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Richard Rowley’s summary of the FBI’s “non-case” …
To commit even the bare-boned Amerithrax crimes
(the media letters and the Senators Daschle and Leahy ones),
the perp(s) would have had to do the following :
- grow wet anthrax (ie get spores and culture them).
- dry them to a powder and purify to one degree or another.
- write (ie print) the originals of the two Amerithrax texts (media text and politician text). Print outside of envelope.
- photocopy each original text (likely done some days or weeks apart: first the media letters, then the politician letters).
- insert finished powder in fold of letters.
- go to Princeton, New Jersey some hours before the mail pickup at the mailbox just off campus.
- return home/to work from that mailbox in Princeton without anyone being the wiser.
So, how many of the above tasks do we KNOW
(from the government’s case against him)
that Ivins actually did in September and October of 2001?
One and only one …
1)grow wet anthrax (ie get spores and culture them).
We know that because THAT WAS (part of) HIS JOB!
And had been his job for 2 solid decades before Amerithrax.
All the rest in this case is commentary.
And that’s why the FINAL REPORT is so long and tedious:
a) since they don’t have evidence that Ivins printed the letters (his block printing was a non-match) the government finessed that in the usual way: graphological comparison ‘inconclusive’. Same with the polygraph test Ivins passed: results ‘inconclusive’ (I think it was Mister Lake who added the interesting twist that if suspect X passes a polygraph test centered on crimes A and B, then that PROVES the suspect is a ‘sociopath’ since they can lie cleverly and thus it is proof that suspect X actually committed crimes A and B! I would call this ‘Jesuitry’ but I think it gives even the Jesuits a bad rap!
b) since they don’t have evidence that Ivins drove to New Jersey at any time in September and October of 2001, they spend lots to time and space highlighting Ivins driving, over the years, long distances to OTHER TOWNS/STATES to check out chapters of Gamma Gamma Delta or to deliver gifts in such a way so as the recipient doesn’t know who the gift is from.
c)since they were unable to match any photocopier that Ivins would regularly use (due to proximity)to the Amerithrax letter copies, they use INNUENDO to imply that there’s a real possibility he used one at Fort Detrick. That’s the focus here, but it is part of a pattern: the FINAL REPORT glosses over anything and everything that is pointing in the direction of Ivins’ innocence (that is exculpatory) and via a cleverness that is facile but false implies many things it cannot prove.
d) there’s no evidence whatsoever that Ivins did ANY drying of wet anthrax in September or October of 2001 (or for that matter in any month of 2001). But that fact is buried amid nonsense about a ‘code’ etc.
e) they never found any spores in Ivins’ vehicle or residence. But that’s one of the dirty little secrets of the investigative dead end.
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LMW COMMENT …
The FBI’s publicly presented case against Dr. Ivins is clearly bogus: no evidence, no witnesses, an impossible timeline, science that proves innocence instead of guilt. So what really happened? And why doesn’t the FBI offer America a credible story?
As regular readers of this blog well know, I can imagine only 3 possible “actual” scenarios …
- The FBI has more evidence against Dr. Ivins but is, for some undisclosed reason, withholding that evidence … POSSIBLE BUT NOT SO LIKELY
- The FBI, despite the most expensive and extensive investigation in its history, has not solved the case and has no idea who prepared and mailed the anthrax letters that killed 5 Americans in 2001 … EVEN LESS LIKELY
- The FBI knows who did it (not Dr. Ivins) but is covering up the actual perpetrators, for undisclosed reasons …THE MOST LIKELY SCENARIO
CASE CLOSED is a novel
about the FBI’s failed investigation
of the 2001 anthrax attacks
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read the opening scene of CASE CLOSED …
* CASE CLOSED – opening scene … the DIA re-investigates the FBI’s failed case
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* buy CASE CLOSED at amazon *
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