterization is selective and inaccurate.
For example, I have read many hundreds of his emails — all the emails on his work account — and I find a professional, cordial fellow. Now some might say he was just putting up a brave front in the face of depression. Well, I guess then the conclusion to draw is that he was a highly functioning, depressed guy.
If Mara and Pat’s emails are going to be spun so as to come up, for example, with some motivation of a dislike of New Yorkers as encoded in the letters, then I think all the emails need to be produced. Mara and Pat were both thanked by the former Zawahiri associate for their help with his work with virulent Ames. They had a vested interest in having the anthrax mailings relate to events occurring after they had left USAMRIID. So the FBI is relying almost exclusively in highly personal interpretations of highly fanciful interpretations — offered by two women who had a vested interest in putting it off on a scenario that did not relate to their earlier work at USAMRIID.
DXer said
Why did the report discuss Ivins using the copy machine as if it was suspicious — given that testing showed that copier was not used to xerox the letters used in the anthrax mailings. Why didn’t Friday’s disclosure include the testing on that copy machine showing the basis for excluding it? Isn’t the fact that he was going about business as usual in fact exculpatory?
DXer said
There was no match with the fiber taken from the envelope with anything taken in the searches of Dr. Ivins residence or workplace. Why didn’t the FBI disclosure include the report on the fiber analysis?
DXer said
The journal Nature summarized:
“At a biodefence meeting on 24 February, Joseph Michael, a materials scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, presented analyses of three letters sent to the New York Post and to the offices of Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Spores from two of those show a distinct chemical signature that includes silicon, oxygen, iron, and tin; the third letter had silicon, oxygen, iron and possibly also tin, says Michael.”
Ivins’ flask did not contain tin.
Why didn’t the FBI Summary address this issue and provide the documents relating to the tin signature?
DXer said
The USAMRIID FOI people, after it was vetted by the US Department of Justice, gave me a xerox showing that flask 1029 was kept in Bldg 1425. An earlier version of this document, however, showed 1412. The “1412” had been very neatly whited out and replaced by 1425. In the 302s porduced Friday, Dr. Ivins acknowledges that both are in his handwriting. Was the original version of the document showing that it was stored in 1412 produced by the government on Friday. If so, where is it? If not, why wasn’t it produced?