The FBI is preparing to end its years-long investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings, but the bureau has yet to obtain conclusive evidence linking its sole suspect in the case to the chain of powder-tainted letters that killed five people and sowed fear of biological terrorism into the public consciousness, the New York Times reported Sunday (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2008).
(Jan. 6) -
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey Taylor outlines the FBI's allegations against Bruce Ivins in an August press briefing (Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images).
Federal investigators spent years focusing their suspicion on Stephen Hatfill, a former virologist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., until agents finally ruled out his involvement (see GSN, Nov. 26, 2008).
Investigators later reviewed evidence and honed in on Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the Fort Detrick laboratory who secretly suffered from alcohol abuse and psychological problems, the Times reported. Ivins committed suicide last July as federal prosecutors prepared charges against him.
Various damning facts turned up by the investigation indicate that Ivins conducted the mailings, according to Brad Garrett, a retired FBI agent who assisted in the probe's early phases. “Does that absolutely prove he did it? No,” he said, adding that without a trial and confession from the perpetrator, “you’re going to be left not getting over the top of the mountain.”
Upcoming audits of the federal investigation by Congress and the National Academy of Sciences could shed new light on the case, potentially addressing arguments by Ivins's former friends and colleagues that he was innocent (see GSN, Oct. 27, 2008).
The Army squelched an attempt by USAMRIID officials to launch their own review of the case.
Fledgling forensic efforts begun in the aftermath of the mailings determined that the anthrax strain in the envelopes was common in U.S. laboratories, suggesting that the attacks were the work of a biological defense scientist possibly seeking to draw attention to bioterrorist threats.
“It is very likely that one or more of you know this individual,” the FBI wrote in a message to the 40,000-member American Society of Microbiology in early 2002, adding that the mailer could have produced the anthrax during “off-hours in a laboratory.”
Nancy Haigwood, one of Ivins's colleagues, responded to the call by raising concerns about the scientist. She later told the Times that an e-mailed photo of Ivins showed him handling anthrax without gloves, suggesting the "hubris" of a potential attacker. The Army later learned that Ivins committed another safety breach by secretly trying to clean up a laboratory anthrax spill in late 2001 and failing to notify his superiors of the accident.
“I was afraid of this man,” Haigwood said. “I was convinced he had done it, and I was afraid he’d send me an anthrax letter.”
After setting their sights on Ivins beginning in 2006, they learned that he raised concerns about his own mental health in e-mails; he said he "felt like a passenger on a ride" during episodes of paranoia and that he felt "a few feet away" from his desk "watching" himself work.
John Ezzell, an anthrax expert and another former colleague of Ivins, said that Ivins possessed the knowledge to carry out the attacks. “He was in charge of producing large quantities of wet spores for research. So if anybody could have produced a lot of spores without arousing suspicion, it was him,” Ezzell said.
As Ivins came under closer FBI scrutiny and lost his laboratory security clearances, his mental instability increasingly surfaced, according to his wife.
"You know, he’s been incredibly, incredibly stressed, because of the way he’s been hounded by the FBI,” Diane Ivins told local police in a recorded interview. “They’ve always treated him as if he was guilty, and I just felt that he couldn’t take it anymore.”
During a group therapy session, Ivins said that he would be charged with five murders and suggested that he might kill himself and others.
In a letter left in his bedroom, his wife urged him to try to turn his life around.
“I wanted to write down how I felt because I loved him -- you know, I wanted him to come back and get healthy again so we could continue. He was retiring in September, and we were going to travel and enjoy our adult children finally," she said (Scott Shane, New York Times, Jan. 4).
She added that the letter said "I knew he was innocent of the anthrax letters and I never doubted him for a second," the Associated Press reported (David Dishneau, Associated Press/Google News, Jan. 6).