If Catholics really aren't allowed to go to heaven if they committ suicide, then I suspect its a pretty sparsely populated place.

I'm curious: WHAT media claims of Ivins' guilt?

I've heard nothing from the MSM about this case for about 4 years. Now suddenly you're saying the MSM are rushing to lynch Ivins? Can you give us a link?

You're right that Ivins' coworker should be investigated, and that the FBI has an awful track record in this and other cases. Should Greenwald now appoint himself special criminal prosecutor on this case and set about second-guessing the FBI on the basis of zero evidence?

I read your story with great interest. I then went to ABCNews.com and found a story called "Suspected Anthrax Scientist Kills Himself" and posted a link to your story with a comment that you had critized them as having hyped the nonexistent Iraq/anthrax link and asked them did they have a response. I used plain english and was not hostile in my tone. The comment went up this morning but has now (1 pm ET) been removed, along with another post I saw which referenced this story. ABC = A (B)unch of (C)owards.

http://tinyurl.com/6x3ds8

I apologize if this has been stated already, I haven't read all the comments.

While the betonite scare story is indeed interesting and disturbing and the lack of coverage is mind boggling - my initial reaction is that Glenn is overstating the effect of this incident and on the lead-up to war with Iraq.

At the time, the anthrax scare was definitely something that heightened hysteria. ABC News, caught up in the middle of a feeding frenzy of paranoid reporting (remember the live breaking news feature about a plane that had been held up allegedly due to "suspicious passengers") were probably easily overly influenced by what may be a loose cannon (or two or three or four, admittedly, there does seem to be something of an organization to this fabrication). The press was frothing at the mouth to find any new development, especially with the public whipped up into a palpable frenzy and I think ABC News fell prey to this mentality and reported information that had little foundation of truth.

I know Glenn's not directly stating it was part of the administration's effort to get our attention focused on Iraq, but certainly, it seems to me, if they wanted to use it for that purpose they wouldn't have given an outright denial so soon.

Remember how long they held on to those so-called "weapons" materials found in a bus even after objective sources had debunked it?

A situation like this would have given them the perfect opportunity to stoke fear and perpetuate the notion that Iraq was an associated risk by "not commenting" or saying they were "looking into the truth" of the possibility.

My point is that, whatever happened with the anthrax scare, does not appear to be part of the administration's deliberate larger misinformation campaign to invade Iraq. Although, I think Bush took advantage of the anthrax notoriety by claiming that Iraq was a known manufacturer of the substance.

And finally...hindsight on the effect of those two separate incidents (9/11 & anthrax) is hazy, but my recollection was that I never got the impression at any point in time from the early stages to further down the road of deception that Iraq may have been involved with the anthrax scare (I apparently missed the ABC News reports) as part of a combined radical Islamic assault on the US. It seemed fairly apparent after a few days that the anthrax letters were from someone who was wishing to take advantage of the current climate of terrorist unease domestically.

Nevertheless, this is a worthy story and a full investigation should be conducted to find out what actually happened.

Even if Ivins isn't the culprit I'd say we still know the anthrax came from Ft. Detrick. Chemical labs have fingerprints. The whole point of the bentonite story was that the presence of bentonite would be the marker proving it came from Iraq, just as there are specific markers for anthrax produced at Ft. Detrick. The fact that the FBI has been centering its investigation at Ft. Detrick first with Hatfill then Ivins must mean Ft. Detrick is the facility which produced the anthrax used in the attacks.

As far as Hatfill being a fall guy I don't believe that was the case, just as Richard Jewell wasn't a fall guy for the Olympic bombing but rather a victim of incomplete/incompetent investigation coupled with media attention and enough of a certain "profile" to merit suspicion.

Those who personally know Mr. Ivins, as I myself do, believe in his innocence.

Anon, you have no idea how much weight your statement carries when it's attached to your illustrious monicker.

Cohen's mental process that led him to link anthrax to Iraq and then to support an attack on Iraq, warped as it is, was extremely common. Having heard ABC News in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attack flamboyantly and repeatedly link Saddam to the anthrax attacks, followed by George Bush making the same linkage (albeit more subtly) in his January, 2002 State of the Union speech, much of the public had implanted into their minds that Saddam Hussein was not just evil, but a severe threat to the U.S., likely the primary culprit behind the anthrax attacks. --GG

People blithely ignore our declaration of war upon Iraq three years before 9/11.....

CLINTON: Good evening.Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.

This and repeated Democrat denouncements of Saddam are the real reason a Washington Post poll taken two days after 9/11 got a reading that nearly 80%, yes 80%, thought Saddam was the culprit.

So is it any wonder we went to war? No. The wonder is that hindsight heroes here don't have half the integrity Cohen has shown by acknowledging the tenor of the times.