Aug 6, 2008 8:12 am US/Eastern
Anthrax Attack Victims May Soon Get Some Answers
FREDERICK, Md. (WJZ/AP) ―
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The anthrax investigation pointing to Bruce Ivins is hitting home with his friends and neighbors in Frederick.
CBS
The anthrax investigation pointing to Bruce Ivins is hitting home with his friends and neighbors in Frederick. That's where the stunning news of the charges he faced and his suicide is the most upsetting.
As
Derek Valcourt reports, the reaction is simply disbelief.
For many in Frederick, it's a waiting game. They're waiting for the FBI to release more information because in the meantime they don't want to believe the worst about their friend and neighbor.
A small batch of flowers was placed in front of the home of Dr. Bruce Ivins. The Fort Detrick scientist took his own life Thursday after learning the FBI was about to charge him with the 2001 mailings of anthrax-laced letters through the U.S. Postal Service to members of the media and to some in Congress. Five people were killed in those attacks and 17 others were injured.
Law enforcement sources say new DNA tests show the anthrax used in the attacks likely came from the same Fort Detrick laboratory where Ivins worked, but many who worked with him doubt his involvement.
"He simply did not have a lab that was equipped to make the technical steps that would have been required to make this dried anthrax powder and if he did come up with a novel way of making the powder, it would have been very difficult for him to pull off, given that the lab is fairly crowded," said Jeff Adamovicz, Ivins' former supervisor.
But the FBI says Ivins may have borrowed the equipment he needed to turn the anthrax into a powder.
If the FBI is wrong about Ivins, it would not be the first time. Originally they fingered another scientist from the same laboratory, Dr. Steven Hatfill. Hatfill was later cleared of all charges and accepted a settlement for the damage to his reputation.
But with Ivins' suicide, the government now appears to be ready to close the case for good.
So far, the FBI has not released a lot of information on the status of their investigation but that appears to be all about to change. The government was to brief victims and their survivors at FBI headquarters Wednesday.
Ivins' lawyer maintains the brilliant but troubled scientist would have been proved innocent had he lived.
But after nearly seven years -- much of which was spent pointing the finger at the wrong suspect -- the FBI is ready to end the "Amerithrax" investigation by outlining its evidence against Ivins, according to two U.S. officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
The Justice Department "has a legal and moral obligation to make official statements first to the victims and their families, then the public," Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday. "And that's the order in which we're going to do it."
Officially, the case will stay open for an undetermined but short period of time. That will allow the government to complete several legal and investigatory matters that need to be wrapped up before it can be closed, the officials said.
Families of victims were to get the first glimpse inside the case at the morning FBI briefing. The Justice Department, meanwhile, was expected to ask a federal judge to unseal documents revealing how the FBI closed in on Ivins.
That evidence should answer many questions in the bizarre investigation. Still, skeptics may never be satisfied if the documents fail to show conclusively that Ivins was solely responsible for mailing the anthrax letters.
The case may turn on a couple of key points, including:
--An advanced DNA analysis that matched the anthrax used in the attacks to a specific batch controlled by Ivins. It is unclear, however, how the FBI eliminated as suspects others in the lab who had access to it.
--Ivins' purported motive of sending the anthrax in a twisted effort to test a cure for it, according to authorities. Ivins complained of the limitations of animal testing and shared in a patent for an anthrax vaccine. No evidence has been revealed so far to bolster that theory.
--Why Ivins would have mailed the deadly letters from Princeton, N.J., a seven-hour round trip from his home. In perhaps the strangest explanation to emerge in the case so far, authorities said Ivins had been obsessed with the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma for more than 30 years. The letters were sent from a mailbox down the street from the sorority's offices at Princeton University.
Investigators can't place Ivins in Princeton but say the evidence will show he had disturbing attitudes toward women. Other haunting details about Ivins' mental health have emerged, and his therapist described him as having a history of homicidal and sociopathic thoughts.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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