Mounting questions over US anthrax probe and scientist’s alleged suicide

[Joanne98]

One week after an Army germ warfare scientist apparently committed suicide, there are mounting questions over the government’s handling of the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks and expressions of skepticism regarding the sensationalized media coverage of the past four days.

Colleagues and friends of Dr. Bruce Ivins, who died Tuesday from an overdose of prescription Tylenol he had taken two days earlier, have cast doubt on the claims by the FBI and Justice Department that Ivins perpetrated the anthrax attacks. They have also debunked many of the claims made in initial news reports about Ivins’ death.

Ivins’ lawyer, Paul Kemp, sent an email to news organizations Saturday denouncing reports that his client was considering a plea bargain to avoid a death sentence for the anthrax mailings, calling such reports “entirely spurious.” Kemp had been contacted by federal investigators—the FBI interviewed Ivins several times over the past year as well as searching his home—but there was no discussion of a possible plea.

Initial press accounts suggested that Ivins had committed suicide because he faced imminent indictment on five capital murder charges, with prosecutors determined to seek the death penalty. National Public Radio reported Sunday, however, that government investigators said they “still were several major legal steps away from indicting” Ivins, and that the Department of Justice leadership had not yet approved bringing charges. The process of obtaining executive approval, presenting the case to the grand jury and obtaining an indictment “could have taken weeks.”

There were conflicting reports about whether Ivins had the skills necessary to create the finely ground powder form of anthrax used in the 2001 mailings. Some germ warfare experts said that the job was not that difficult from a technical standpoint. But Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff, a physician formerly consulted by the FBI investigation, told the New York Times, “I don’t think a vaccine specialist could do it. This is aerosol physics, not biology. There are very few people who have their feet in both camps.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/anth-a04.shtml

[MasonJar]

1. This is a case that Bush/Cheney had no intention of allowing to come to trial.

[PurgedVoter]

2. K&R Seems fishy

On the suicide issue, I am just guessing, but I can imagine that someone in the field is as close as you come to being an expert on how you die.

Tylenol is far from the ideal suicide method. You are likely to poison your self, pass out, throw up, and then slowly and painfully die of debilitating liver damage.

While he might have been able to obtain data on making anthrax aerosol, if he were trying to, there would be quite a bit of solid evidence around. The sort of equipment you have to set up to keep from having an accident is a fairly solid investment in some solid materials. Did he have an autoclave at home? Did he have a clean room? I am guessing here, not being an expert, but I suspect that these would be just the start of the sort of equipment you would need to prevent an early indication of your work, by having people close to you get sick and die, even if you were immune.