Frederick News Post: If Ivins Didn't Do It, Who Did?

[mhatrw]

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_columnist.htm?StoryID=79410

When Norm Covert, a conservative former Fort Detrick public affairs officer, and attorney Barry Kissin, liberal activist opposing Detrick's biolab expansion, agree that Bruce Ivins was not the anthrax killer, either the world's spinning off its axis, or the truth is staring us so hard in the face we'd have to be blind to miss it. Covert's piece this week in http://thetentacle.com establishes what many in our community, including scientists and support staff at USAMRIID, past and present, know: Bruce Ivins had nothing to do with preparing or sending the anthrax letters.

In a recent letter to the FNP editor, Amanda Lane speaks for many who knew him: "I want to shout from the mountain tops that Bruce was the kind of man we look up to ... He was a decorated scientist and the humblest of men who didn't use his title as a status symbol. He picked up a mop or emptied the trash without a moment's hesitation. If he thought you were having a bad day he would offer candy or a catchy tune to cheer you up. If someone had to stay late to accomplish a task, Bruce would work with you so that the task would get completed faster."

Covert echoes what is widely reported by reputable scientists. The anthrax in the mailings, he says, was "highly bred, weapons-grade ... with a silica coating and a slight electrical charge so that each particle repelled the other ... each particle no more than five microns." Ivins had neither the expertise nor the equipment to create such a sophisticated form of anthrax.

But if not Ivins, then who or what? "It's the elephant in the room nobody's talking about," Kissin says.

more ...

[mhatrw]

1. The View From Frederick County, Part I

The following article was written by Norm Covert, a former Fort Detrick public affairs officer.

http://thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2747

Frederick is the epicenter of those who would terrorize the nation with envelopes and little white powder, if one believes the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Count me among the naysayers, who number more than a roomful. The government mobilized its team of Double-oh (uh-oh!) secret agents seven years ago to identify a villainous mad scientist, who, without genuine motive or opportunity, single handedly:

– Used a Bio-Containment Level Three lab suite at Fort Detrick’s U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), to develop a highly bred, weapons-grade strain of Bacillus anthracis (a scientific achievement not accomplished before, except perhaps in the biological warfare laboratories of the former Soviet Union).

– Manipulated this super bacillus with a silica coating and a slight electrical charge so that, when opened in the containment cabinet, each particle repelled others in a brilliant display.

– Ensured each particle was no more than five microns in size so that it would penetrate the fabric of a normal No. 10 paper envelope, a product sold by the U.S. Postal Service in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, West Virginia and Central Maryland.

...

Dr. Ivins is no fictional character and it’s certain that his death is probably another bad ending for flawed investigative work by the G-Men. I’m sorry for Diane Ivins, the family and his colleagues.

[mhatrw]

2. The View From Frederick County, Part II

http://thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2750

Columns on the government's monumental faux pas in the Fort Detrick anthrax scandal have caused people to ask if the fort's research scientists, particularly Bruce Ivins, were friends or acquaintances. None is, although I must plead guilty to the friendship formed with a group of Russian molecular biologists working here for the National Cancer Institute. Several lived with me during their stints in Frederick; I welcomed their hospitality in four visits to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Their Fort Detrick lab closed last year. We stay in touch by email.

All this must be said for those who question my reasons in writing several TheTentacle.com columns that I hope threw doubts on pronouncements by the Department of Justice and the FBI. My motives were caring for the not-personally-known human beings affected and an old journalist's instincts that our government was simply not telling the truth. Norm Covert knew facts and people; he served Fort Detrick and its scientific community for over 25 years, as press and public relations honcho. Put another way: He was Mr. Outside to all those men and women working inside, behind the armed military and police, fences and barbed wire.

In the course of going about his duties, Norm came to know the various people who performed experiments with some of the most volatile and dangerous substances in the world. Most germane to this discussion: I never heard anyone who ever thought Mr. Covert was fudging the truth. He did not hesitate to declare some subjects off-limits; as a flack, he earned a reputation beyond reproach.

In these lights, readers should approach Wednesday's TheTentacle.com, if they had not read it before. (On your screen, roll down.) As lined up, one by one, his column ("White Powder and 007") lists many of the contradictions, inconsistencies and questionable "facts" we have been told from Washington. Perhaps most damning of all is Norm's caustic salutation to the Department of Justice and FBI for discovering and implementing a type of anthrax the various labs have been trying to invent for years and years. Never mind, we are once again told the government will publish substantiation in the spring. It is possible to suspect, the announcement was delayed in light of the media's facile and quickly fading attention-span. ...

Three previous articles by Roy Meachum (a longtime Frederick News-Post columnist and reporter, who was http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64627-2004Sep5.html">fired in 2004):

http://thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2713

http://thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2718

http://thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2722

[mhatrw]

3. The Rock Creek Free Press's Take

http://rockcreekfreepress.tumblr.com/post/46413512/fbi-sweeps-anthrax-under-the-rug

US Attorney Jeff Taylor was sweating on August 6, as he laid out his case against the late Dr. Bruce Ivins at a news conference-and with good reason. Anyone familiar with the case is well aware that Dr. Ivins was railroaded, and that the news conference was a flimsy web of lies. Ivins had nothing to do with the 2001 anthrax attacks. The attacks were almost certainly carried out by the only group that had the means to produce the highly weaponized anthrax in the letters: the CIA, its contractor Battelle Memorial Institute of West Jefferson, Ohio., and the Army at Dugway in Utah. ...

On Dec 16, 2001, The Washington Post corroborated the Sun report by stating that “Dugway is the only facility known in recent years to have processed anthrax spores into the powdery form that is most easily inhaled,” also stating, “Army officials in Washington said yesterday that Fort Detrick does not have the equipment for making dried anthrax spores.” ...

Who had the expertise to weaponize anthrax? William C. Patrick III, and Ken Alibek. William Patrick was the originator of the first anthrax weaponization process. He has five patents on anthrax weaponization and wrote a paper in 1999 setting out exactly what an anthrax attack by mail would look like. Patrick’s scenario is very similar to what actually happened in 2001. For example, he suggests no more than 2.5 grams of anthrax per envelope; the envelopes contained two grams. One footnote in his paper reveals “we now have the ability to purify to one trillion spores per gram.” William Patrick was a consultant to the CIA, Battelle, the Army, the DIA and the FBI on bio-weapons. Ken Alibek headed up the Soviet bio-weapon programs until defecting to the USA in 1992. He brought with him the technology that was key in the anthrax attacks: using polymerized glass to attach silica to the anthrax spores. He worked for Battelle Memorial Institute in the late 90s. ...

The significance of the railroading of the deceased Ivins cannot be overstated. This railroading is not a matter of incompetence. In detail after detail, the joint FBI-DOJ prosecution deliberately lies, evades and obfuscates in a desperate attempt to pin blame somewhere and close the case. (A transcript of the entire August 6 news conference is available on npr.org, titled “DOJ News Conference On Bruce Ivins.”)

[mhatrw]

4. The Valley Advocate's Take

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=8211

Guilty by Reason of Insanity
Did the FBI make its case against Bruce Ivins? Or was Ivins a convenient scapegoat due to his alleged history of mental illness?

Last month, Dr. Bruce E. Ivins died an innocent man. Days later, authorities sought to shroud his passing in a cloud of guilt. His wife and children barely had weeks to grieve before the Federal Bureau of Investigation decided to bypass judge and jury and argue their case directly to the public. They announced that he died shortly after he'd heard the Bureau was preparing to serve him with an indictment accusing him of the anthrax murders and resulting scare that occurred shortly after the September 11 attack in 2001.

Not long after he'd drawn his last breath, details of the circumstantial case against Dr. Ivins were leaked, pointing to reports of psychological problems, counseling, and medication he was taking after having bouts of paranoid and delusional thoughts. Many, including the New York Times, hoped a full disclosure of evidence would be more convincing than the revelation that a scientist working for the military was seeing a therapist. "None of the investigators' major assertions& have been tested in cross-examination or evaluated by outside specialists," an August 8 editorial pointed out. "It is imperative that federal officials make public all of their data so independent experts can judge ...."

...

But without Bruce Ivins around to object, the FBI has had the last word.

The first scientist the FBI had identified as a suspect had just settled a $4.6 million lawsuit against them, clearing his name and calling the FBI's conduct into question. Meanwhile, Congress had been demanding that the FBI furnish a progress report on the expensive and meandering investigation. It is time for Congress to investigate what the FBI has done in its investigation of Bruce Ivins. Senior officials at the agency can only hope that they are treated more fairly than they appear to have treated Ivins.

[FormerOstrich]

5. mhatrw,

I really appreciate your vigilance on posting Anthrax/Ivins. I check everyday for new items and I can feel the entire topic fading away into obscurity. Yet, I know you are going to have every crumb thrown our way posted here.

I have been wondering a lot lately. I read expressions as the "public must demand" (or something similar). How does the public do that? I'm part of the public...I want to demand the FBI be accountable for their investigations. How exactly does the public accomplish these lofty goals?

Thank you very much!!!

[mhatrw]

6. Thank you for the kind words.

Yes, this story has quickly faded out of sight, by design, probably forever.

I'm not sure what to do except to keep talking about it and writing about it as much as possible. The whole thing is a sham, and 98% of the people who have followed it closely (other than politicians and corporate media members) know it is a sham. But, for some reason, that doesn't seem to matter one whit.

[Festivito]

7. Why would FBI who hid pre-9/11 info, now hide this?

Upper level FBI agents would not let a computer being held to be searched by not allowing the field agent to even ask the FISA court. The same FISA court that only rejected five requests out of thousands and even helped to pass those requests after the initial denial. The FBI supervisors were rewarded by president GW Bush.

We had GW Bush crew flailing test tubes with white powder insisting it came from Iraq. Now we're trying to find where the real powder was created inside our own country and the FBI hides their investigation while running out the clock on the GW Bush administration.

[UTUSN]

8. KICK!1 n/t

[mhatrw]

9. kick. n/t

[mhatrw]

10. Lazy holiday kick. n/t