It appears that the FBI finally identified the person behind the 2001 Anthrax mailings.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/01/anthrax.suicide.ap/index.html
At least the person who committed suicide raised his “person of interest” level.
Anyone else think the case is finally solved? Do you think the FBI did a great job in solving the case or a terrible job in taking 7 years to identify the 1 person out of the 20-30 people in the country who could have done the deed?
In regard to the 20 to 30 people in the country who could have done it- could it not also have been done outside the country and onforwarded by a person inside the country? I am not arguing at all- just a suggestion.
I wouldn’t call it ‘solved’. They suspected this guy, this guy commited suicide. The two events are may not be related or related in the way you think.
I don’t think so. IIRC the anthrax used was a US strain.
On searching it seems I recall correctly.
The evidence at this point strikes me as pretty overwhelming.
Thanks Yojimbo. I never realised that the strains could be identified (which reflects on the lack of research I did).
Given the fact that he was was unauthorized to goof around with the stuff outside of containment and he did, and he accidentally contaminated someone, you can conclude he was a complete idiot. Okay, maybe an anthrax genius, but when it came to security, an idiot. But is it possible that someone else just took advantage of his idiocy to sneak some samples out?
It just seems beyond stupid to think: “Hey, I have this totally unique thing that could only ever be traced back to my office, and now I’m going to do really bad stuff with it. They’ll never catch me!”
I’d say at the very least, he is responsible (either directly or indirectly) for the material getting out of the lab, but I wouldn’t say that you can conclude he committed the mail crimes.
This La Times article has some unique info as well.
Wiki has a pretty good article on the Amerithrax case as it is called. It sounds like Fort Detrick was a bit of a zoo. Scientists working on authorized projects, letting each other in the lab without using keycards, and harassing fellow scientists. It may be that his idiotic behavior was par for the course there.
I wouldn’t call it solved either, but the FBI considered him more than just a suspect. They intended to file criminal charges against him. That is a lot further along than just declaring him a person of interest like they did with Hatfill. And considering they just agreed to pay Hatfill $4.6M, I would hope that they felt pretty confident about Ivins.
Question: Do we know what the charges were going to be? (I don’t remember reading them)
Good question. The Washington Times reports:
I thought it was later found to be similar but not identical.
Absent a note, and absent the evidence that hasn’t made it into the public domain yet, I’m going to tentatively consider this a confession by suicide. I hope it is, 'cause I bet they close the case now, and I’d like it if the real sender is not still out there somewhere.
He was from Lebanon, wasn’t he?
(Sorry.)
I hope that’s the case and the recently deceased was simply not an accessory whose crime was procuring the Anthrax. I would assume that he’d be considered a co-conspirator if that was the case, warranting the death penalty, particularly if he was supposed to be working with the FBI and was instead covering tracks like crazy.
I’m hoping the cops will make a formal statement that the evidence was rock solid he was the culprit.
I heard on the news that Ivins was one of the experts that the FBI asked to help them with the case. No wonder it took them 7 years to solve it. That would be like the detectives on CSI: New York realizing that one of their own lab technicians was the criminal.
Oh, I saw that episode on another show!
so. . .who did the Tylenol?
Wasn’t that a husband who did it to kill his wife & contaminated other bottles to make it look like a random thing?
According to wiki it is still unsolved.