Grand Jury Investigating the Anthrax Attacks? Who's the Prosecutor?

[robertpaulsen]

Monday, August 4, 2008
Grand Jury Investigating the Anthrax Attacks? Who's the Prosecutor?

Everyone who followed closely the trickle of information coming out of the grand jury investigation into the leaking of Valerie Plame and blown cover of Brewster, Jennings & Associates knew who was in charge of that investigation long before Scooter Libby was ever indicted. Hell, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was so famous that the anticipation of who would be indicted and when created a new term in the lexicon of the blogosphere: Fitzmas. What came as a surprise to me in the wake of the "suicide" of anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins as he was supposedly about to be indicted for the attacks that killed five people in the months after 9/11 is that there was a grand jury investigating the matter at all.


Anthrax Indictment May Have Been Weeks Away
by Dina Temple-Raston

Government investigators tell NPR that they were still several major legal steps away from indicting army researcher Dr. Bruce Ivins for the 2001 anthrax attacks when he killed himself this past week.

While they had written up the case and told officials at the Department of Justice they were prepared to go forward, the department had not yet approved the case. What is more, the evidence against Ivins had not yet been presented in its entirety to a grand jury and jurors had not yet been asked to vote on an indictment. That process could have taken weeks.

more...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93241941&ft=1&f=2


So who is in charge of investigating this? And who was cross-examining this person?


August 03, 2008
Jean C. Duley... tell us again...

Okay, well the more research I do into the now infamous Ms. Jean C. Duley - the "therapist" who filed a restraining order against the alleged anthrax attacks suspect Bruce E. Ivins - the more her story sounds like a whole load of crap.

Let's rehash Ms. Duley's role in the whole saga.
According to The Smoking Gun, documents they obtained and posted show that Ms. Duley filed a restraining order request against Bruce Ivins on July 24th. In that complaint, she wrote the following (the errors are hers):
client has a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats, actions, plans, threats & actions toward theripist. Dr. David Irwin his psychiatrist called him homicidal, sociopathic with clear intentions will testify with other details FBI involved, currently under investigation & will be charged with 5 capital murders. I have been subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury August 1, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

snip

Okay, I give up. Why did this woman have to spend all her money on attorneys? She clearly filed the restraining order herself. So how is it that she incurred any attorney fees? Unless, of course, her boyfriend means that she incurred attorney fees for her DUI jury trial in 06 and ongoing fees relating to her probation? Why did Ms. Duley lose her job? Is it because as a "therapist" working with drug addiction cases, she was found driving under the influence?

I don't know what to make out of all of this. Is this woman jumping on the bandwagon hoping to pen a book deal or something? Is she simply lying? Is she telling the truth about Ivins? Is she as nutty as she claims him to be? I don't know. What I think, however, is that if this witness was dragged into a court in which I was the defense attorney, her credibility would quickly be shot down. Somehow, I think, we will soon see a Fox Noise exclusive interview with this woman and her boyfriend who will "reveal" what it is that they know. At this point, I am not buying this story and I am not sure why the media has jumped on her claims as though they were gospel.

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/08/jean-c-duley-te.html

OK, so we have a prosecutor who subpoenaes this piece of work. Now that the patient of this "theripist" is dead, what will become of the grand jury? Will we ever find out who testified and what they said unless indictments are issued? And why isn't the prosecutor treating Brian Ross of ABC News the same way Patrick Fitzgerald treated Judy Miller for refusing to reveal her sources?

During the last week of October, 2001, ABC News, led by Brian Ross, continuously trumpeted the claim as their top news story that government tests conducted on the anthrax -- tests conducted at Ft. Detrick -- revealed that the anthrax sent to Daschele contained the chemical additive known as bentonite. ABC News, including Peter Jennings, repeatedly claimed that the presence of bentonite in the anthrax was compelling evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks, since -- as ABC variously claimed -- bentonite "is a trademark of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program" and "only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons."

ABC News' claim -- which they said came at first from "three well-placed but separate sources," followed by "four well-placed and separate sources" -- was completely false from the beginning. There never was any bentonite detected in the anthrax (a fact ABC News acknowledged for the first time in 2007 only as a result of my badgering them about this issue). It's critical to note that it isn't the case that preliminary tests really did detect bentonite and then subsequent tests found there was none. No tests ever found or even suggested the presence bentonite. The claim was just concocted from the start. It just never happened.

more...http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

Remember there was a SCOTUS precedent set in 1972:

Finally, if the confidential information relates to criminal activity, the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1972 (in Branzburg vs. Hayes) that should a grand jury investigating the crime need the information, the journalist must turn it over — despite the freedom of the press guaranteed under the 1st Amendment.

No reporter can enter into an agreement that violates that law. Rather, an agreement of confidentiality is subject to it. The so-called news person's privilege, just like the attorney-client privilege or a president's executive privilege, is a qualified privilege. When a judge holds a reporter in contempt for violating the law, that judge is merely upholding the law of the land.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-sources6feb06,0,6080347.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary

So who is upholding the law of the land now?!

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2008/08/grand-jury-investigating-anthrax.html

[BeHereNow]

1. "So who is upholding the law of the land now?! "

Sorry citizen, that's classified.
Please stand by for further information from
anonymous US officials.

BHN with a K&R

[robertpaulsen]

4. Of course. I assume its an anonymous prosecutor as well.

I'll keep searching. :)

[Selatius]

2. Does this mean the Anthrax Attacks were an early but failed effort to start a war with Iraq?

Wouldn't the implication be that the federal government essentially targeted its own citizens in an attempt to start a war? A sort of American answer to the infamous Reichstag fire that allowed the Nazi regime to pass the Enabling Act of 1933?

Like the USA Patriot Act passed in 2001, the 1933 Enabling Act also had in it a 4-year sunset provision, which was renewed repeatedly in 1937, 1941, and 1944. It gave Hitler broad police powers and the ability to suspend constitutional laws in the name of national security. In the end, the German government brought ruin on the German people.

[robertpaulsen]

3. Yes, but unlike the Nazis we don't blame communists anymore.

Just Arabs, or when that fails, South African apartheid sympathizers, or when fails suicidal Catholics who are against assisted suicide. Doesn't matter who the patsy is, just as long as it's a lone nut. Unless it's an Iraqi, then it's a conspiracy.

[robertpaulsen]

5. Adding to autorank's thread.

Anthrax, Bruce Ivins Case Research-Resource Thread - Update & Rate Please
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3728633

[bleever]

6. Lots of good questions.

And every "answer" breeds more questions.

K&R.

[robertpaulsen]

7. That gives me a good idea.

I'm logging off tonight, but when I come back, I'm going to start a thread compiling a list of "Unanswered Questions" specifically related to the anthrax attacks. Perhaps some questions will have answers.

[Mnemosyne]

8. KnR n/t

[robertpaulsen]

9. Thanks. Here's some updated info on Duley's peace order testimony.

Here's Greenwald great piece today that led me to this info:

The FBI's emerging, leaking case against Ivins
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/05/anthrax/index.html?source=rss

Regarding the peace order that Ivin's "theripist" Jean Duley was seeking:

Ivins was supposed to have a permanent commitment hearing at Sheppard Pratt, but Duley said his attorney advised him to check himself in voluntarily so that he may leave when he wished. Drawbaugh told the court he probably was being released from the hospital as the hearing was going on. --

She decided to get the peace order after an FBI agent working the case suggested it.

Drawbaugh: "At this time, Ms. Duley, are you fearful for your personal safety?"

Duley: "I am and so is the FBI."

Drawbaugh: "OK. And can you tell the court why it is based on what you have testified to during the course of since July 9 that you are fearful of your safety?"

Duley: "As far back as the year 2000, the respondent has actually attempted to murder several other people either through poisoning. He is a revenge killer. When he feels he that he has been slighted or has had ... especially towards women ... he plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killing. He has been forensically diagnosed by several top psychiatrists as a sociopathic homicidal killer."

Roberts granted the temporary peace order and set a hearing for a final peace order Thursday -- a day before Duley was set to testify against Ivins before a federal grand jury.

The court ordered Ivins not to abuse or contact Duley or go to her home or job. The order was dismissed Thursday after Ivins' apparent suicide.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=78406

:wow:

Is your jaw dropping as low as mine?! She's fearful of her safety since July 9, yet she doesn't file for a peace order until the FBI tells her to?! He's attempted to murder several people through poisoning since 2000? Did he just happen to slip that nugget to her and neglect to mention "Oh, by the way, I mailed out all that anthrax after 9/11 too"? Or did she find that out from those "several top psychiatrists"?

Puhleeze. I want to know if there is one sentence she uttered that wasn't coached out of her by the FBI.

[Mnemosyne]

10. Hmm. It does get curiouser and curiouser, doesn't it? I am still

extremely curious as to why such a "sociopathic homicidal killer" kept security clearance and access until JULY 10; months after being considered a lead suspect:

Researcher Kept Security Clearance as FBI Closed In

By Carrie Johnson, Marilyn W. Thompson and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 4, 2008; A03

As an FBI investigation increasingly focused on him as a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, Fort Detrick scientist Bruce E. Ivins enjoyed a security clearance that allowed him to work in the facility's most dangerous laboratories, to handle deadly biological agents, and to take part in broad discussions about the Pentagon's defenses against germ warfare.

On July 10, the day he was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation, for example, Ivins spent part of the afternoon at a sensitive briefing on a new bubonic plague vaccine under development at the Army's elite biological weapons testing center, according to a former colleague who talked with him there.

Records that have surfaced since Ivins committed suicide last week show that Fort Detrick officials abruptly barred him from the base July 10, based on what a counselor called his deteriorating emotional condition. Until then, his security clearance gave him access to some of the most secure areas at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID. Months earlier, Ivins had become one of a handful of scientists regarded by federal investigators as the lead suspects]/b] in the unsolved killing of five people by mailed letters containing anthrax.

more:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080301819_pf.html

This makes it reek to high heavens, imho.

Do all government employees below the WH level have the same middle name? Patsy?

Hell, there's been a horrible stench in the US since 12/2001.

[robertpaulsen]

11. "Do all government employees below the WH level have the same middle name? Patsy?"

Classic! I quoted you in my latest blog entry. I think that's as close to the truth as it gets.

[Mnemosyne]

13. That's really nice of you, Robert, Thank you. I only hope all those

"Patsy's" wake up and open their pie holes soon. How stupid/greedy do you have to be to remain 'loyal' to those that would use you so badly? Corporatists have no loyalty to anything but power and profit.

The end of the BFEE cannot come soon enough. I hope they choose to leave peacefully...

Of course, we all know that they never really will go away, BFEE will always be the sinister shadows lurking behind the curtains.

[hannah]

12. Hippa Law

nt