On October 13, 2004, USA Today reported:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-13-anthrax-labs_x.htm

Army investigators concluded that years of sloppy practices at the lab resulted from neglect of safety procedures, compounded by the pressure of a high-profile criminal case. One researcher described a common room in the lab area as a "rats' nest." And experts say the "sloppiness" documented in the report may complicate prosecution if the anthrax killer is ever caught, especially if defense lawyers can cast doubt on USAMRIID'S reliability.

"Any defense lawyer should read this report carefully and keep it in mind when DNA results are being quoted against his (or) her client," says Martin Hugh-Jones of Louisiana State University, a leading expert on anthrax. "I now understand why the FBI (anthrax) letter team is so fascinated by USAMRIID."

Dr. Ivins' reported "rational" suicide -- purportedly motivated by a perception of prosecution, conviction and sentencing -- makes no sense at all, if the USA Today story holds any water.

...if what you say is true, how much longer till Ross takes too much Tylenol...

Thank you so much for the terrific comment (pg. 4), Little Brother.

Thank you so much for the update on GC!, Pedinska. A card's coming his way.

Surely it is a chronic ongoing failure thus far into this 21st century that American political and corporate higher rings of power and decision making reach are not encountering or taking on significant downward consequences for specific or gross incompetence,for failing to fulfil oaths or common thresholds of ethical conduct or for engaging in plainly criminal or intentionally shrouded criminal acts and lines of conduct.

Surely anytime within first six months after 9/11/01 voluntary resignations,involuntary resignations and deep reaching process review across WashingtonDC from CIA,State,Pentagon to Justice and FBI should have brought truth and facts to the fore over and over.

Instead there was this anthrax episode and from early 2002 onwards going into March 2003 a very real push from Bush/Cheney regime and allied forces to pin 9/11/01 on Saddam and Iraq and make American invasion of Iraq most possible and doable.

How strange it is to now in mid 2008 be drawn back to 2001-2003 period once again.

The loose threads of this anthrax chapter as lead-up to March 2003 American invasion of Iraq now ripe to be pulled on.

Clearly this Bush/Cheney regime has hidden much and desires to hide more still.

One can hope some meaningful downward consequences may still befall more than a few from CIA,FBI,State and Pentagon after so many years of WashingtonDC political/governance malpractice.

As for Bush and Cheney and Company surely wrongdoing/illegal pathways and trails already have led to the top during past seven and a half years more than once given the evidence now known and the truths and facts of how this subpar WH regime has chosen to operate and the abysmal standards it has dwelt with and in.

Ironically Bruce Ivins death may be the one loose thread that pulls off/reveals most the 9/11 and subsequent events shroud WashingtonDC,both parties and far too many people from State,CIA,Justice and the Pentagon onwards into this Bush/Cheney WH have not met truth/fact record or/and justice laden consequences from/over.

Comeuppance may yet still occur.

and sense of shame ...

It does sound as if he were spiraling out of control behaviorally.

He had been removed from Detrick property.

He was in "group therapy" (anger management?) possibly as a condition of employment, or? (It doesn't sound like he had a mutually respectful therapeutic relationship with this therapist person).

He had been forceably committed, then voluntarily commited.

He believed a grand jury indictment with death penalty sought was imminent. It was the eve of a plea bargaining meeting.

His involuntary retirement was scheduled for September.

He was not allowed on Detrick property (after all those years, I wonder if he was even allowed to clean out his office).

He sounds like a very intelligent man who may have reasonably felt that he was not willing to go through the next week, month, year ... and/or have his family go through it.

I think his statement to the therapist about ruining his life referred to the involuntary commitment which he felt ruined his credibility ... which would be fatal in court.

I think it's necessary to point out that journalists should not be compelled to reveal their sources by any government functionary such as the courts.

But would you agree that a court should compel a reporter to reveal a source whose testimony was (to quote from federal and NY law on the matter) "1) highly material, 2) critical to the litigant's claim, and 3) not otherwise available"?

Put another way: if you were on trial for a serious crime you didn't commit, and the only person who could exonerate you was a reporter's anonymous source, and that reporter was refusing to identify the source, do you think you'd feel the same way?

I also wanted to address your phrase "government functionary such as the courts" which I think belies a misunderstanding of the proper role of the courts. While the judiciary is of course one branch of the government, the courts are not intended to be "functionaries" of the government--that is, a functionary of the other two branches, executive and legislative.

The courts are intended to adjudicate cases between the government and citizens, and between citizens and other citizens, in a fair and impartial manner. Judges are human and fallible and sometimes political and often do things that piss us off and all that, but a core founding principal conceived of a "neutral, detached magistrate."

Um, make that "founding principle."

And Glenn - didn't intend to parrot your response to paulw. I didn't see your comment until after posting mine.

Project BioShield wasn't signed into law by Bush until July 21, 2004. The benefit for Ivins was quite delayed.

The NYTimes reported the anthrax letter at Dashcle's office on October 16. The Patriot Act passed in the House on October 24, the Senate on October 25 and was signed by Bush on October 26, 2001. The benefit in getting the Patriot Act passed was immediate. No more anthrax has been mailed since the Daschle and Leahy letters, which were mailed on October 9. The Leahy letter was not discovered until November because of mis-routing and the delays to the postal system when postal workers became infected.