* the FBI takes issue with the recent NYT editorial … wouldn’t you love to be able to have dialogue with Mr. Kortan on these issues instead of simply a repetition of the FBI’s unproven assertions … let’s hope FRONTLINE does exactly that !!!

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Michael P. Kortan, Assistant Director, Public Affairs Federal Bureau of Investigation

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The Anthrax Investigation: The View From the F.B.I. (10/27/11) …

To the Editor:

I take issue with several points in your Oct. 18 editorial “Who Mailed the Anthrax Letters?”

First, the National Academy of Sciences report concluded that the anthrax in the mailings was consistent with the anthrax produced in Dr. Bruce Ivins’s suite. The report stated, at the same time, that it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the samples based on science alone. But investigators and prosecutors have long maintained that while science played a significant role, it was the totality of the investigative process that ultimately determined the outcome of the anthrax case.

Further, scientists directly involved in the lengthy investigation into the anthrax mailings — both from within the F.B.I. and outside experts — disagree with the notion that the chemicals in the mailed anthrax suggest more sophisticated manufacturing.

Second, it was directly relevant that Dr. Ivins worked long hours alone during the time of the mailings in the laboratory’s “hot suites” where the anthrax that was genetically linked to the attack spores was produced and handled. He had not done that before the mailings, nor did he ever do it again.

Dr. Ivins submitted an intentionally misleading sample in April 2002 that was free of genetic markers. Samples of his anthrax spores that contained the genetic markers were either submitted before he realized the markers might trap him or were seized later by the F.B.I., not made available by Dr. Ivins.

We strongly disagree with recent television reporting on this issue cited in the editorial.

MICHAEL P. KORTAN
Assistant Director, Public Affairs Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington, Oct. 20, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/opinion/the-anthrax-investigation-the-view-from-the-fbi.html

* FBI Assistant Director Kortan Should Be Asked Whether He Knows That Dr. Ivins On Those Nights Was Busy Autoclaving Dozens of Dead Rabbits — And If Not, Who Kept That Information From Him?

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* The parties in Steven v. United States now propose to settle while preventing the documents from coming to light through overbroad sealing orders in violation of the legal precedent under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)

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