"Anthrax Investigation; Sloppy Work Or Cover Up?"

 Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, whose office was a target of the anthrax attacks in 2001, said Sunday the suicide of the government's main suspect does not mean the case is over.

Daschle said the FBI has not given him any new updates. He also raised questions about the quality of the investigation, noting that the government recently paid out almost $6 million to a former Army scientist, Steven Hatfill, who accused authorities of unfairly targeting him in the anthrax case.

"From the very beginning I've had real concerns about the quality of the investigation," Daschle said in a broadcast interview. "Given the fact that they already paid somebody else $5 million for the mistakes they must have made gives you some indication of the overall caliber and quality of the investigation."

Five people died and 17 others were sickened when anthrax-laced letters began showing up at congressional offices, newsrooms and post offices soon after Sept. 11, 2001.

"I think the American people deserve more of an accounting on this investigation and some appreciation of how to bring this to closure," Daschle said. "I don't know anything about the most recent development, and that's unfortunate. I think all of us, not only those of us directly affected, but all of us need to know more than we do today."

The case re-emerged in the news this past week as investigators prepared to charge a government scientist Bruce Ivins in the case. Ivins died Tuesday in what has been ruled a suicide.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't bring anything to closure," Daschle said. "This probably further complicates their ability to get to the facts."

He said he did not know if the investigation involving Ivins "is just another false track and a real diversion of where they need to be. We don't know and they aren't telling us."

Steven Jay Hatfill (born October 24, 1953) is an American physician, virologist and bio-weapons expert. The US Department of Justice identified the former government scientist as a "person of interest" in its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks. FBI raids on his home were well-attended by journalists and, consequently, several news outlets speculated that Hatfill was at one time the likely suspect for the attacks. He later sued the government for ruining his reputation, a case which the government settled for US$5.8 million.

Hatfill's "post-doctoral" appointments included one (1997) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He subsequently worked (1997-99) as a civilian researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the U.S. Department of Defense's medical research institute for biological warfare (BW) defense at Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD. There he studied, under a National Research Council fellowship, new drug treatments for the Ebola virus and became a specialist in BW defense.

In January 1999 Hatfill transferred to a "consulting job" at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which has a "sprawling campus" in nearby McLean. The corporation did work for a multitude of federal agencies. Many projects were classified, and SAIC's tight relationship with the CIA led to a standing one-liner: "What is SAIC spelled backwards?"

By this time there had been a number of hoax anthrax mailings in the United States. Hatfill and his collaborator, SAIC vice president Joseph Soukup, now commissioned William C Patrick, retired head of the old US bioweapons program (who had also been a mentor of Hatfill) to write a report on the possibilities of terrorist anthrax mailing attacks. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg (director of the Federation of American Scientists' biochem weapons working group in 2002) said that the report was commissioned "under a CIA contract to SAIC". However, SAIC said Hatfill and Soukup commissioned it internally — there was no outside client.

The resulting report, dated February 1999, was subsequently seen as a "blueprint" for the 2001 anthrax attacks. Amongst other things, it suggested the maximum amount of anthrax powder - 2.5 grams - that could be put in an envelope without making a suspicious bulge. The quantity in the envelope sent to Senator Tom Daschle in October 2001 was 2 grams. After the attacks, the report drew the attention of the FBI, and led to their investigation of Patrick and Hatfill.

Bruce Edwards Ivins (April 22, 1946 – July 29, 2008), was a U.S. government microbiologist and vaccinologist for 36 years[1] and senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland for 18 years. In July 2008 he reportedly committed suicide just as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was about to charge him with a crime and seek the death penalty for his alleged connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and made 17 others ill.

Ivins became involved in the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks because he was 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.

In 2002, an investigation was carried out as a result of an incident at Fort Detrick where anthrax spores had escaped carefully guarded rooms into the building’s unprotected areas. The incident called into question the ability of USAMRIID to keep its deadly agents within laboratory walls seven months after the anthrax mailings.

A coworker told Ivins that she was concerned she was exposed to anthrax spores when handling an anthrax-contaminated letter. Ivins tested the technician’s desk area that December and found growth that had the earmarks of anthrax. He decontaminated her desk, computer, keypad and monitor, but did not notify his superiors.

For some time, the FBI focused its investigation on Steven Hatfill, considering him to be the chief suspect in the attacks. In March 2008, however, authorities exonerated Hatfill and settled the lawsuit he initiated for $5.8 million. According to ABC News, Ivins was considered a suspect by some in the FBI as early as 2002. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III changed leadership of the investigation in late 2006, and at that time Ivins became the main focus of the investigation. The FBI thought Ivins, who had complained about the limits of testing anthrax drugs on animals, might have sent the anthrax letters in order to test a vaccine he had been developing.

After Hatfill was no longer considered a suspect, Ivins began "showing signs of serious strain". As a result of his changed behavior, he lost access to sensitive areas at his job. He began being treated for depression and expressed some suicidal thoughts.

Late in July 2008, investigators informed Ivins of his impending prosecution for his alleged involvement in the 2001 anthrax attacks that Ivins himself had previously assisted authorities in investigating. It has been reported that the death penalty would have been sought in the case.

Dr. W. Russell Byrne, a colleague who worked in the bacteriology division of the Fort Detrick research facility, said FBI agents "hounded" Ivins by twice raiding his home and that Ivins had been hospitalized for depression earlier in the month. According to Byrne and local police, Ivins had been removed from his workplace out of fears that he might harm himself or others. "I think he was just psychologically exhausted by the whole process", Byrne said. "There are people who you just know are ticking bombs", Byrne said. "He was not one of them". However, Tom Ivins, who last spoke to his brother in 1985, said, "It makes sense ... he considered himself like a god".

The Los Angeles Times also reported that Ivins stood to gain financially from the attacks because he was a co-inventor on two patents for a genetically-engineered anthrax vaccine. The San Francisco-area biotechnology company, VaxGen, licensed the vaccine and won a federal contract valued at $877.5 million to provide the vaccine under the Project Bioshield Act.

DNA taken from the bodies of people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks helped lead investigators to Bruce Ivins, who oversaw the highly specific type of toxin in an Army lab, a government scientist said Sunday.

Using new genome technology, researchers looked at samples of cells from the victims to identify the kind of anthrax Ames strain that killed them, the scientist said. They noticed very subtle differences in the DNA of the strain used in the attacks than in other types of Ames anthrax.

Spores taken from envelopes used to mail the anthrax, as well as from the sites where they were sent, also were scrutinized.

With that, investigators linked the specific type of anthrax back to Ivins' biological weapons lab at Ft. Detrick in Frederick, Md., where he oversaw its use and handling for research.

"It had to do with the very specific characteristics in the DNA of the letters and what was in Bruce's labs," said the government scientist, who is close to the investigation. "They were cultures he was personally responsible for."

The scientific discovery gave the FBI its first solid break in one of the nation's most high-profile unsolved crimes after years of pointing the finger at the wrong suspect. Combined with other evidence, the Justice Department is expected to close the case this week, concluding Ivins was the mastermind and sole criminal behind the attacks that killed five and sickened 17 others in the weeks following 9/11.

Ivins killed himself last week as prosecutors prepared to indict him on murder charges.

Dozens of other researchers in Ivins' lab also had access to the type of Ames strain used in the attacks, the scientist said, meaning the DNA alone is not enough to prove his guilt.

Investigators have said they used other evidence to build the case against Ivins, including looking at who had access to the poison or the labs at the specific time it was mailed. Those details are expected to be spelled out in sealed court documents that are expected to be released this week if the Justice Department ends the investigation, possibly as early as Monday or Tuesday.

10/18/2001 - Updated 10:21 PM ET

Ridge tries to calm an edgy nation, Congress

WASHINGTON — On his 10th day on the job as director of the government's new Office of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge emerged from the West Wing of the White House and stood before the cameras to address a nation on edge. It was the Bush administration's first attempt to speak with one voice after days of confusion that prompted Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., to demand of Health and Human Service Secretary Tommy Thompson: "Who's in charge?" But Ridge and the Cabinet heads and experts he brought with him to take questions at a news conference had little in the way of answers or new information about a frightening series of anthrax attacks.

Attorney General John Ashcroft repeated a vow authorities made days ago: to crack down on those perpetrating anthrax hoaxes. FBI Director Robert Mueller wouldn't say whether the agency has any promising leads in the hunt for who is responsible for the anthrax attacks. And after two days of conflicting statements over whether the anthrax sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office was a more powerful variety than that sent to Florida and New York, the health officials present said they're still waiting for test results.

Reporters grumbled that the officials might as well have been reading from 3-day-old newspaper headlines.

In a roundtable discussion with 20 newspaper reporters later Thursday, Ridge acknowledged that during his first week, some wondered where he was.

Ridge's emergence followed a chaotic Wednesday during which angry lawmakers grilled administration officials about their response to the anthrax attacks, the House of Representatives decided to shut down for five days for a security sweep while the Senate stayed in session, and leading senators gave conflicting information about the power of the anthrax mailed to the Capitol.

Ridge said Thursday was "the appropriate time" for him to begin what he sees as a regular role of spokesman for the administration. "There has been some concern. There were mixed messages," he said. "I didn't see too many inconsistencies out there, but you didn't have a central voice.

    As I see it, the FBI is either guilty of very sloppy investigative work or a cover up in the 2001 anthrax attacks which occurred very shortly after 9/11 and the creation of the Office Of Homeland Security by the Bush Administration in the beginning of the so called "War On Terror". Doesn't the FBI have "profilers" like they do on TV and movie crime shows? Why wasn't Bruce Ivins the number one suspect in 2001 instead of Steven Hatfield? Why did the FBI wait seven years before making a move for long time mentally unstable Ivins and then tell him in advance his impending arrest, knowing full well Ivins was a suicide risk? Why is the FBI so quick to call the investigation closed with the Ivins suicide?

False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time.

    Were the 2001 anthrax attacks "false flag" operations to divert attention from the investigation of the 9/11 attacks and to add further justification to the establishment of the Office Of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, the invasion and occupation of Iraq and other elements of the Bush Administration's "War On Terror"? In my opinion, the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks, as well as the 9/11 attacks are far from over. America deserves to know what really happened because there are still too many unanswered questions in these terrorist attacks on American soil, in my opinion.

tags: anthrax attacks  bruce ivins  war on terror  bush  takebackamerica  us  war  warpeace  flase flag attacks  911  fbi  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit