US anthrax probe to close after suspect's death

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - An Army scientist who committed suicide last week was solely responsible for the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks that killed five people and shook a nation reeling from the Sept. 11 hijackings, authorities said on Wednesday.

Federal court documents outlined the government's case against U.S. Army researcher Dr. Bruce Ivins, casting him as an anthrax expert beset by paranoia who faced pressure over a stalled anthrax vaccine project.

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"We believed that, based on the evidence we had collected, we could prove his guilt to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt," Jeffrey Taylor, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, told a news conference at the Justice Department.

Critics said the case was built on circumstantial evidence and cited missteps in the nearly 7-year probe, including the initial focus on another Army scientist, Dr. Steven Hatfill, at the same biodefense research laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Hatfill never was charged and the government agreed to pay him a nearly $6 million legal settlement.

Ivins's lawyers called the government's case "heaps of innuendo and a staggering lack of real evidence - all contorted to create the illusion of guilt by Dr. Ivins."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0651796120080806?sp=true

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well, there you have it - case closed - he's dead and who is going to argue about it now?

:sarcasm:

his conviction was set aside because he and not yet been sentenced. But this guy gets tried convicted and sentenced after his death an nobody says boo.

This thing stinks more and more by the day.

must have felt. They don't even try to make it believable any more

Next year we will have a new Attorney General and hopefully a new FBI Director.

Dr. Ivins did not have the training to mill the anthrax into the fine powder. Was somebody helping him? It is scarey to think that Dr. Ivins could simply walk out of the facility with the anthrax in his pocket. Was security really that lax? Why was Dr. Ivins put in charge of investigating himself?

Did Dr. Ivins have any contacts at the Whitehouse? How was it that the Bush administration attempted to tie Dr. Ivins to Mohammad Atta and Atta to Saddam? That is not following criminal leads; that is planting false evidence. How can this case be closed at this premature hour?

Their case is so full of holes it leaked out. The FBI couldn't pour piss from a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.

This is outrageous. I can't believe the United States government has fallen so far...

Solzenetchyn's in his grave, so I guess he can start turning over now.

pick a schumck
suicide him
case closed.
They should have pinned more unsolved crimes on him......

Looking for answers to a series of questions here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Or anything else you know about the matter.