"Ivins Would Still Be Alive If Their Case Against Him Had Been Stronger"

[kpete]

The bottom line: "they haven't solved this crime, but they want us to all go away and pretend they have."

their case was so weak and they feared it would be dismissed outright if they grabbed him.

The Anthrax Case Might Be Cracked, But It Is Far From Closed
By: David Neiwert Thursday August 7, 2008 8:20 am

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The Washington Post story following the dump covers this well: It really was an extraordinary pattern of constant harassment, including showing up at a supermarket with autopsy photos to tell Ivins' wife that he had killed those people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080500852.html?sub=AR
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What stands out in these documents is what we've gotten so far from the leaks (almost certainly coming from an investigator) that have fed us most of the public information about the case against Ivins: Namely, there are tons of cause for suspicion, and even a reasonable circumstantial case to make against Ivins, but it's a dubious proposition at best that this evidence would have yielded a conviction -- it's more likely, in fact, that it wouldn't have.

Indeed, it's likely that Ivins would still be alive if their case against him had been stronger. After all, they could easily have taken him into custody after his release from the hospital where he was treated just before his suicide -- but probably didn't because their case was so weak and they feared it would be dismissed outright if they grabbed him.

What the public has to work on so far are affidavits for search warrants -- which are fine for establishing probable cause, but don't do diddly for establishing actual guilt. They may have gotten a good crack on the case, but the FBI is far from having solved it.

Indeed, the affidavit contains several inconsistencies. One of the key pieces of evidence it raises is his mysterious late-night work around the time of the attacks, emphasizing his refusal to explain what he was working on. Yet a later section quotes an e-mail showing showing that Ivins resumed work on a vaccine project at this time. And the “unusual” pattern of night work is clearly shown to have begun in August, well before the Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. -- meaning if Ivins was working on the attacks then, he conceived them before 9/11. And yet whoever was responsible for the attacks was clearly piggybacking off them (see the phony "Muslim" content of the letters).

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more at:
http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/07/the-anthrax-case-might-be-cracked-but-it-is-far-from-closed/