First, the practice of Justice Department employees (including Ashcroft) making inappropriate statements/leaks to the press has been noted before & is, I believe, unprecedented in the modern era. It is probably part of the overall Bush plan to politicize the DOJ, but everyone should acknowledge that this practice has compromised investigations and prosecutions. At the same time when we are being asked to surrender vital liberties for the sake of terrorism "protection," the DOJ is so sloppy, unprofessional, or flatout incompetent that it can't keep its collective mouth shut when it should, & is so filled with underqualified, ideologically vetted lawyers it may no longer even know when or if it's supposed to keep its mouth shut.

Second, what strikes me about this whole issue is (unless I have missed something) the atrocious record of the people charged with vetting scientists who get the security clearances to do research on biological weapons. Per New York Times, there were only "scores" of people doing this research before 2001. Yet my recollection is that Steven Hatfill apparently lied about some of his credentials -- a fact that wasn't uncovered until people thought he might have been involved in this crime. Per Jean Duley, Bruce Ivins had a known vengeful streak and had made homicidal threats against people since he was in graduate school. If what she says is true, why was such a person allowed to work with weapons-grade poisons? Even if the vetting process was lax prior to 2001, why wasn't it immediately redone (with greater focus) immediately afterwards? What excuse can Bush offer for this?

How do we know that Hatfill is completely innocent? Because the FBI stopped investigating him?

Hatfill is a curious guy. He's claimed on his resume that after he went to the US Army's Institute for Military Assistance in the 1970s (which taught psyops and "unconventional war," among other things) he served in Rhodesia's Selous Scouts, an irregular unit for the white supremacists in the last stages of the Zimbabwean civil war; the Selous Scouts apparently used anthrax among other agents to kill black farmers and livestock. Meryl Nass has a paper on the subject. Google it.

Here is another good essay which discusses Hatfill:

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/Bioter/messageanthrax.html

Whether or not Hatfill is innocent, his history is at least intriguing enough to justify suspicions. He either has this history of being involved with people who actually used anthrax to kill civilians or he lied about it. What does that say about him? Or the government is lying about Hatfill and hiding his career in a cloak of national security.

I'll relate my brief interaction with the FBI investigation into the anthrax attacks. It began on the day when the Bureau first released images of two of the letters. When I saw these images on the front page of USA Today, I was stunned, to say the least. There were several messages which clearly came through in the way the messages were written and, together with the Trenton, NJ mailing point, added up to Ft. Detrick and someone who had been, or was, associated with the anthrax program there (I'd been very much aware of the furor in the early 70's over Nixon's shutting down of the offensive programs).

Here's what I encountered when trying to convey my input to the FBI:

2 emails: no response

phone call: brushed off

call to someone I knew at the Bureau: "he's out of town and cannot be reached"

It was like shouting into a large, and very empty cavern! I had the feeling at the time that this was not really an investigation, but just a show being put on for public consumption.

Other (corporate) news organizations do not seem to be picking up on threads of Greenwald's Salon coverage. The claims by ABC news that they had multiple sources confirming the anthrax strain came from Iraq strongly suggests there was more than one person involved in providing false information to news organizations and to inside politicians such as McCain. The question is not addressed whether the (politicized and corrupted) justice department rush to close the case is ignoring other possible conspirators. The mafia-like elimination of suspects to prevent further information emerging in a case has been used before, such as in the story of Oswald and Ruby http://goochinfo.homestead.com/ruby.html . It seems the ABC leads and Ivins evidence should be thoroughly investigated prior to any attempt to close the case. The use of the attacks to further the invasion of Iraq is too important to lightly close the case.

You Rock It!

Glennzilla indeed.

I'm beginning to wonder why I go read (almost) anybody else. I like emptywheel a lot but not being a lawyer I don't know what half the abbreviations are! She needs to have a glossary.

You know I'm really not a conspiracy theorist type though when I was young I was much more inclined that way. I guess I subscribe to the idea that where there is smoke there might be some embers. This administration however has all but destroyed that carefully constructed "rational" response ability.

There is a conflagration and I think I need to go to the dollar store and stock up on tinfoil.

All day yesterday I had the cable news channels on and listened to their chatter on this issue. There was be a huge outpouring of near unanimous certainty of case closed. Not necessarily said in those words but you heard it. My response was this is ridiculous, very fishy. Then the reports of what the Shrink said about him brought me up short.It just seems utterly transparent! WHAT?

When did she say it, who did she sy it to? Isn't there an ethical obligation to disclose violent intent? Particularly when she knows where he works and what he does? If she did why was he still there? How long have they been "closing in on him?"

Very, Very suspicious.

The shock of 9/11 brought a certain patriotism out that had been dormant for a long time, at least I felt that way... sort of shocked out of my complacency, shaking my head about politicians and going about my life. . I remember people telling me there was something rotten in Denmark- that it was staged, all of the 0/11 conspiracy theories. I was horrified thinking anyone would think someone/our government would participate/perpetrate in something so heinous. I was living in Maine at the time and there is a big base in Bangor. A friend hinted about jets scrambled etc but never told me the whole story.

I thought they were all crazy.

NOW?

I am sad to say I do not put anything past these people. Nothing. ESPECIALLY after reading the PNAC manifesto. Wish I still had access to that, it is now offline. In any case the whole thing about how it would take a very long time to implement their "vision" unless/without a catastrophe on the order of Pearl Harbor "happened" has always stuck in my head... not saying they did it... but there are embers there for sure.

In any case I would have no problem believing that this, the Anthrax event was a false flag operation. I'm going over to ABC site and write in to Ross demanding explanations. I wonder how many people are doing that... hopefully they are being flooded with outrage.

also going to write my Congresspeople.I'm proud to say I live in Rep Holt's district.

As an aside, where is Obama on this issue?

So many things happen he does not weigh in on. It is very disturbing. I remember in one of the debates I think he once again criticzed Bill Clinton and said his administration was one of the most secretive in history and he, by comparison was for transparent government and would have everything going on shown on C-Span.

Why are we not hearing anything else about that? This would be a great place to start talking about it agaiin... a transparent investigation etc.

I don't really believe him to tell you the truth. After Fisa not much I believe that he says. Another " Will Say and Do anything to get elected" politician. Ironic that, he used that meme against HRC continually.

OH, and this is OT but I can't get ift off my mind.

it seems odd to me that during the Papa Bush administration we had a Savings and Loan meltdown-- with one of the brothers, Ned? somehow involved all over the place. Details escape me... and now we have this banking and financial meltdown.

Gotta get some tinfoil and make a new hat on this one.

LOL

Sorry this is so long... and again Glenn, Thanks so much for the fine work you are doing.

I am always amazed.