At Memorial for Dr. Ivins - Co-Workers Praise Ivins as Top Researcher, Mentor to Young Scientists

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080602875.html

Co-Workers Praise Ivins as Top Researcher, Mentor to Young Scientists

Bruce E. Ivins was the type of colleague who would leave a package of M&Ms on the desk of his frazzled boss. He was a "Survivor" junkie who loved deconstructing the latest episode at work. He was known for his groundbreaking development of new-generation vaccines for anthrax but he also kept a flatulence machine in his office that he mischievously operated by remote control with unsuspecting co-workers.

On the same day the FBI released hundreds of pages of chilling investigative documents to support its conclusion that Ivins was responsible for the anthrax attacks in 2001 that killed five people, a starkly different version of the scientist was remembered and celebrated yesterday at a private memorial service at Fort Detrick, the Army base in Frederick where he worked.

More than 200 mourners filled a small chapel not far from the lab Ivins used for nearly three decades. The tone of the service was one of unmitigated support and loyalty for the researcher, and there was no mention of the accusations against him or the darkness that enveloped the final months of his life before he died on July 29. Many in the chapel wept as a singer stood at a piano next to the altar and sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Five eulogists, all of whom worked closely with Ivins, praised him as a scientist and friend. Col. John Skvorak, the commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, said that Ivins was a top-notch researcher and generous mentor to younger scientists, always full of questions. Lt. Col. Bret Purcell, another Army scientist, struggled to maintain composure as he spoke of Ivins's unyielding dedication to the lab where he worked and the people who worked with him.

...

Many soldiers and Ivins's fellow researchers filled the pews, including those who found the allegations against him inconceivable. "I'm so angry," one of them said to another, waiting for the service to begin. "I'm so angry." A statement issued later in the day by Ivins's attorneys concluded: "No one who attended {the} service could believe that Dr. Ivins committed any crime."

[Muttocracy]

1. oh, what would a bunch of military anthrax lab experts who knew him for decades know about all this?

[Supersedeas]

2. Attorney General Mukasey would have you believe that these people are delusional

[sabra]

3. and that Dr. Ivins was the lone killer - with no hard evidence needed...

[EFerrari]

4. For a "sociopath", Bruce Ivins sure had a lot of good friends.

I used to wonder why totalitarian regimes always rounded up intellectuals. This is why: they get a double benefit. They silence both that particular intellect and the creative spirit spread by public intellectuals. A spirit that is anathema to governmental control of a population.

[EFerrari]

5. Kick

[aquart]

6. 200 people unimpressed by the FBI.

And impressively unintimidated. Which impresses me.

[suffragette]

7. I'm impressed as well

They aren't buying the smear campaign and neither are we.