while it is true that you cannot compel a suspect to take a lie detector, i believe the government can and has compelled employees to take one as a condition of continuing to maintain secret clearances and continuing work on highly classified subjects.

i have read a lot about the anthrax investigation, and i do not recall reading that all scientists with access to government researched anthrax took lie detector tests. i may have missed it. if it did happen, i would like to know much more about that process.

Can someone else confirm what an earlier letter said----that there was no autopsy of Bruce Ivins? The news reports say he died from an overdose of Tylenol with codeine. Okay, but considering that this guy is a key figure in the anthrax attacks, it would be odd if there's no autopsy.

Did his blood levels show a fatally toxic level of Tylenol and codeine?

If not..........well, that opens a whole other can of worms.

Heck, my father died of a heart attack out of the blue at age 70, a few days after routine surgery and the hospital ordered an autopsy. So why wouldn't an autopsy be ordered in this case?

Honest to God, I'm not usually prone to conspiracies. But this case has been so weird and oddly investigated from the very beginning.

1) A bio-chemical weapons lab in the USA has an extremely cavalier and dangerous hiring process, such that both Hatfill and Ivins appear to have motive, background and temperament to commit these crimes.

or (more likely, given the current state of the media):

2) The FBI and other government officials, in the absence of airtight cases, tried to anonymously smear 2 scientists in the press in order to win in the court of public opinion, rather than leave the case formally open and admit that they can't solve it.

Given that (2) appears more likely, it seems that someone should investigate (1) to see if it can't be ruled out. Otherwise, I have this image in my mind of all these top biochemical weapons labs in the US populated by shifty-eyed, unstable racists and xenophobes and religious zealots. If I was an employee at one of those labs I wouldn't be too happy with that characterization and would want to get that cleared up.

Dear Glenn,

Simply exhausting the bald faced lies that pass as journalism.

The watch went out of these dogs a long time ago and now it seems they spend an awful lot of time sniffing rear ends.

I can't imagine who could keep track of all the wrong doing but clearly the failure to punish any of it has not helped in slowing the constant supply of fresh wrongdoing. Reminds me of High School debate where a "spread" gave the opposition so much they simply could not respond to it all and so the result was dropped arguments(FISA)or insufficient rebuttal as in this anthrax case.

The question that occurs to me is what do these sellouts do with the money. They must rush right out and buy some character because only that desperate need could explain, not forgive, their reprehensible behavior.

Thank you for your fine efforts,

Conrad Elledge

DU also has some interesting article up on Ivins..

Judy Millers' name popped up in a oped she wrote about the company making the vaccine..

Seems there may have been a selloff of stock in the company jsut before Ivins death.

Then another company gets a contract for an anthrax vaccine..

I guess Ivins also was the one to gain from having the patent

(course if he was dead & another company decide to manufacture same patent.....hmm).

So beside Ivins-one needs to look at the companies involved..patents

I also emailed an art to you about Ft. Bragg doing studies on an anthrax vaccine from Gulf War 1--and how they're now conveniently "gone".

I very much enjoyed reading these pieces in re the anthrax scare (perhaps 'enjoy' is the wrong word). As usual your arguments are all very compelling, and if good arguments could carry the day, ABC et alii would come clean.

The most cogent point about why this might not happen came from Mr. Alter: "This didn't exactly make me Mr. Popularity...." It is precisely because the news has millionaire gatekeepers who would rather not be made uncomfortable with their neighbors and other social acquaintances that your suggestions will be resisted.

How could any sense be made out of the FBI tossing out the trial balloon that they are about to declare "CASE CLOSED"? Just case just because Irvin is no longer available for prosecution? If their case was so cut and dried and locked up as all of that, then does it not follow, then, that they should have arrested him some time ago and quickly moved to prosecute? Why bother conducting a trial if the guilt of the suspect can be made lock tight just by "closing the case"? What the hell? Why would anyone, anyone at all, fall for that?

"Glenn has previously made the point that at least two branches of the U.S. government (Congress and the Executive) are operating against the interests of the citizenry and the values the citizenry expect to be upheld and promoted."

Three branches, Kid.

Congress, The Executive, and The Media.

bethincary:

Also note Judith Miller's name attached to this article:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04EED91031F935A15753C1A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

which says:

"One expert familiar with the investigation of the Senate anthrax said that a microscopic examination of the spores showed that they were surrounded by a tiny brown ring. This, he said, would be consistent with the use of bentonite."

So add Judy Miller and William J Broad's names to the list of journalists who might know who was disseminating the bentonite claim.

I guess Ivins also was the one to gain from having the patent

It is my understanding, by way of the LA Times article (Aug 2, 2008) that Ivins stood to reap a reward in the area of "tens of thousands of dollars" for his work on the anthrax vaccine. I do not know if that reward structure is standard for such work, but it does match compensation models I have seen in other healthcare fields (not always, but in most cases).

I am not suggesting, either pro or con, that Ivins' motivation was in whole or in part economic. In light of a fleet of facts revealed and dots yet to be connected, that dollar amount doesn't jibe with what was at stake for him to kill people. As for his own demise, I strongly sense that this issue will not go away quickly.

But what do I know...