Two Portraits of a Bioterror Suspect (Bruce Ivins)

[babylonsister]

Two Portraits of a Bioterror Suspect
As FBI Paints Ivins as Killer, Friends Recall Him as Good, if Flawed

Bruce E. Ivins was a caring father and Red Cross volunteer, friends and family say. The FBI says he carried out the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001.

By Anne Hull, Marilyn W. Thompson and Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 28, 2008; Page A01


Two days before he was found unconscious at home, felled by a lethal dose of Tylenol and valium, microbiologist Bruce E. Ivins logged on to one of the "express computers" on the second floor of the library in downtown Frederick.

He typed in the name of a Web site devoted to the anthrax-mailings investigation, a perplexing, unsolved case that had dragged on for seven years. At 7:13 p.m., the computer connected to a page that included comments from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who was confident that the case soon would be solved. "I tell you, we've made great progress in the investigation," he said.

Earlier that day, Ivins had been released from a psychiatric hospital, where the FBI had used the opportunity to obtain a DNA sample from him. Agents assigned to 24-hour surveillance followed him as he returned to his modest Cape Cod house outside the gates of Fort Detrick. Then Ivins "wasn't seen again," FBI documents say, until paramedics carried him out of his home unconscious.

The scientist who had spent his career studying lethal bacteria chose one of the simplest but most painful ways to die: acetaminophen poisoning, which causes liver damage and internal bleeding.

Some details of Ivins's final days emerged last week in a new release of FBI documents. The bureau found no suicide note, as it had hoped, and only sketchy evidence to bolster its case that Ivins was a diabolical and plotting criminal.

The new material emphasized the two irreconcilable versions of the man the FBI blames for the nation's most deadly act of biological terrorism.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092702895.html?nav=rss_nation

[Mabus]

1. K&R

I'm on my way out the door. I'll have to read this later. All I know is, this case doesn't add up. I don't think Ivins did it, or if he did, I don't think he was alone.