* For widow, anthrax victim’s fate still ‘open wound’

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Maureen Stevens

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For widow, anthrax victim’s fate still ‘open wound’
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/for-widow-anthrax-victims-fate-still-open-wound-1890269.html

• At first, Stevens said she was satisfied with the FBI’s 2008 conclusion that federal researcher Bruce Ivins was responsible. Ivins killed himself in 2008 as prosecutors were about to indict him.
• Even then, she said her suit was more about the federal government’s lack of control over the lab.
• And, she said at the time, “we have now been advised that the man the FBI believes perpetrated this heinous act has a history of mental instability of long standing, and yet he was allowed to work with anthrax and some of the most deadly substances known to mankind.”
• Then in April, Stevens’ lawyer filed papers citing evidence that disputes the 2008 findings.
• Ivins’ supervisors at a Maryland lab have said he lacked the time, equipment and knowledge to produce the anthrax.
• In February, a panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences questioned the finding; the FBI challenged that.
• The Government Accountability Office has begun yet another review.
• “It is an open wound,” she said. “But something else inside me says, ‘I want it. I want to go to trial. I want it out in the open. I want it known how it happened.’