Update on inconsistencies in FBI's Anthrax case against Ivins

[MiaCulpa]

From Newsweek:

When the FBI publicly branded the late Dr. Bruce Ivins as the anthrax killer, it unsealed court affidavits suggesting a possible motive for the mailing to one target: NBC anchor Tom Brokaw. According to the affidavits, Ivins was angry about repeated Freedom of Information Act requests from Gary Matsumoto, identified as "an investigative journalist who worked for NBC News" who was looking into Ivins's work on an anthrax vaccine. "Tell Matsumoto to kiss my ass," the affidavit says Ivins wrote in an Aug. 28, 2001, e-mail, noting that was "weeks" before the Sept. 18, 2001, anthrax mailing addressed to Brokaw. But Matsumoto told NEWSWEEK the FBI never interviewed him as part of its investigation. If it had, he says, he could have told them he'd actually left NBC News five years earlier. At the time he was bombarding Ivins's lab with FOIA requests, he was employed by ABC. "They're trying to connect dots that don't connect," he said.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/151784

From the WaPo:

Ivin's 'psychiatrist' who wasn't really a psychiatrist, but a counselor, but not really a counselor, a newly graduated social worker is really not a social worker but an 'addictions counselor':

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/09/AR2008080902108.html?hpid=topnews

WSJ:

In April 2002, researchers noticed an anthrax-laced deposit on the outside of a flask outside the biocontainment area. The contamination spawned an investigation and a 361-page Army report, during which Dr. Ivins admitted his unauthorized office cleanup.

He told Army investigators that he had cleaned his office the previous fall, and then again without permission in April, because "I had no desire to cry 'Wolf!' " and blame someone else for the spill. The Army cleared him and adopted his recommendations to improve "cleaning inside the suites and maybe surveillance."

By this time, all of the scientists in the bacteriology division were under the FBI's investigative microscope, people working there at the time said. One after another, they submitted to a 3½-hour polygraph test. Dr. Ivins "was in the safety zone" because he had already passed his polygraph, Dr. Andrews said. Dr. Ivins was never tested again, a law-enforcement official said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121824122279026121.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today

And finally this article from the NYT just speaks to the recklessness with which this case was 'investigated':

In 2002, Mr. Mikesell came under F.B.I. scrutiny, officials familiar with the case said. He began drinking heavily — a fifth of hard liquor a day toward the end, a family member said.

“It was a shock that all of a sudden he’s a raging alcoholic,” recalled the relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of family sensitivities.

By late October 2002, Mr. Mikesell, 54, was dead, his short obituary in The Columbus Dispatch making no mention of his work with anthrax or the investigation. “He drank himself to death,” the relative said.

Dr. Hatfill, who worked at Fort Detrick from 1997 to 1999, also drew the investigators’ attention. He loved covert exploits and padded his résumé, habits that intrigued F.B.I. agents and, not long after that, reporters.

In June 2002, officials tipped off television stations that the bureau would search Dr. Hatfill’s apartment, just outside the gates to Fort Detrick. Later, F.B.I. agents told the woman he was living with at the time that he was a murderer and warned that she could be charged as an accomplice if she failed to tell all. At a teary press conference in August 2002, Dr. Hatfill protested his innocence.

For at least a year, F.B.I. surveillance teams followed him — and in one remarkable encounter, a car that was trailing him ran over his foot. (Dr. Hatfill, not the agent, was given a ticket.)


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/washington/10anthrax.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1218409556-HfTpByyq6sjq1NdQ5d6NHw


This needs a thorough, independent investigation before anyone else is harmed or killed.

-Diane

[deminks]

1. "trying to connect dots that don't connect"

Thank you for the update!

[BuyingThyme]

2. The fact that they are so insistent about him being the LONE assassin

only proves that they know he's not the lone assassin.

The only time the FBI ever takes such a position is when they know it's a lie.

If they thought it to be true, they'd simply say, "We believe he acted alone." But that's not what they're saying.

They're saying, "We know he acted alone." No responsible investigator would ever say such a thing.

[RainDog]

3. the reason this will not go away easily

is that nearly every American felt at risk by this attack. Many are, therefore, not willing to accept a patsy for the real people because Americans do not want this to happen again in a visceral way. The evidence is not compelling enough because so much of it is easily shown to be a story, not hard fact. At the same time, there are factions in this nation with power who have done things that demonstrate their continued dismissal of both truth and the American people. We've seen this govt do things that no other govt has done most esp. in their willful disregard for law or ethics or the constitution itself.

[Festivito]

5. And, this time they killed real people. Not just soldiers and "them."

That's why we can't let it drop.
That's why they are working so hard to drop it for us.

[BuyingThyme]

4. ..