just that

Greenwald's article is an attempt to blame America's lack of opposition to the Iraq/Afghanistan invasions on a handful of sensationalist articles. Investigators suspected Fort Detrick, rather than Iraq, as the Anthrax source as early as October 2001, and suspected Hatfill in 2002. Greenwald himself acknowledges that this was reported: 'FBI focusing on a domestic culprit", "White House resists that Iraq is behind germ warfare" and "ABC noted, from the start, that the White House denied the reports".

Americans need to take responsibility for their actions (or lack of them), rather than blaming others.

Some truth for a change :-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-anthrax-suspect-commits-suicide-as-fbi-net-closes-in-883263.html

@wingspan: The printing in the note doesn't look like the style I learned in mechanical drawing class many years ago, so I'd agree that the block printing does not indicate a scientific or engineering background.

I hope that Ivin's family has the fortitude to insist on a full autopsy by a private pathologist, but God knows they have enough to worry about now.

If he wanted to emulate the writing of a fourth grader, he could have done a much better job. The in my humble opinion, the perpetrator did not go to elementary school in the U.S. ,and English may not have been his first language.

The notes that accompanied the mailed anthrax contained hand writing that had a distinctive mix of double height and single height all-capital letters. There were presumably intended to appear as though they originated in a fourth grade as the return address indicated.

In the handwriting example included in Glenn's article, notice that there are two distinctive heights to the letter A in Allah, although all letters are capital, with no lower case anywhere. We have no indication that the author even knew lower case letters. But there is another explanation. This type of writing is used in the drafting and engineering trade to label hand drawn blueprints. This indicates that the perpetrator had an engineering background and was much older than his "student" counterparts in the hijack portion of the 9/11 attack. Drafting boards have been out of commercial use since shortly after the introduction of the PC over two decades ago.

After looking at Ivin's publishing career, it is save to presume that he never worked very long at a relatively low level job like drafting or even engineering. Thus, the FBI presumably could not match the handwriting.

Please excuse the group response but it seems that a lot of valuable comments get lost in long threads and it’s sometimes difficult to see the forest for the trees.

First, thank you to Bystander for the link to Marcy Wheeler’s post. The comments were especially helpful in providing additional links and, for the most part, the professionals commenting there shared my concerns. http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/08/02/ivins-and-the-anthrax-investigation/#comments

Thelastnamechosen: You’re right. Duley reports that the threatening statements were made at her last group contact with him and led her to hospitalize Dr. Ivins. Although, she might not have been able to predict this behavior, there was no excuse for allowing him to continue (unless she wanted witnesses for the bizarre claims). Moreover, the history she gives of the patient should have suggested he would be risky in a group (unless this history was obtained from the FBI after the fact and used to buttress her request for peace order). Still no information on how he got to her although she worked at an agency that was advertising that they were using Suboxone to treat prescription drug dependency. http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=76902 (Given that death was allegedly due to Tylenol #3 OD, and one local article noted that he walked in his neighborhood for relief of back pain, he may have contacted the agency for drug concerns -- but this is pure speculation on my part. Re: his reasons for being angry with her: I suggest you listen to the audio of the hearing to obtain the PO (that I hadn’t heard before). http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/audio/national/20080802scientist.mp3 He was clearly very angry with her and called her from the hospital to tell her he blamed her for getting him in the fix he was in and allowing the FBI to prosecute him for murders. That’s not a threat and may well have some basis in fact. I didn’t hear a direct threat against her and found no evidence that he was “stalking” her (as has been claimed at times). She did report a number of outrageous claims by Ivins for which we have no evidence and may have been delusional or designed to frighten her. Unfortunately (but predictably) reports about these rants have become grist for the cable TV mill. We still don’t know what drugs Ivins was on (if any) and a number of folks at emptywheel were as outraged as I was that the powers that be had decided there was no need for a complete autopsy.

chowderSF: There appears to have been no respect for confidentiality, other patient rights, or HIPPA regulations. If Duley wasn’t working for the FBI, she was certainly cooperating with them and acknowledged this during the PO hearing.

Fauxreal: It sounds as though Duley wasn’t a very astute clinician and her training is open to question. Tried to check the Maryland site to see if she was a licensed clinical social worker in that state. The site was down for unknown reasons. A comment on emptywheel’s site (wavpeac #92) suggested Duley had only a bachelors degree and chemical dependency training. Neither would give her sophistication in diagnosis or the ability to deal with serious pathology if she encountered it.

The possibility of psyops is one that deserves consideration. LS #134 at emptywheel links to a relevant (and chilling) site. http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Articulations/Script-CodeNameArtichoke.html In the 50’s, Dr. Frank Olsen, an expert on anthrax who had worked at Ft Detrick and later joined the CIA, died after leaping (or being pushed) from a hotel window. His son spent many years trying to understand what had happened to his father. You’ll find a script of the documentary made about Dr. Olsen as well as other interesting information at the site. Parallels to current concerns, including those about torture are abundant. Cheney and Rumsfeld were in the Ford White House at the time.

Reilly: Right! Without documentation, we have no idea where the diagnoses mentioned by Ms, Duley came from, how valid they are, who made them or under what conditions they were made. Highly unlikely that someone could get security clearance if there was substantial psychiatric history. It is also highly unlikely that Dr. Ivins, if he was truly a homicidal sociopath, could have functioned socially and vocationally for so many years and then suddenly snapped. Reports from neighbors, friends, church congregants, and co-workers paint a picture of a kind, generous man, somewhat the proverbial “geeky” scientist, who was deeply engaged with his family and community and committed to his work. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.ivins02aug02,0,3287194.story?page=1 Those who knew him attested to the toll taken by constant scrutiny and “hounding,” Neighbors were well aware of surveillance because of the frequent presence of vehicles with dark-tinted windows parked in their neighborhood over the past year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7696512

In sum, neither the FBI nor any other government agency has provided convincing evidence that Ivins was responsible for the anthrax attacks. Co-workers suggest that given his available resources it would have been difficult for Ivins to carry out the attacks. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.ivins02aug02,0,3287194.story?page=1 Whatever Duley’s explicit role or intentions in this case, it is clear that she has been a valuable PR tool for those who would like to write Ivins off as a mad scientist capable of carrying out the anthrax attacks. The shaping of public perception is likely to be aided by wide distribution of the audio recording of Duley’s request for a peace order that includes unsubstantiated diagnoses, questionable history, and reports of bizarre intentions. Indeed, news-hungry cable channels are already parroting her negative claims without questioning either the claims or her credibility. Let us hope that Congress will be less gullible.