Rocking The Boat

Almost a decade after Bruce Ivins supposedly sent deadly anthrax spores through the mail and killed five, the Justice Department is now openly questioning the FBI's conclusions in the case that drove Ivins to commit suicide.

Shortly after Ivins committed suicide in 2008, federal investigators announced that they'd identified him as the mass murderer who sent the letters to members of Congress and the news media. The case was circumstantial, with federal officials arguing that the scientist had the means, motive and opportunity to make the deadly powder at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.

Now, however, Justice Department lawyers have acknowledged in court papers that the sealed area in Ivins' lab — the so-called hot suite — didn't contain the equipment needed to turn liquid anthrax into the refined powder that floated through congressional buildings and post offices in the fall of 2001.

The government said it continued to believe that Ivins was "more likely than not" the killer. But the filing in a Florida court didn't explain where or how Ivins could have made the powder, saying only that his secure lab "did not have the specialized equipment . . . that would be required to prepare the dried spore preparations that were used in the letters."

The government's statements deepen the questions about the case against Ivins, who killed himself before he was charged with a crime. Searches of his car and home in 2007 found no anthrax spores, and the FBI's eight-year, $100 million investigation never provided direct evidence that he mailed the letters or identified another location where he might have secretly dried the anthrax into an easily inhaled powder.

A number of disturbing questions remain in the Bruce Ivins case. Only circumstatial evidence was ever brought against him, and now, finally, the DoJ is looking into the issue.  If Ivins wasn't the real culprit, then who was?  The FBI is satisfied that Ivins was the mastermind, but the Justice Department now isn't sure.

We'll see where this goes.

Sherman, Set The Wayback Machine For October 2001

As the nation, still reeling from 9/11, was further terrorized by the infamous Anthrax Letters.  Almost ten years later, the National Academy of Sciences report on the case reveals that from a scientific perspective, Bruce Ivins, the man suspected of the crime, may not have been the culprit.

An independent panel of scientists has determined that the FBI did not have enough scientific evidence to produce a conviction in the case of the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people.

The National Academies of Sciences released a review Tuesday of the science used in the investigation. The $1.1 million report, which was commissioned by the FBI, concluded that the man accused in the case, Bruce Ivins, could have carried out the attacks, but the science alone did not prove it.

In October and September of 2001, letters containing anthrax killed five people and infected 17 others. Recipients included NBC News, The New York Post, Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

Even after over 600,000 investigator work hours spent by the FBI's "Amerithrax Task Force," the case against Ivins was largely circumstantial.

Ivins killed himself in 2008 just as the government was prepared to indict him. The Justice Department closed the case last year, concluding Ivins had acted alone in stealing the spores from the government lab where he worked.

The report released Tuesday questioned the link between a flask of anthrax found in Ivins' office and the letters.

"The scientific link between the letter material and flask number RMR-1029 is not as conclusive as stated in the DOJ Investigative Summary," the report said.

The panel added that another explanation for the link "was not rigorously explored" by the FBI.

The case was closed when Ivins killed himself three years ago.  There were plenty of questions then about Ivins and his sudden death, and what the FBI was trying to prove.  Now, it seems, somebody has the courage to point out that the case against Ivins wasn't as airtight as the country was led to believe.

Will Eric Holder re-open the case?  Doubtful.

They Instill Us With Confidence With Their Incompetence

When Digby's not kicking ass over at Hullabaloo, dday is. (Boldness from myself:)

First of all, this gaping hole in the case, the lack of any physical evidence putting Ivins at the crime scene, has been obvious from the moment the FBI closed the case. In fact, they're STILL looking for additional evidence, which should tell you something about how secure they are in their determination that Ivins acted alone. They're basing the entire case on the remote belief that Ivins checked out of his lab with just enough time to spare to drive 4 hours to Princeton for pretty much no reason and mail the letters. Except the postmark on the letters reflects the day after it would according to the FBI's own timeline. (The FBI doesn't even talk about the other letters mailed; presumably they have no evidence tying Ivins to those locations, either). And now this - the hair samples don't match. That's really only one of the many questions remaining in the case. The FBI has checked Ivins's car, his house, his locker, and his safety deposit box and found no traces of anthrax spores. The evidence of the particular strain of anthrax could have been in the hands of up to 100 people, and anyway the DNA testing does not point to any individual. There is just nothing in what the FBI has presented that is in any way conclusive - in fact, more pieces point AWAY from Ivins than toward him. Meryl Nass has the definitive rundown of the Swiss cheese-sized holes in the case.

Seven years, in perhaps the single most important case of unsolved domestic terrorism in US history, and we instead get something a tenth-grader would be loathe to turn in.

It really cannot be stressed enough how much the Bush Administration is insulting the American people, and how much contempt the FBI has for, well, pretty much the entire universe. They aren't even trying to hide at this point that the Ivins case is a massive cock-up because they know that Bush and AG Michael Mukasey won't do anything, that Congress won't do anything other than hold hearings to say "Hey guys, the FBI is up to something, let's get evidence" In which case Mukasey will say "We're conducting an investigation" and Bush will say "I cannot comment on this ongoing investigation" and they'll wait out the clock.

There is an incredible preponderance of evidence here that indicates the Ivins case is a complete sham and that the FBI either drove him to suicide or had a hand in his death to keep him quiet, and although the guy was strange, that doesn't make him a terror mastermind. Not even the right wingers in the Village Media are trumpeting this case, because even they have the good grace to remember that the anthrax scare was fed to them as propaganda to attack Iraq.

The government is complict, the media is complicit, Congress was complicit probably...and if everybody's guilty, who is going to expose the truth?

Gentlemen! Behold!

Of all the questions the Washington Post could ask about the Ivins anthrax case, they choose to go with "How many other unstable dudes have access to germs?"

"An estimated 14,000 scientists and technicians at about 400 institutions have clearances to access viruses and bacteria such as the Bacillus anthracis used in the anthrax attacks, but security procedures vary by facility, and oversight of the labs is spread across multiple government agencies.

Screening for the researchers handling some of the world's deadliest germs is not as strict as that for national security jobs in the FBI and CIA, federal officials said."

And before you get all annoyed, yes the question needs to be asked, yes it is a valid concern.

No, it is not the major concern here. That should be "Why did it take the FBI seven years to bust this guy, what did he know, how did he do it" and most importantly "Why did our government lie and tell ABC News that Iraq was behind this?"

ABC News and Brian Ross ran with that for weeks after 9/11. It helped lay the groundwork for our invasion of Iraq. It was patently false. While the FBI and the security of facilities like USAMRIID needs to be investigated, the Media was complicit in spreading propaganda. It came from somebody high up in the government. We need to know who that somebody was, and why it was used to justify an act of war with another country.

That's treason, folks. Whoever in the government did this needs to be held responsible. And I'm not at all convinced that Bruce Ivins is guilty. Who told Brian Ross it was Iraq? That's who we need to be looking for right now.

To its credit, WaPo IS asking "Where's the beef?" on the evidence. The goods on Ivins are flimsy at best. We know the FBI has this habit of making things up to cover their ass, ask Richard Jewell. But that 800-pound gorilla in the room is why Iraq was the culprit for seven years.

UPDATE: Track TPM Muckracker's coverage of the anthrax case.

More White Powder Snow Job

John Amato over at Crooks And Liars is also calling bullshit on the Bruce Ivins case.

Did you watch the press conference yesterday? It absolutely made no sense. The feebs made it sound like there were millions of people that could have had access to anthrax. When they were asked why it took so many years to come up with Army scientist Bruce Ivins—they looked to the universe.

Q:When did you get around to him as a suspect from March 31st in 2005?

A: It’s important to remember how complex and complicated this investigation was. At the outset we had to identify the universe of persons and labs that might have access to this type of anthrax. Once we identified what type of anthrax it was, then over the years there were efforts to shrink the size of the pool…

What the hell is he talking about? I’d say the FBI was drowning in a pool of lies. Are there 8 million people and labs to check out to see who actually had anthrax? I want to see the FBI logs on this case. The day to day activity. Really, there needs to be a full investigation of this. How many hours did they spend on this case? What did they know and when did they know it? Ivins was actually helping the FBI with their own case! It’s right out a serial killer novel. I’ll have more later. There are so many layers to this story.

I'm hoping that the liberal blogosphere can be instrumental in keeping this story alive, because what really happened with Bruce Ivins may at heart be the most important threat to our democracy since Watergate.

We went to war with Iraq based on the Anthrax case. For seven years, we were lied to. Now we have been lied to again. Nothing about this case passes the smell test. Arguably the most important domestic terror attack in this country, one used to justify a war with Iraq because it was viewed as an external attack and not an internal one, and it took seven years to track down this guy?

It stinks. The FBI is lying. That press conference was insulting. We know why too, to protect Bush. This one goes to the top.

Let's follow it.

White Powder Snow Job - Updated

When the Double G Glenn Greenwald latches on to something, he doesn't let go. He's been the point man on everything doing with the Constitution for the Netroots (most recently FISA) and in the last week he's chomped down on the Bruce Ivins Anthrax Case.

It's certainly possible that once the FBI closes its investigation and then formally unveils its evidence -- which apparently will happen tomorrow -- a very convincing case will be made that Bruce Ivins perpetrated the anthrax attacks and did so alone. But what has been revealed thus far -- through the standard ritual of selected Government leaks which the establishment media, with some exceptions, just mindlessly re-prints no matter how frivolous -- is creating the opposite impression. The FBI's coordinated leaking is making their claim to have solved the anthrax case appear quite dubious, in some instances laughably so.

One glaring and important exception to the dynamic of uncritical media recitation is this morning's New York Times article by Scott Shane and Nicholas Wade, which evinces very strong skepticism over the FBI's case thus far and discloses facts that create more grounds for skepticism. Given everything that has happened over the last seven years -- not just with the anthrax attacks but with countless episodes of Government deceit and corruption -- it's astonishing (and more than a little disturbing) how many people are willing, even eager, to assume that the Government's accusations against Ivins are accurate even without seeing a shred of evidence to support those claims.

When you add on to that the magnitude of this case and the ample reasons for error and deceit -- it's the first lethal bioterrorism attack on the U.S., one which, according to the Government itself, originated at a U.S. Government facility, perpetrated by a U.S. Army scientist, that was then used by numerous factions inside the Government and out to ratchet up fear levels and falsely blame Iraq and/or Al Qaeda for the attacks and, thereafter, was blamed on someone who appears to have been completely innocent -- what minimally rational person would be willing to assume that the Government's uncorroborated, unexamined, untested claims are accurate?

The Bush Administration has lied about pretty much everything it has done since day one. Believing them now on the Ivins case is tantamount to falling into the trap of Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We should assume they lie until proven otherwise.

Everything the Bushies have done rests on this one lie at its base: Anthrax spores sent in the mail, tied to Iraq, trumpeted by ABC News and other media outlets, were the Reichstag Fire the Bushies needed to get us into the whole Islamofascist War, the PATRIOT Act, FISA, Iran, everything. We were told that this was proof that around every corner, under every rock, behind every bush, was an Islamic Terror Machine waiting to kill us.

We were told war was the only answer.

Now we're being told "Um, yeah, about that, it was a...CRAZY MAD SCIENCE GUY! Yeah, that's it. Oh, and he killed himself. Case solved. Let's go to the pretzel place at the mall."

The Village has bought this and is spewing out The Stupid for us to munch on.

A federal judge has approved the release of hundreds of pages of documents from the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, a court official said Wednesday.

The records include 14 search warrants, information used to request those warrants and summaries of what was found, the court official said. The official declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The documents were expected to implicate Army biological weapons researcher Bruce Ivins in the anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened more than a dozen.

The FBI is expected to detail the evidence linking Ivins, who authorities said committed suicide last week, to the anthrax attacks in a briefing in Washington with survivors and relatives of victims, a government source familiar with the case said Tuesday.

The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to release the documents Wednesday morning, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN. Those records are expected to be unsealed Wednesday afternoon.

Hooray, the villian has been caught and is dead. Justice for all!

Double G calls bullshit and lets slip the dogs of accountability with Rep. Rush Holt.

Rep. Rush Holt represents the Central New Jersey district where at least one of the anthrax letters was sent. Rep. Holt's Congressional office was one of the few in which traces of anthrax were found. He is also a physicist and has been an outspoken critic of the FBI's investigation into the anthrax attacks. Perhaps most importantly, he is the Chairman of the House's Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, which very well may hold hearings to examine the FBI's investigation and conclusions.

This morning, I spoke with Rep. Holt for roughly 20 minutes. During the discussion, Rep. Holt:

• indicated his support for the creation of an investigative body, with full subpoena power, along the lines of the 9/11 Commission, to investigate all unresolved aspects of the anthrax attacks;
• enumerated the many reasons why a rational person would lack confidence in the the FBI's investigative abilities;
• complained that the FBI has continuously "stonewalled" both him and all other members of Congress, for years, as they tried to exercise oversight over the FBI's investigation into the anthrax case;
• declared that nobody should conclude, without much further proof, that the actual anthrax killer has been identified.

Particularly on matters of intelligence and science, Holt is one of the most informed and intelligent members of Congress. When those attributes are combined with the fact that his district was directly affected in several ways by the anthrax attacks, his views on this case are well worth listening to.

The Dems absoultely need to follow this for the good of the country. At the core of this Humongous Pile Of Stupid is Bush and his lies. There are questions of treason here, things that even Nancy "Off The Table" Pelosi has to admit are disturbing. If Bruce Ivins was a lone nutjob, how come this took 7 years to get to the bottom of, all the time the government saying it was Iraq, it was Saddam, it was a terror attack.

Remember the Maine, indeed.

UPDATE: Double G has even MOAR on today's docudump on the Ivins case.

What is most conspicuously absent from these FBI documents is any real forensic evidence linking Ivins to the anthrax that was sent. That's particularly striking because the FBI took numerous swabs of Ivins' residence, his office space, his laboratory devices (presumably including the lyothilizer he used), his locker, his cars. If they had discovered any anthrax traces that genetically matched what was sent in 2001, they certainly would have said so. But they don't.

It's long been claimed that the property that rendered so dangerous the anthrax sent to Daschle and Leahy was that it was airborne. At times it was even claimed that the anthrax was aerosolized. Under all circumstances, in order for it to be inhalation anthrax, it would have to disburse rather easily. Wouldn't one expect that the FBI's swabs would reveal traces of anthrax somewhere on the clothes, in the home or other physical surroundings of the anthrax attacker? Yet apparently those multiple swabbing episodes turned up nothing, at least based on the documents that were released today.

Nor are there any real answers to the question of how Ivins would have manufactured, on his own and without being detected, anthrax grade of the type that was used in the attacks. The numerous hours he spent alone in the lab doesn't address what many of his colleagues said would have been his technological inability to produce anthrax of this type.

After all, this was a lethally hot bioagent that demanded the utmost care and caution in a highly specialized environment. Ivins would have known exactly what this stuff was capable of doing after being an expert on the substance for 20 plus years. It was designed to spread quickly and kill and manufactured to do exactly that, hence the term weapons-grade biological agent. He apparently got this stuff out of a weapons lab AFTER 9/11, and he apparently was able to get the job done in a week. Yet he apparently stuck it in a freaking ordinary envelope.

Reflect on the sound of that one hand clapping, my son, and why it took them seven years to bust this guy.