Comments on: The Case Against Ivins, Search Warrant One

By: mui1

mui1 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:00:44 +0000

You mean germboy.

By: earlofhuntingdon

earlofhuntingdon — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:20:54 +0000

Please name a federal government worker not working overtime in the week after 9/11. Dr. Ivins work involved researching defenses to bio-attacks. I would be surprised only if he hadn’t worked overtime.

We’ll have to disagree about whether the FBI’s case is compelling. Taylor’s characterizing it as sufficient for a conviction is a prosecutor’s whet dream, not an objective description of its strengths, even uncontested by a zealous defense team.

By: alank

alank — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:38:35 +0000

Wow, rincewind is a firepup. Deeply honored, sir!

Yes, the evidence is not very good, so far.

By: johnculpepper

johnculpepper — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:53:32 +0000

If he was taking ambien, known to cause sleepwalking, he could have been brought to believe that he had done it when “out of his mind” though he had no recollection of doing it.

(I myself am an agnostic in this matter.)

By: MarkH

MarkH — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:31:07 +0000

One thing that occurred to me was that George W. Bush is out of town and this might have been considered the ideal time to get this information out.

Maybe getting this out and exposing how pathetic the prosecutions would have been was important to disclose that the administration was desperate to pin it on somebody…anybody except the guilty.

Maybe it’s just the Bush way of tying off a loose thread.

But then, often their idea of a loose thread is someone who knows something or someone who deserves payback. Obviously in this case there were 3 guys they tried to pin it on, so it’s clearly not one in particular who deserves payback. So, they’re trying to tie off a thread which is embarrassing to Bush in some other way. Maybe this is just his “mission accomplished” schtick.

But, then again, maybe they need to end all investigation to avoid the discovery of some connection to Libby or Rumsfeld or some other neocon. Cui bono seems to point their direction certainly as much as towards Ivins.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:05:17 +0000

Umm, and was Ivins the only one with these “windows of opportunity?”

There is a presumption that the anthrax HAD to come from that lab near the time it was mailed and so ‘window of opportunity’ seems relevant.

But, if there was something in the anthrax which was mailed, but not present in the anthrax in the lab, then there is clearly the possibility it came from an earlier batch or from the same batch earlier and had that marker substance in it (perhaps added after extracted from the main batch).

In that instance whomever had that sample (dried and ready to mail) could easily have had opportunity and never have been looked at.

They claim, of course, their evidence is overwhelming. Does it include information about anyone and everyone who entered that lab and might’ve gotten the anthrax with the marker looking back from the first day the anthrax existed there?

By: MarkH

MarkH — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:59:35 +0000

“Very concerned that this program may come to an end.”

The circumstantial evidence matches Libby as closely as it does Ivins.

What pre-existing relationships did Ivins have aside from with his wife and AFA?

Did he know or have communications with superiors all the way up to the WH?

By: bmaz

bmaz — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:13:51 +0000

Hey, thanks for wrapping everything up so conclusively. By the way, are you still shilling that “Duley was credible and professional” meme, or did you finally give up on that?

By: holdenlennon

holdenlennon — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:06:16 +0000

I have only started looking over the docs but I find the spikes in his after hours work at the time of the attacks very compelling and tough to explain. I also find the emails compelling in that they strongly suggest he was experiencing psychotic breaks and had been at different times in his adult life. This goes a long way in explaining the two Bruce Ivins. Mild mannered brilliant scientist 90% of the time and paranoid schizophrenic when the “other” Bruce showed up. And paranoids do not typically collude with the government for those of you who insist he did not act alone. I find that suggestion ludicrous. And I always considered the possibility of him switching samples deliberately to throw them off seeing as he was in a prime position to do so. The gov used the attacks to help with their plot for war which has killed thousands upon thousands and that is bad enough. The poems read like they were in a screenplay about a paranoid. Classic twisted genius. Sick, sick man. Funny poems and yet very sad. Because he was really insane and most of him was a good guy. The FBI still smells. They could have gone about their investigation in a far more professional and rational way and that might have saved a lot of time, money and trouble to say the very least. You know our government is corrupt and lame when the man who looks to be the anthrax killer still comes out looking sympathetic in comparison. Some of you will go on thinking the government sent the letters, I know. Have fun with that.

By: YYSyd

YYSyd — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:42:32 +0000

It does sound like a case where FBI is intent on pinning the whole thing on one suspect. Universe of individuals with access to the flask being narrowed down over the years, assumes a crime where there were no actors involved without access to the flask. (but plenty of access to wrinting utinsils, cars, trains, post offices, mail boxes and so on)

By this logic Osama would get off free because he had no access to the box cutters used.