2 good NPR reports on anthrax - clearance, colleagues, family harassment

[Muttocracy]

Sorry if it's been posted before but just heard them - doesn't make it add up but some interesting details

Also, is it just me or are there different reports on how long he worked there - I've heard 30+ years and 18+ years?


Colleagues: Ivins' Suicide Not Proof Of Guilt

by David Kestenbaum and Andrea Seabrook

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93226268

Summary and audio pending - most interesting info was his colleagues NOT buying it, and info that his family members were taken separately for questioning, and TOLD that he was guilty.

-------------

Anthrax Case Raises Concerns About Lab Security
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93226178
summary up, audio soon

(Sounds like he was sort of grandfathered in, and that the clearance process is far from foolproof - but on the other hand, maybe nothing turned up because there was nothing there until recently! Seems like that one therapist is the only person saying these problems go back decades - and that was AFTER she was contacted by FBI/DoJ)

"Franz says people studying the disease didn't need clearances in order to work with the agents. Some people had clearances to access sensitive intelligence, but in general, the country was more concerned with protecting secret information than dangerous material.

Danley says things changed at the lab only after five people died from anthrax-laced letters in 2001.

"That's when locks went on doors and armed guards and the whole nine yards," he says.

After that, everyone needed security clearances.

By that point, Ivins had been working at the lab for decades."