FBI case against dead suspect is unravelling.

[EFerrari]

Remember that week before last, Junkdrawer, suffragette, Mabus and I pointed out that Bruce Ivins could not be in Princeton at 5pm if he was in Frederick at 4:30 or so. That was in response to a WaPo story where FBI claimed he took off work early to mail anthrax. Glenn Greenwald wrote it up this way:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/10/anthr...

So, last week, they floated another story that has him gassing up after his 4:30ish meeting and going "off the radar" and "presumably" driving to Princeton on the night of 9/17. They have nothing except probably a credit card receipt for a gas purchase. (The headline focuses on the hair evidence but the part about the driving tries to get in there "off the radar"):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Then, yesterday, NYTs prints two important concessions by the FBI. Bruce Ivins DID NOT try to mislead them when he submitted the samples from his lab that they requested. There was a foul up in the format that he used but he did submit a sample from the stock he was in charge of.

And, those envelopes that were supposedly so rare -- well, it turns out they weren't so rare.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/washington/16anthrax....

Let's review: Bruce Ivins passed two polygraphs. No traces were found in his car, around his residence or on him. He DIDN'T try to deceive the FBI when he submitted the samples of his stock that they asked for. The envelopes used in the mailings cannot be reasonably traced to him. The FBI cannot place him at the scene and since "closing" their case, they have changed their story twice -- so far. No expert that is not connected to the government has agreed that Ivins could even have produced the anthrax product in those mailings. None of his emails or reported conversations or other kinds of communications show that he was enraged about anything or anyone. He had opinions about metal dectors in airports and he was an observant Catholic but there's no footprint that shows him going off against abortion or Muslims or anything, actually. On the contrary, there are letters archived at the Frederick News- Post that sound a lot like most of us here.

What do they have left? The only thing they really have was that Bruce Ivins was in treatment for mental health issues. But they try to play those, too. They discard his own report when he says he worked late because "home wasn't good" but then, in their own search warrant, they say that he was under considerable stress at home. (Pdf, p.8). Dr. Ivins was well aware of his issues and at every point seems to have done his best to get medical care for them. He was the opposite of a person that is so unaware of their own situation that they act out all over other people at any cost.

Oh, and FBI had potential witnesses sign non-disclosure statements while they smear Ivins in the press.

Meanwhile, the AP has launched the idea that skeptics are "conspiracy theorists" and "anti-semites".

http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/08/16/nati...



Bruce Ivins may have been guilty as sin but his guilt has not been established and it's not in our interest to allow him to simply be scapegoated in this careless, highhanded manner. That's my story and I'm stickin' with it.

[annabanana]

1. You should've gotten credit

for that catch.

Their case is really swiss cheesy.

[EFerrari]

5. Someone would have caught that anyway. The thing is,

what can we do with it?

I really don't know.

I don't see how he could have done it. And the "work" the Bush Justice Dept/ FBI is doing is not for our benefit, imho.

These are the same people that tried to make torture patriotic.

Eta: The fact that someone as math impaired as I am caught it just adds to my sense of how much manipulation there is going on, by the Bush Justice Department and enabled by the AP, WaHo, NYTs and LAT.

[Mandate My Ass]

2. Suicide in custody without an autopsy?

Conviction in the press 7 years after the suspect became a suspect?

Something smells here and it's not the corpse.

[EFerrari]

3. Meryl Nass has raised the good question, how do you commit suicide

under 24/7 surveillance and when Tylenol od is treatable?



I don't want to go there, but there it is.

[Wilms]

4. Hang on. You're leaving out an important and incriminating fact.

There was a press report saying that some of his lunches didn't smell good to fellow workers.

That could only mean one thing.

[EFerrari]

7. He was also something of a comedian.

I forgot that part!

Apparently, he aggressively composed lyrics and tunes to celebrate the promotions that his working buddies got. He obviously hated America.

[Wilms]

11. Celebrated SOMEONE ELSE's good fortune?

That IS sick!

[EFerrari]

13. He was a piss poor sociopath, that's for sure.

With his Red Cross volunteering and juggling at rest homes. You know, I bet he took those weeklong vacations with his brother and his nephew just to screw up the profilers that wanted to pin him as a loner. Bastard.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. It's hard being an American these days

in a fascist dictatorship. How many arms of the government can conspire at one time against the best interests of its citizens?

Answer: As many as there are when controlled by a criminal cabal.

[EFerrari]

9. There used to be a time when those terms you're using were so over the top

that they'd be immediately discounted by most readers.

That time is gone.

I don't know why this case sticks in my craw so much but it does. It's bs being poured all over us to make us forget how we went into war and how our government likely killed this one man. It's both. And it's probably the knowing that this could happen to any of us.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. Yes, it is the insidious doubt that lurks in the back of the mind

when you have a DOJ and FBI acting like the very elements they were created to keep in check.

[bbgrunt]

8. but, but, but.....Sen Daschel said he was convinced!

[EFerrari]

10. How sad is that.

[mhatrw]

42. Yes, by the FBI's multiple choice motives! n/t

[defendandprotect]

55. Daschle said that ......???

Itho ught the last I saw, Daschle was questioning it --- ???

[EFerrari]

59. Yeah, he did. It's disgusting. Link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-13-anthrax_...

[defendandprotect]

72. Odd . . . because at first it seemed he was .....

pretty much saying what everyone else is saying ---
not enough evidence ---

and to cite Ivins --- AND HIS WIFE -- as "pro-life" fanatics is quite a stretch!
Ivins a "pro-life" murderer . . . ? Don't think so --

My feeling is they pressured Daschle --

[EFerrari]

14. Today was the FBI hundred year anniversary celebration.

http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&st...

What exactly are we celebrating?

[bleever]

15. Yep. The story just gets less credible, the more is said about it.

K&R.

[EFerrari]

16. What's freaky to me is that it's obvious enough for someone like me

to notice.

[bleever]

21. Hmmm...

[Uncle Joe]

17. You and the others are doing good work,

thanks for the thread, sfexpat2000.

Kicked and recommended.

[EFerrari]

53. You know what really pisses me off?

If Bruce Ivins had those mental health issues AND if his family was stalked for a year by the FBI, they were all sitting ducks. Those families just try to do every day.

And the Bush Justice Department -- the same mfers who insisted that torture is legal -- probably killed that man. Whether he was guilty or not, they killed him and now they want us to forget all about how we are at risk because he's dead and that fixes everything.

Man.

[Supersedeas]

18. without all the help/silence from the Corp Media, you'd think Mukasey would have closed the book

[Peace Patriot]

19. "Anti-semites"? Where do they get that from?

"Meanwhile, the AP has launched the idea that skeptics are 'conspiracy theorists' and 'anti-semites'."

---

AP:

"Others, especially anti-Jewish writers, blame the attack on a Zionist plot, with the anthrax being smuggled out a decade earlier by a Jewish scientist caught sneaking into the lab late at night.

"One flaw in that theory is that the scientist is not Jewish — at least not according to his wedding announcement, which said he was Catholic. Another is that, according to the FBI's genetic analysis, the deadly anthrax wasn't created until years later — by Ivins."

http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/08/16/nati...

---

Notice how undocumented that is. No quote. No source. What are trying to do here? Whenever the Bushites fuck up and somebody calls them on it, or they target someone without cause, the warmongers trot out anti-Semitism as the motive behind criticizing the Bushfucks. They tried to do this to Chavez, when he was criticizing Bush for the war on Iraq--and it was a total crock of shit. (The Jewish groups in Venezuela were incensed by it--and defended Chavez.) There is some psyops technique that I cannot quite grasp, that is being worked on us, in this respect.

Some anti-Zionist group (if it's even real) and A ZILLION OTHER PEOPLE think there's a Bushite anthrax plot. How about they cite a black group that supports Obama? Or maybe some 'ecoterrorists'? Or a Catholic who thinks the Pope's in on it? I'm sure these could be found (or made up). But "anti-semitism" has a particular aim, and I'm not sure what it is. It's a button pusher, for sure.

The gist of the article (typical AP) is to make those who are suspicious of this official story look silly or loony. They cite some "serious" people, but pepper the article with less credible or 'far out' conspiracy theorists. Then they go to some lengths to debunk an anti-Zionist conspiracy theory with no citation. Are they trying to alienate Jews from those who don't believe this official story, or trying to keep Jews on board the Iraq War train? Are they trying to make non-Jews feel guilty about their contempt for Dear Leader and all his lies--as if to hate Bush and Bushites is to hate Jews? It's some kind of mind trick, but I don't really get it.

AP is a fascinating pathological-literary study. They are such goddamned liars--but they're not very good at it. Their fascist agenda sticks out (unlike, say, the NYT, which has cleverer writers). So here we are seeing something, in raw form, that has been used in more sophisticated ways, by others, to mess with peoples' minds. The CIA used to be better than this. Do you think they've been invaded by stupid, 25 year old Bible school graduates, too (--like the DoJ), who can't think, can't write and have no finesse? (AP = CIA, pretty much--or it used to).

[EFerrari]

23. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

They sold Ivins as a dishonest crazy bigot. Now, they're tarring their skeptics with the same brush. The next step is to arrest us, I guess!

[MGKrebs]

20. Y'all have done great work.

You are creating a vacuum though. If the investigation needs to be re-opened, if new suspects need to be considered, how does that process happen? Where does the pressure need to be applied? Is it just public pressure through the news media?

Is there any way for the public to access information that might implicate or lead to someone else? Can we at least get the FBI to acknowledge that they have had other suspects under investigation?

[bertman]

22. Thanks for your persistence on this. The truth needs to be told. The FBI is acting more like the

Gestapo every day.

Do they only hire brainwashed Republican clones or is the pressure of conformity so great that no one dares buck the system? You'd think that upright, law-enforcement types would be the last to go along with this kind of bullshit.

[LiberalHeart]

24. Is the journalinquirer confusing Ivins with Dr. Philip Zack?

Isn't he the Jewish scientist who was supposedly sneaking into the lab?

[EFerrari]

25. The story was from Authorized Propaganda but that's the link

I found.

Zack was caught on tape sneaking into a lab after he no longer worked at Ft. Detrick. There seemed to be a lot of shady things going on there in the early nineties.

[LiberalHeart]

26. You'll love this article sorta comparing Ivins to Iraqi suicide bombers

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/displ...

[EFerrari]

27. Thanks for the heads up. I'm registered over there.

Eta: This is just a variation of "you're crazy if you disagree with the FBI and their media mules", isn't it.

[LiberalHeart]

28. Yep. I was spittin' nails as I read it.

I'm as hooked on this case as you are, methinks.

[EFerrari]

36. Joe has responded to comments about the article by posting

a thread to their forum.

[LiberalHeart]

37. Thanks ... and by the way....

Am I the only one who always reads your user name as SexPat?

[EFerrari]

38. Kurovski.

lol

[LiberalHeart]

39. I've been looking for his response but can't find it.

He posted in the comments how to find it, but I keep coming up empty.

Did you notice there's a link on the site that says something like "Want to write a column?" ... You should do one for them about the anthrax investigation.

[EFerrari]

40. The link to Forums is on the top, vertical bar and to the right.

Here's the link to his thread.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/fusetalk/foru...

[LiberalHeart]

41. Thanks. I had made it to the forums but didn't see anything re local news.

Your link worked perfectly. I liked your comment re suicide. That guy just doesn't get it.

[defendandprotect]

56. Hasn't the newspaper, itself, been pretty good on the story . . . ???

And then up pops this extreme right-wing disgusting story . . . !!!

[EFerrari]

57. Joe is a columnist/opinion, not a reporter.

Imo, the FNP has done some of the best reporting on this story over all.

[defendandprotect]

58. And though I got back to an 8/1 story . . .

it seems to be changed . . .

now on 8/1, it says he took a "massive" dose of "prescription" Tylenol --

not in the original story . . .

On 8/1, they simply said Tylenol with codeine as I recall it --

Also . . . .

About 1:15 a.m. Sunday, Emergency Communications received a medical emergency call from Ivins’ Military Road home, said Lt. Shawn Martyak of the Frederick Police Department. Officials found Ivins unresponsive on the floor in a room in his home.

At the time when officers were called to the home, there was nothing to indicate it was a suicide, he said.

Originally there was added comment about there having been two previous calls where they also

found Ivins in similar circumstances . . . ? Anyone else remember reading that ?

[EFerrari]

29. The FBI can't shut everyone up with their "non-disclosure" agreements.

August 8, 2008

Ex-colleague questions government’s case against anthrax suspect

By ANDREW SCHOTZ ([e-mail] )

GREENCASTLE, Pa. — A former Fort Detrick employee is among those questioning the government’s case against Bruce Ivins, who authorities say was behind the post-9/11 anthrax letters.

Melanie Ulrich of Greencastle, Pa., who teaches at Hagerstown Community College, on Wednesday challenged circumstantial evidence against Ivins that has been made public.

Ivins killed himself last week. News reports have said prosecutors were preparing charges against him.

Court documents unsealed Wednesday shed more light on the case as the government declared it solved.

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=2...

[ColbertWatcher]

30. All that you have described sounds exactly like ...

... $cientology's Fair Game policy and Operation Freakout

[EFerrari]

31. Yes, the culture in the FBI is very much like that cult.

Except the Guardian's Office would probably have done a more polished job of framing both Hatfill and Ivins.

[ColbertWatcher]

32. (EDITED TO CHANGE) You're probably right.

They've gotten much better at protecting the top of the pyramid.

(I originally read your post wrong)

[DU GrovelBot]

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[EFerrari]

34. Watchit, Grovelbot, the profilers are reading.

[Swamp Rat]

35. LOL!

He'll kick their asses!

[EFerrari]

43. LOL! That's so great.

[AntiFascist]

44. The FBI is likely covering up the real suspects...

their investigation has likely lead to high-level people around the top anthrax expert, Ken Alibek, but the FBI has already assured Senator DeWine of Ohio that they will not go there.

[EFerrari]

47. Yesterday, Mueller put on an event for the 100th anniversary of the FBI.

Televised by C-SPAN, it was the saddest thing I've ever seen. FBI is so obviously corrupt at the top it just makes you feel bad for the foot soldiers at the bottom.

[happydreams]

45. Fantastic work! K&R. You've made a great contribution to our knowledge here.

[EFerrari]

48. Thank you, happydreams. Don't be a stranger, now.

[glitch]

46. Extremely well done. K & R

It is shameful what they did to him, thank you for fighting to make them accountable.

[EFerrari]

49. It's really hard to walk away from unfairness, isn't it?

Next, I think FBI will try to baffle with bs, they'll try to trot out some explanation of the "new" science that ties the letters to Ivins.

I don't think it'll work. One, because no science can really do that as far as I know, and two, because most people's eyes will just glaze over. Crossing fingers that people hang in, glitch. It's not in the public's interest to have this case closed without real closure.

[glitch]

52. Agreed - it's important we know who really did it.

They sure do seem to want to close the investigation before the next administration comes in, don't they?

This shoddy scapegoating and rush to closure makes them look even more complicit, IMO.

Again, really well done.

[lovuian]

50. Kelly, Baxter, Tinsley, Reichers, and Ivins the list goes on and on

Just suicides that are making sure people don't talk

Great Job

Some Suicides are really murders and if you think the FBI works for the people you would be sadly mistaken

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=1fU-jWqzfZo

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=92Syc1agCBk
Olberman said it all was Anthrax a inside job

[EFerrari]

51. Is there some way to email Keith's producers?

I used to have one of their addys but don't any more.

It would be a very bad deal for the American public if this just went away, imho.

[AntiFascist]

54. Don't forget Dr. Wiley and Jose Trias both of Howard Hughes Medical Institute...

Trias "was planning to go public with his personal knowledge of HHMI "front door" grants being diverted to "back door" black ops bioresearch. The next day, Trias and his wife were found dead in their Chevy Chase, Md. home. Chevy Chase is where HHMI is headquartered. Police described the killings as a professional hit."

This is an interesting timeline:

http://www.heartson.com/Politics/anthrax_research_timel...

1992: Ken Alibek, former Deputy Chief of the Soviet BW program defected to the U.S. in 1992

1992: Government records show that Dugway has had the Ames strain anthrax since 1992. Dugway's production of dried anthrax is part of the government's secret research program on how to defend against germ weapons, which gained momentum in the late 1990's. The Clinton administration began a series of projects aimed at understanding the nation's vulnerabilities to biowarfare and devising ways combat the threats.

1994, Jose Trias met with a friend in Houston, Texas and was planning to go public with his personal knowledge of HHMI "front door" grants being diverted to "back door" black ops bioresearch. The next day, Trias and his wife were found dead in their Chevy Chase, Md. home. Chevy Chase is where HHMI is headquartered. Police described the killings as a professional hit.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) funds a tremendous number of research programs at schools, hospitals and research facilities, and has long been alleged to be conducting "black ops" biomedical research for intelligence organizations, including the CIA.

[Straight Shooter]

60. If it wasn't Ivins, then it was a terrorist, and the bush administration can't allow that.

That would blow a big hole in their claim that we haven't had a terrorist attack since September 11, 2001. If it were Ivins, they could claim it isn't terrorism, just a disgruntled government employee.

I have my own opinions about Daschle, and they aren't complimentary.

[EFerrari]

61. I want to know why this whole country is so ready to throw the book at Ivins

when there isn't a shred of evidence that he had means, motive or opportunity.

It's just the worst thing I've ever seen.

I know I've been sort of tiresome on this story but, but, look at what they're doing. They're convicting a dead man in the press and by all credible accounts, he couldn't have done it, he had no way to do it and no reason to do it.

Whatever. The Bush Justice Department that brought us an official torture policy and the outing of Valerie Plame should not be allowed to skate on the first bio terrorist attack on our soil, either.

[Straight Shooter]

64. Because most people remain socially conditioned to accept the easiest, most plausible answer.

Most people still can't accept that Pat Tillman's death was a hit job. Convincing them that Ivins was a scapegoat is going to be much more difficult, since he's so conveniently dead now. Just like David Kelly, the British weapons expert.

[judasdisney]

62. Who weaponized the micrograms?

[EFerrari]

63. Bruce Ivins didn't have the means to send the product in the letters

to Daschle or Leahy.

And that they have not bothered to bring that up STINKS TO HEAVEN.

[suffragette]

65. Sept 17 Senate oversight hearing

Looks like there's a Senate Judiciary Committee overview of FBI coming up on Sept 17.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display....

Congress is out of session until Sept. 7, so a regularly scheduled Sept. 17 hearing may give legislators their first chance to publicly question the FBI about its decision to name Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins as the sole suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings.

On that day, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold an oversight hearing on the FBI, and Director Robert Mueller III is scheduled to attend.

It is a regularly scheduled oversight hearing, not one called specifically to examine the anthrax investigation, and will likely cover several topics, depending on the interests of the attending senators, said Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for Sen. Benjamin Cardin, who sits on the committee.

Cardin, a Democrat, likely will attend the hearing, and there is a strong possibility that the anthrax case will be one of the issues the committee asks Mueller about, she said.


Here's a link to the Committee members, among them Leahy and Feingold:

http://judiciary.senate.gov/members.cfm



Maybe contact them about some of the most egregious allegations/errors, as well as support a call for the publication of the scientific evidence or task force or "comprehensive scientific review" which scientists call for here:


http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/anthrax/new...

But expert observers have said it's not possible to evaluate the FBI claims about the DNA evidence implicating Ivins because the agency has not published the details.

Dr. Martin Hugh-Jones, an anthrax expert at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, told CIDRAP News, "As others, including D.A. Henderson , have said, we only have their word on this until they publish the details of this study."

.....
Gerry Andrews, a University of Wyoming microbiologist who was a friend and colleague of Ivins', made this point in a New York Times opinion piece on Aug 9. Andrews said Ivins worked on analyses of the letter anthrax for years. "Might that explain why the anthrax used in the attacks was later found to have the same DNA footprint as the other anthrax preparations in Dr. Ivins' lab?" he wrote.

.......

"I think the next step will be a critical one for the FBI, and that is finding a proper venue for a comprehensive scientific review of the information," Osterholm said. "I would suggest, for example, that the Institute of Medicine or a special advisory committee to the attorney general, made up of scientists who have expertise in these areas and who have no obvious conflicts of interest. That's the process I hope happens soon."



Since I could only snip four paragraphs per DU rules, this is just citing a few of the scientists who are raising questions and concerns about this issue.

[mhatrw]

66. Great information!

This article in particular deserves attention: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/anthrax/new...

[EFerrari]

68. Thank you, suffragette. I hadn't seen this. n/t

[Solly Mack]

67. and yet in death, Ken Lay became an innocent man again

But the Bush administration and the FBI are so desperate to get a case closed....so desperate to put this in the past...to get it behind them....

You da best, sfexpat2000!

[EFerrari]

69. Heckuva double standard, isn't it, Solly Mack?

[Solly Mack]

70. It is indeed. Ken Lay is innocent again because he wasn't alive

to get his full due process rights. (the appeal)

Ivins is dead...yet is denied any due process at all.

[EFerrari]

71. Glenn's piece on this segment of "Full Blown Incompetence":

Monday Aug. 18, 2008 08:04 EDT
Doubts over the anthrax case intensify -- except among much of the media

(updated below)

The more that is revealed about the FBI's still largely-secret case against Bruce Ivins, the more doubts that are raised about whether their accusations are true. A particularly vivid episode illustrating how shoddy the FBI's case seems to be occurred in the last several days.

Ever since the FBI accused Bruce Ivins of being the sole anthrax attacker, one of the most glaring of the many deficiencies in the FBI's case is the complete lack of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, placing Ivins at the New Jersey mailboxes (the proverbial "scene of the crime") on either of the two dates on which the anthrax letters were sent. To respond to criticisms pointing out that huge flaw, the FBI, on August 7, leaked -- and the news media then dutifully and uncritically trumpeted -- what was supposedly a highly incriminating fact: namely, that Ivins, on September 17, the day before the first batch of anthrax letters were postmarked, took administrative leave from work in the morning and did not return until 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. that day. This time period during September 17, according to The Washington Post (which was fed the leaked scoop), was the window in which Ivins drove to New Jersey and mailed the anthrax letters:

Anthrax attack suspect Bruce E. Ivins took several hours of administrative leave from his Fort Detrick, Md., laboratory on a critical day in September 2001 when the first batch of deadly letters was dropped in a New Jersey mailbox, government sources briefed on the case said yesterday. The gap recorded on his time sheet offered investigators a key clue into how he could have pulled off an elaborate crime that involved carrying letters packed with lethal powder to a distant location for mailing, the sources said. . . .

A partial log of Ivins's work hours shows that he worked late in the lab on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 16, signing out at 9:52 p.m. after two hours and 15 minutes. The next morning, the sources said, he showed up as usual but stayed only briefly before taking leave hours. Authorities assume that he drove to Princeton immediately after that, dropping the letters in a mailbox on a well-traveled street across from the university campus. Ivins would have had to have left quickly to return for an appointment in the early evening, about 4 or 5 p.m.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/18/anthr...