The FIRST rule of criminal investigation, at least especially for cases involving national security and national financial type cases, is to ask "who benefits, and who had the motive?" to conduct a given crime or murder.
In the case of the DOMESTIC TERRORISM ANTHRAX ATTACKS, on DEMOCRATIC, ONLY, Senate offices, and a few selected "major media" editor offices, shortly after the 9-11-2001 terrorist airliner hijackign attacks on New York and Washington prominent targets, the FBI has made a very poor argument why ANY of its "prime suspects" in the case would target Democratic senators, ONLY... when those anthrax letters, targeted at the White House or Pentagon, would have had a far larger psychological impact.
Needless to say, Senators Tom Daschle (then Senate Majority Leader), and Senator Patrick Leahy (then Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman), were THE TWO most influential legislators in the entire Congress, the ONLY men with the authority to slow down the enactment of the so-called "P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act" which were (and are) DIRECTLY SIMILAR with the "ENABLING ACTS" which granted dictatorial, "State of Emergency" powers to Germany's then budding dictator, Adolf Hitler.
But FBI's
report,
documents and
accompanying information (only pertaining to Ivins, not to the rest of the investigation) were released on Friday afternoon... which means the FBI anticipated doubt and ridicule. And the National Academies of Science (NAS) is several months away from issuing
its $879,550 report on the microbial forensics, suggesting a) asking NAS to investigate the FBI's science was just a charade to placate Congress, and/or b) NAS' investigation might be uncovering things the FBI would prefer to bury, so FBI decided to preempt the NAS panel's report.
Here are today's reports from the
Justice Department,
AP,
Washington Post and
NY Times. The WaPo article ends,
The FBI's handling of the investigation has been criticized by Ivins's colleagues and by independent analysts who have pointed out multiple gaps, including a lack of hair, fiber other physical evidence directly linking Ivins to the anthrax letters. But despite long delays and false leads, Justice officials Friday expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
The evidence "established that Dr. Ivins, alone, mailed the anthrax letters," the Justice summary stated.
Actually, the 96 page FBI report is
predicated on the assumption that the anthrax letters attack was carried out by a "lone nut." The FBI report fails to entertain the possibility that the letters attack could have involved more than one actor. The FBI admits that about 400 people may have had access to Ivins' RMR-1029 anthrax preparation, but asserts all were "ruled out" as lone perpetrators. FBI never tried to rule any out as part of a conspiracy, however.
That is only the first of many holes in FBI's case. Here is a sampling of some more.
- The report assumes Ivins manufactured, purified and dried the spore prep in the anthrax hot room at US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). His colleagues say the equipment available was insufficient to do so on the scale required.
- But even more important, the letter spores contained a Bacillus subtilis contaminant, and silicon to enhance dispersal. FBI has never found the Bacillus subtilis strain at USAMRIID, and it has never acknowledged finding silicon there, either. If the letters anthrax was made at USAMRIID, at least small amounts of both would be there.
- Drs. Perry Mikesell, Ayaad Assaad and Stephen Hatfill were 3 earlier suspects. All had circumstantial evidence linking them to the case. In Hatfill's case, especially, are hints he could have been "set up." Greendale, the return address on the letters, was a suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe where Hatfill attended medical school. Hatfill wrote an unpublished book about a biowarfare attack that bears some resemblance to the anthrax case. So the fact that abundant circumstantial evidence links Ivins to the case might be a reflection that he too was "set up" as a potential suspect, before the letters were sent.
