Suspect's suicide could close case
Disposition of anthrax inquiry expected soon
WASHINGTON - For nearly seven years, scientist Bruce Ivins and a small circle of fellow anthrax specialists at Fort Detrick's Army medical lab lived in a curious limbo: They served as occasional consultants for the FBI in the investigation of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, yet they were all potential suspects.
Over lunch in the bacteriology division, nervous scientists would share stories about their latest unpleasant encounters with the FBI and ponder whether they should hire criminal defense lawyers, according to one of Ivins's former supervisors.
In tactics that the researchers considered heavy-handed and often threatening, they were interviewed and polygraphed as early as 2002, and reinterviewed numerous times. Their labs were searched, and their computers and equipment carted away.
The FBI eventually focused on Ivins, whom federal prosecutors were planning to indict when he committed suicide last week.
In interviews yesterday, knowledgeable officials asserted that Ivins had the skills and access to equipment needed to turn anthrax bacteria into an ultra-fine power that could be used as a lethal weapon. Court documents and tapes also reveal a therapist's deep concern that Ivins, 62, was homicidal and obsessed with the notion of revenge.
Therapist Jean Duley testified at a hearing in Frederick, Md., on July 24 in a successful bid for a protective order from Ivins. She told a judge that as far back as 2000, Ivins had attempted to poison people. "He is a revenge killer. When he feels that he's been slighted . . . he plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killings," Duley said.
Yet, colleagues and friends of the vaccine specialist remained convinced that Ivins was innocent: They contended that he had neither the motive nor the means to create the fine, lethal powder that was sent by mail to news outlets and congressional offices in the late summer and fall of 2001. Mindful of previous FBI mistakes in fingering others in the case, many are deeply skeptical that the bureau has gotten it right this time.
"I really don't think he's the guy. I say to the FBI, 'Show me your evidence,' " said Jeffrey Adamovicz, former director of the bacteriology division at US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, on the grounds of the sprawling Army fort in Frederick. "A lot of the tactics they used were designed to isolate him from his support. The FBI just continued to push his buttons."
Investigators are so confident of Ivins's involvement that they have been debating since Friday whether and how to close the seven-year-old anthrax investigation. That would involve disbanding a grand jury here in Washington and unsealing scores of documents that form the basis of the government's case against Ivins.
Negotiations over the legal issues continue, but a government source said that the probe could be shuttered as early as tomorrow. The move would amount to a strong signal that the FBI and Justice Department think they got their man - and that he is dead, foreclosing the possibility of a prosecution. No charges are likely against others, that source added.
The Justice Department attributed the break in the case to new scientific tools that cost the FBI about $10 million. Investigators said the science focused, in part, on how the anthrax strains were handled and who had access to it at the time of the mailings.
Once the case is closed, the FBI and Justice Department will face questions - and possibly public hearings - from congressional oversight committees, which have been largely shut out of the case the past five years. The investigators have cited the ongoing nature of the case, as well as accusations of leaks to the media, for the information blackout to Capitol Hill.
One bioweapons specialist familiar with the FBI investigation said Ivins indeed possessed the skills needed to create the dust-fine powder used in the attacks. At the Army lab where he worked, Ivins specialized in making sophisticated preparations of anthrax bacteria spores for use in animal tests, said the specialist. 