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Colleague Comes Forward To Defend Anthrax Suspect
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times writes about Henry S. Heine, a former Army microbiologist who worked for years with Bruce E. Ivins, whom the FBI has blamed for the anthrax letter attacks that killed five people in 2001. Heine told a 16-member National Academy of Sciences panel reviewing the FBI's scientific work on the investigation that he believes it is impossible that the deadly spores could have been produced undetected in Ivins's laboratory, as the FBI asserts. Heine told the panel that producing the quantity of spores in the letters would have taken at least a year of intensive work using the equipment at the army lab, an effort that would not have escaped colleagues' notice. Lab technicians who worked closely with Ivins have told Heine they saw no such work. Heine adds that, in addition, the biological containment measures where Ivins worked were inadequate to prevent the spores from floating out of the laboratory into animal cages and offices. 'You'd have had dead animals or dead people.' Asked why he is speaking out now, almost two years after Ivins's suicide, Heine says that Army officials had prohibited comment on the case, silencing him until he left the government laboratory. Although Heine does not dispute that there was a genetic link between the spores in the letters and the anthrax in Ivins's flask, Heine says samples from the flask were widely shared. 'Whoever did this is still running around out there. I truly believe that.'"
...is generally not that deadly. My uncle used to deal with cattle with black leg all the time. This story is ONCE AGAIN blown out of proportion--thanks, FBI.
The Atlantic has a really interesting article about the FBI's multi-year investigation of Stephen Hatfill for the same crime.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/04/the-wrong-man/8019
So that is two men the US Government accused of the Anthrax attacks, one of which killed himself and the second almost did. Neither with any real evidence other than vague coincidences. Just goes to show that when the pressure to solve an investigation goes to such extremes mistakes are bound to happen.
I think we should ask about the state's method. In one case they intentionally harassed a suspect by releasing his name to the media, conducting multiple searches, and following him around 24/7 and even having local law enforcement arrest him multiple times on silly charges.
In any other country that has some kind of independent police watchdog you would have consequences but in the US where law enforcement seem to be above the law and "investigate" (ha ha) themselves they just get worse and worse year after year.
So a strain of Anthrax, developed by the US Military,
No.
A strain of Anthrax with similar genetic code as one being developed by the military.
The security around the anthrax at that time wasn't what anyone would call 'high'.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Glenn Greenwald has been writing about the anthrax issue for a while... check him out: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax and http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/03/04/anthrax/index.html and http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2008/08/04/anthrax/ and http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2007/04/09/abc_anthrax/index.html for starters
The Atlantic magazine just published a really eye-opening article on Steven Hatfill, the FBI's first suspect. It is very clear from the article that the FBI was hell-bent on finding a perpetrator of the crime even in the absence of any solid evidence. It's an interesting and frightening read about how the FBI could completely destroy your job, your friends, your day-to-day life, and your family if they falsely accuse you of a crime.
Anthrax cover-up on line one !
I'm sure you probably meant big "R" Republicans, right? I just think it's funny that you'd choose to highlight instances that occurred under the watch of Republican presidents and none under Democrats, as though all Democrat presidents were boy scouts and all Republican presidents were akin to Hitler's child-abusing step-brother (citation needed). The only thing "insightful" about your post is how blatantly obvious your political bias extends.
Sacco and Vanzetti, for two.
The Birmingham Six, for another six.