Just as charges are about to be filed in the 2001 anthrax attacks. (HT Marlee)
Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.
The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who worked for the past 18 years at the government’s biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., had been told about the impending prosecution, the Los Angeles Times reported for Friday editions. The laboratory has been at the center of the FBI’s investigation of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people…
Henry S. Heine, a scientist who had worked with Ivins on inhalation anthrax research at Fort Detrick, said he and others on their team have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that has been investigating the anthrax mailings for more than a year…
Ivins was the co-author of numerous anthrax studies, including one on a treatment for inhalation anthrax published in the July 7 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Just last month, the government exonerated another scientist at the Fort Detrick lab, Steven Hatfill, who had been identified by the FBI as a “person of interest” in the anthrax attacks. The government paid Hatfill $5.82 million to settle a lawsuit he filed against the Justice Department in which he claimed the department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case.
After the government’s settlement with Hatfill was announced in late June, Ivins started showing signs of strain…
Seven years and they finally track down a guy working for…us, and within the military system. This case embodies the worst things we have–an generally incompetent DOJ and a biodefense community that included at least one top researcher who thought it would be just fine to attack this nation with anthrax just weeks after the September 11th attacks. It took this long in part because of the focus on Hatfill, but how is it colleagues of this man wouldn’t have known that he was also a possible suspect?
And, of course, we are left with the ultimate question which the Feds had better figure out: Why? To bring attention to the need for a vaccine? That’s just an excuse for a madman to do his thing.
Related Links:
CDC’s page on Anthrax
Here are the key dates in the Anthrax affair. It helps to refresh the memory… even awful events fade with time.
It would be poetic justice if he’s related to Molly in any way. Thanks for the tax savings Bruce, sorry your conscience got to ya.
Let’s not rest too easy. If this guy had already been diagnosed with a ‘disorder’ and he was still employed in this type of work, then we better look at the mental health of other people in such environments.
Now, before anyone jumps, let’s understand that people who have ‘issues’ also can learn to deal with them. But, what’s wrong with being clear and, above all, safe – it’s good for that subject-person too.