As the government pegs the blame for the 2001 deadly attacks on one Army biologist, the attorney for scientist Bruce Ivins says his client never knew he was "the suspect" in the attacks.
"We were never informed or advised that an indictment was imminent of him," attorney Tom DeGonia tells WTOP. DeGonia's broadcast interview is Ivins' lawyers' first interview since Ivins committed suicide.
Ivins, a Fort Detrick scientist, overdosed on acetaminophen. He died July 29, hours before he was set to meet with the government about the case. Even though Ivins had died, DeGonia and co-counsel Paul Kemp still met with the Justice Department that day. It was then, DeGonia says, the government offered up a reverse proffer -- its plans to seek an indictment against Ivins.
"It had never been made clear to him nor to us that he was 'the suspect,'" says DeGonia, Ivins' co-counsel.
"They've maintained that they are confident they have the correct person. Neither we nor the public have been presented with any hard, direct evidence, of the doctor's involvement in these killings," DeGonia says.
While DeGonia acknowledges he's speaking out to protect Ivins' reputation as much as possible, DeGonia says the public should question the government's case.
He says the government has leaked information that 15 different research facilities across the country had access to the anthrax in question.
"It's very difficult when you have no direct evidence that this man was involved in it to say that he was the only one that had access to this material," DeGonia says.
A search warrant affidavit indicated the government had other potential suspects, he says.
"In that affidavit there are at least eight other people who the government had the same suspicions on or enough suspicions anyway to get either search warrants for either their laboratories or their homes or their vehicles and how those people were eliminated. We just have no information about how they were eliminated."
It is becoming more and more clear that this case against Bruce Ivins is falling apart.
The FBI's case seems to hinge almost solely on the testimony of this Jean Duley person and I have a feeling that we are going to find that she is not terribly reliable. But everything else about the case is either circumstantial or absolutely false.
We need to keep paying close attention to this case. It is time for the government to stop lying to us and to really investigate just what really did happen on 9-11 and afterward.
Showing posts with label Anthrax attack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anthrax attack. Show all posts
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Here is what a fellow scientist from Fort Detrick has to say about the FBI's case against Dr. Ivins.
Dr. Nass goes through the FBI's case step by step and easily disassembles it.
And then she sums up her argument with this last important point:
The anthrax letters were sent for effect, not to kill. Here are the effects that resulted, at least in part, from the letters:
A. The Patriot Act
B. War against Iraq
C. A new bioterrorism industry, worth over $50 Billion so far, was created
D. The moribund Anthrax Vaccine Program was resurrected
Who benefited? Ivins was no beneficiary. (Had the Bioport vaccine been killed, as planned, maybe Ivins' vaccine would have taken its place.)
You know who benefited:
The bioevangelists, who have made a ton of bucks on the threat
The Neocons, looking for an excuse to attack Iraq. The Iraqis may not have attacked the World Trade Center, but by golly, everyone knew they had anthrax!
Those seeking to consolidate more power in the executive branch, increase the surveillance of Americans, get rid of Habeus Corpus, and on and on.
The anthrax vaccine manufacturer, Bioport. Guess what? Its CEO, Fuad El-Hibri and his company Intervac bought Bioport in 1998 with $3 Million down. The next day, the Army agreed to indemnify it for him.
Last week, one day after Ivins went into the hospital with an overdose, and one day after Ivins died, El Hibri sold some of his shares in the company, for $200 Million
And then she sums up her argument with this last important point:
The anthrax letters were sent for effect, not to kill. Here are the effects that resulted, at least in part, from the letters:
A. The Patriot Act
B. War against Iraq
C. A new bioterrorism industry, worth over $50 Billion so far, was created
D. The moribund Anthrax Vaccine Program was resurrected
Who benefited? Ivins was no beneficiary. (Had the Bioport vaccine been killed, as planned, maybe Ivins' vaccine would have taken its place.)
You know who benefited:
The bioevangelists, who have made a ton of bucks on the threat
The Neocons, looking for an excuse to attack Iraq. The Iraqis may not have attacked the World Trade Center, but by golly, everyone knew they had anthrax!
Those seeking to consolidate more power in the executive branch, increase the surveillance of Americans, get rid of Habeus Corpus, and on and on.
The anthrax vaccine manufacturer, Bioport. Guess what? Its CEO, Fuad El-Hibri and his company Intervac bought Bioport in 1998 with $3 Million down. The next day, the Army agreed to indemnify it for him.
Last week, one day after Ivins went into the hospital with an overdose, and one day after Ivins died, El Hibri sold some of his shares in the company, for $200 Million
The Justice Department is laying out their case against Dr. Ivins.
My very first impression from watching U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, who is delivering the press conference, is that he is sweating like a pig and clearly knows he is lying. He kind of reminds me of Scott McClellan during the height of the Valerie Plame scandal.
I am going to update this post as more information rolls in.
I am waiting for the question and answer period, because somebody needs to ask about handwriting analysis. I have heard nothing about this obvious and simple test yet.
THE HANDWRITING DID NOT MATCH!!
U.S. Attorney Taylor claims there "were some similarities" but no match. This is the smoking gun that undermines this whole case in my opinion. I cannot believe that the media is buying this bullshit!
(Okay the link above now connects to the AP story about the FBI's case so you can read it for yourself.)
I am going to update this post as more information rolls in.
I am waiting for the question and answer period, because somebody needs to ask about handwriting analysis. I have heard nothing about this obvious and simple test yet.
THE HANDWRITING DID NOT MATCH!!
U.S. Attorney Taylor claims there "were some similarities" but no match. This is the smoking gun that undermines this whole case in my opinion. I cannot believe that the media is buying this bullshit!
(Okay the link above now connects to the AP story about the FBI's case so you can read it for yourself.)
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
No more pussy footing around. The Wall Street Journal claims that Bruce Ivins could NOT be the Anthrax killer!
The FBI has not officially released information on why it focused on Ivins, and whether he was about to be charged or arrested. And when the FBI does release this information, we should all remember that the case needs to be firmly based on solid information that would conclusively prove that a lone scientist could make such a sophisticated product.
From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man. The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.
The FBI spent between 12 and 18 months trying "to reverse engineer" (make a replica of) the anthrax in the letters sent to Messrs. Daschle and Leahy without success, according to FBI news releases. So why should federal investigators or the news media or the American public believe that a lone scientist would be able to do so?
This is actually an opinion piece written by Richard Spertzel, but it falls in line with the other articles that the Wall Street Journal has been writing concerning the Anthrax case and the lack of credible evidence.
It is my fervent hope that the other media sources pick up on this piece and start demonstrating the kind of skepticism that this story clearly calls out for. Do not forget that this crime happened over seven years ago and in all of that time we have not found the perpetrator. Which if you think about it is insane. I mean if this is anthrax strain is really that difficult to produce then the list of people who could have created it must be only a few names long. And yet we are led to believe the FBI cannot locate that person and make the case.
None of this makes any sense without getting out your tinfoil hat and placing it firmly on your head.
From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man. The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.
The FBI spent between 12 and 18 months trying "to reverse engineer" (make a replica of) the anthrax in the letters sent to Messrs. Daschle and Leahy without success, according to FBI news releases. So why should federal investigators or the news media or the American public believe that a lone scientist would be able to do so?
This is actually an opinion piece written by Richard Spertzel, but it falls in line with the other articles that the Wall Street Journal has been writing concerning the Anthrax case and the lack of credible evidence.
It is my fervent hope that the other media sources pick up on this piece and start demonstrating the kind of skepticism that this story clearly calls out for. Do not forget that this crime happened over seven years ago and in all of that time we have not found the perpetrator. Which if you think about it is insane. I mean if this is anthrax strain is really that difficult to produce then the list of people who could have created it must be only a few names long. And yet we are led to believe the FBI cannot locate that person and make the case.
None of this makes any sense without getting out your tinfoil hat and placing it firmly on your head.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Keith Olbermann does not buy the government's case against Bruce Ivins either.
It is good to see that we still have a few voices for justice in the media.
Mary Nass fellow scientist at Fort Detrick where, accused "Anthrax terrorist", Bruce Ivins supposedly created the Anthrax powder.
It is unlikely that Ivins knew how to prepare weaponized anthrax, but not inconceivable.
However, the amount he would have had to process was larger than needed for his animal experiments. Each letter is thought to have contained 2-3 trillion spores. I can’t recall his animals receiving more than about a million spores each. So roughly one million times as much anthrax was needed for the letters as for an animal experiment. Increasing the scale of fermentation should have been noticed. Drying anthrax would have been noticed, as there was no need to prepare any other anthrax specimens this way. Sudden use of a dryer for large samples would be suspicious. Post-drying processing for the letter anthrax likely took place; were the materials needed available to Ivins?
How the anthrax was produced and processed is crucial to solving the case, but the information is classified. The FBI’s failure to provide briefings to Congress and reliable information to the public means it may be impossible for those outside the investigation to independently evaluate the evidence in the case.
Even if Ivin's supposed "therapist" Jean Duley is correct about his homicidal tendencies, which I doubt very much, it is becoming clearer and clearer that even if Bruce Ivins wanted to send these deadly letters he simply lacked the tools and knowledge to accomplish that goal.
The really disheartening part of this story, beside the complete character assassination being done on this award winning scientist by our government, is how completely the MSM has swallowed this story.
Where is the skepticism from a media that has been lied to repeatedly by this government? I mean how many times must they be made fools of by the Bush administration before they learn to take every thing the officials say with a giant grain of salt?
And this is what the Bush administration is counting on. If nobody pursues the story then it just disappears from the consciousness of every American and the criminals get away with another lie that nobody called them on. We deserve better.
However, the amount he would have had to process was larger than needed for his animal experiments. Each letter is thought to have contained 2-3 trillion spores. I can’t recall his animals receiving more than about a million spores each. So roughly one million times as much anthrax was needed for the letters as for an animal experiment. Increasing the scale of fermentation should have been noticed. Drying anthrax would have been noticed, as there was no need to prepare any other anthrax specimens this way. Sudden use of a dryer for large samples would be suspicious. Post-drying processing for the letter anthrax likely took place; were the materials needed available to Ivins?
How the anthrax was produced and processed is crucial to solving the case, but the information is classified. The FBI’s failure to provide briefings to Congress and reliable information to the public means it may be impossible for those outside the investigation to independently evaluate the evidence in the case.
Even if Ivin's supposed "therapist" Jean Duley is correct about his homicidal tendencies, which I doubt very much, it is becoming clearer and clearer that even if Bruce Ivins wanted to send these deadly letters he simply lacked the tools and knowledge to accomplish that goal.
The really disheartening part of this story, beside the complete character assassination being done on this award winning scientist by our government, is how completely the MSM has swallowed this story.
Where is the skepticism from a media that has been lied to repeatedly by this government? I mean how many times must they be made fools of by the Bush administration before they learn to take every thing the officials say with a giant grain of salt?
And this is what the Bush administration is counting on. If nobody pursues the story then it just disappears from the consciousness of every American and the criminals get away with another lie that nobody called them on. We deserve better.
Friday, August 01, 2008
More evidence emerges that the government's case against possible Anthrax terrorist Bruce Ivins is not believable.
Despite the allegations -- and even after Ivins's apparent plunge into mental illness -- longtime friends and colleagues say it is inconceivable that Ivins could have been a bioterrorist. Many contend that he was driven to depression and suicide because of months of hounding by federal investigators.
"He just looked worried, depressed, anxious, way turned into himself," recalled W. Russell Byrne, an infectious-disease specialist who last saw Ivins on a recent Sunday at St. John the Evangelist, the Roman Catholic church in Frederick to which they both belonged. "It would be overstating it to say he looked like a guy who was being led to his execution, but it's not far off."
Added another co-worker: "Almost everybody . . . believes that he had absolutely nothing to do with Amerithrax."
And from the Brad Blog we get this:
Several scientists who worked with Ivins also question whether he would have had the technical skills to create the sophisticated powder used in the anthrax attack. Creating the kind of highly lethal, easily dispersible powder used in the 2001 attacks requires unique skills not normally associated with vaccine specialists.
"He had no access to dry, powdered anthrax, according to Fort Detrick spokespersons, who said that only liquid anthrax was used at the Fort Detrick facility in animal aerosolization experiments," said Meryl Nass, a physician and bioterrorism expert. "If he had been making dry anthrax, it would have been detectable."
This case must not be closed because it is pretty clear that the person responsible for the Anthrax attacks is still out there.
Update: By the way does anybody remember this case?
"He just looked worried, depressed, anxious, way turned into himself," recalled W. Russell Byrne, an infectious-disease specialist who last saw Ivins on a recent Sunday at St. John the Evangelist, the Roman Catholic church in Frederick to which they both belonged. "It would be overstating it to say he looked like a guy who was being led to his execution, but it's not far off."
Added another co-worker: "Almost everybody . . . believes that he had absolutely nothing to do with Amerithrax."
And from the Brad Blog we get this:
Several scientists who worked with Ivins also question whether he would have had the technical skills to create the sophisticated powder used in the anthrax attack. Creating the kind of highly lethal, easily dispersible powder used in the 2001 attacks requires unique skills not normally associated with vaccine specialists.
"He had no access to dry, powdered anthrax, according to Fort Detrick spokespersons, who said that only liquid anthrax was used at the Fort Detrick facility in animal aerosolization experiments," said Meryl Nass, a physician and bioterrorism expert. "If he had been making dry anthrax, it would have been detectable."
This case must not be closed because it is pretty clear that the person responsible for the Anthrax attacks is still out there.
Update: By the way does anybody remember this case?
This raises far more questions then it answers.
A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently has committed suicide in the wake of what a brother said was his intense pursuit by the FBI in connection with anthrax-tainted letters that killed five people.
The Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against the scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, a leading military anthrax researcher who worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., the Los Angeles Times reported in Friday editions. Ivins had been told of the impending prosecution, the paper said.
Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. The Times, quoting an unidentified colleague, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine. A woman who answered the phone at Bruce Ivins' home in Frederick declined to comment.
This case has always seemed like a red herring from the very beginning to me. When I first heard of the letters I was a more then just a little skeptical. It did not seem like a material that somebody could easily get their hands on and it also seemed like a sloppy way to cause injury to America.
And then there was the fact that the letters were sent to media outlets that were less then exuberant about the coming war. Not to mention having one sent to a Democratic Senator who was not in favor of the Iraq war and the Democratic Majority leader who was hesitating about putting it to a vote.
These letters started to arrive SEVEN DAYS AFTER 9-11 and were clearly designed to further frighten the American people into thinking we were under multiple attacks by someone in the Muslim community. And the proof of that can be found in the letters themselves.
The New York Post and NBC News letters contained the following note:
09-11-01
THIS IS NEXT
TAKE PENACILIN NOW
DEATH TO AMERICA
DEATH TO ISRAEL
ALLAH IS GREAT
The second anthrax note
The second note that was addressed to Senators Daschle and Leahy read:
09-11-01
YOU CAN NOT STOP US.
WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX.
YOU DIE NOW.
ARE YOU AFRAID?
DEATH TO AMERICA.
DEATH TO ISRAEL.
ALLAH IS GREAT.
So if this Bruce E. Ivins really is the culprit what was his motivation? Wasn't he already as traumatized by the events of 9-11 as the rest of us? Why did he feel that he needed to further inflame the fear and anger of the American people? And how come we just now find out that this guy was a suspect? And then the guy takes his own life before anybody can cross examine him? The stench from this thing is overwhelming.
Or is it possible, and you may need to get your tinfoil hat out for this, that the administration wants this case closed before the Democrats take power and launch their own investigation?
Perhaps Dr. Ivins is simply a very convenient scapegoat. This just seems a little too neat of a package to me.
The Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against the scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, a leading military anthrax researcher who worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., the Los Angeles Times reported in Friday editions. Ivins had been told of the impending prosecution, the paper said.
Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. The Times, quoting an unidentified colleague, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine. A woman who answered the phone at Bruce Ivins' home in Frederick declined to comment.
This case has always seemed like a red herring from the very beginning to me. When I first heard of the letters I was a more then just a little skeptical. It did not seem like a material that somebody could easily get their hands on and it also seemed like a sloppy way to cause injury to America.
And then there was the fact that the letters were sent to media outlets that were less then exuberant about the coming war. Not to mention having one sent to a Democratic Senator who was not in favor of the Iraq war and the Democratic Majority leader who was hesitating about putting it to a vote.
These letters started to arrive SEVEN DAYS AFTER 9-11 and were clearly designed to further frighten the American people into thinking we were under multiple attacks by someone in the Muslim community. And the proof of that can be found in the letters themselves.
The New York Post and NBC News letters contained the following note:
09-11-01
THIS IS NEXT
TAKE PENACILIN NOW
DEATH TO AMERICA
DEATH TO ISRAEL
ALLAH IS GREAT
The second anthrax note
The second note that was addressed to Senators Daschle and Leahy read:
09-11-01
YOU CAN NOT STOP US.
WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX.
YOU DIE NOW.
ARE YOU AFRAID?
DEATH TO AMERICA.
DEATH TO ISRAEL.
ALLAH IS GREAT.
So if this Bruce E. Ivins really is the culprit what was his motivation? Wasn't he already as traumatized by the events of 9-11 as the rest of us? Why did he feel that he needed to further inflame the fear and anger of the American people? And how come we just now find out that this guy was a suspect? And then the guy takes his own life before anybody can cross examine him? The stench from this thing is overwhelming.
Or is it possible, and you may need to get your tinfoil hat out for this, that the administration wants this case closed before the Democrats take power and launch their own investigation?
Perhaps Dr. Ivins is simply a very convenient scapegoat. This just seems a little too neat of a package to me.
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