Archive for October 17th, 2011

* Dr. Paul Keim says the scientific investigation to confirm the link to Dr. Ivins would have taken another two years at a cost of $50 million, but will not be done now due to the cost and the fact that there is no criminal trial since Dr. Ivins committed suicide … LMW: and more important, isn’t Keim in effect saying that the FBI has no business claiming there is a link when the work hasn’t been done?

Posted by DXer on October 17, 2011

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Paul Keim is a geneticist and director of the lab at Northern Arizona University that matched the strain of anthrax in the deadly letters to anthrax in Ivins’ lab. He’s also a researcher at TGen, a biomedical research institute.
Keim acknowledged Sunday at a meeting of science writers that the evidence linking Ivins to the crime would have needed additional scientific vetting to make a solid court case.
And he said that if Ivins hadn’t committed suicide, the scientific investigation would have continued for another two years. That would have been necessary, he said, to get to the “higher standards” of scientific proof required for criminal prosecution.
At a cost of $50 million, he said, continuing the work now would be too expensive for the government to pursue.

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So is the FBI now saying it’s too expensive to prove its case against Ivins? Or is that just Paul Keim saying that?
But what if Ivins wasn’t the perpetrator? How much is it worth to know who committed the anthrax attacks and perhaps have a better chance of preventing another such attack.
Also, where does the $50 million estimate come from? That sounds way too high.
Releasing the documents currently being held in violation of FOIA would cost nothing.
and more important, isn’t Keim in effect saying that the FBI has no business claiming there is a link when the work hasn’t been done?

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