A New York City Emergency Service police officer inspects a mailbox on Fifth Avenue in New York/ (October 17, 2001) (AP photo)
by Frank James
A federal government biodefense expert has apparently committed suicide just as prosecutors were about to charge him in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people.
The Los Angeles Times' David Willman gets credit for breaking the story. Here's a snippet of his report:
A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.
Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.
Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case, played a central role in research to improve anthrax vaccines by preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.
Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins also helped the FBI analyze the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator's office in Washington.
Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after ingesting a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, said a friend and colleague, who declined to be identified out of concern that he would be harassed by the FBI.
The death -- without any mention of suicide -- was announced to Ivins' colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, through a staffwide e-mail.
"People here are pretty shook up about it," said Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for USAMRIID, who said she was not at liberty to discuss details surrounding the death.
The anthrax mailings killed five people, crippled national mail service, shut down a Senate office building and spread fear of further terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The extraordinary turn of events followed the government's payment in June of a settlement valued at $5.82 million to a former government scientist, Steven J. Hatfill, who was long targeted as the FBI's chief suspect despite a lack of any evidence that he had ever possessed anthrax.
The payout to Hatfill, a highly unusual development that all but exonerated him in the mailings, was an essential step to clear the way for prosecuting Ivins, according to lawyers familiar with the matter.
The story doesn't outline all the evidence investigators had against Ivins. But it appears the Federak Bureau of Investigation was able to make a critical genetic connection between the anthrax that showed up in mail in 2001 and the anthrax at the facility at which Ivins worked.
The word is that the Justice Department may have more to say on the investigation later today.
Anyone who worked in Washington in 2001 remembers the dismay and terror the anthrax attacks caused. The Hart Senate Office Building was closed for months as the building was fumigated to kill anthrax spores that had spread in the facility.
Mail rooms all over the city all of a sudden became places of dread. At one point mail delivery stopped completely. It resumed once the U.S. Postal Service got irradiation equipment on line. But there were permanent changes. Congress's incoming mail now first gets processed at a facility away from the iconic Capitol Hill buildings.
If the evidence against Ivins is airtight, that would bring to a close a sad and scary chapter in the nation's history. But the Hatfull episode which was both tragedy and farce will cause a lot of people to withhold judgment until they have a chance to learn the government's evidence. Word is the Justice Department will be saying more on the topic later today.
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Comments
Straight out of "The Good Shepherd".
Posted by: ornery | August 1, 2008 10:15 AM
Nothing to see here, move along, it's just the Bush administration tying up loose ends before they hand the keys over to the next guy.
Posted by: Quippy | August 1, 2008 10:31 AM
An inside job? Despite the language of the letters, this was a domestic terrorist?
Posted by: athena | August 1, 2008 11:05 AM
"CHENEY SPEAKS"
SEE FROM THE DARKEN DOORS OF THE WHITE HOUSE! WE GOT OUR MAN!
WE HAD TO EAVESDROP, DATAMINE, AND WIRETAP HIM TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF AMERICA'S FIRST BIO ATTACK!
FROM THE DARKEN DOORS OF THE WHITE HOUSE, REST ASSURE, WE GOT OUR MAN! IT'S NOT BLAME PLAME GAME EITHER, I SWEAR IT! IT'S NOT THAT WE WERE CLUELESS. IT WAS HARD WORK, A WORK IN PROGRESS!
BUT WE GOT OUR MAN! SEE! WE ARE MUCH SAFER NOW THAT WE HAVE GOT OUR MAN! YEAH!
Posted by: Roger Morris | August 1, 2008 1:30 PM
The makers of Duct Tape should cover the funeral costs and thank thank GW and the "intelligence" community for the misinformation.
Posted by: KPRSNAX | August 7, 2008 3:14 AM