Thank you Mr. Greenwald for taking this case seriously. The evidence appears weak at best. I am curious. On the one hand. we have the FBI claiming Ivins is a sociopathic, homicidal maniac who killed with anthrax spores.

Do you know if when the police/FBI, etc searched his house after his suicide (which I presume they did). Were the investigators in biohazard suits? I have seen no video that they were so I must assume that they didn't really believe he was quite so homicidal to booby-trap his office.

Much like the dog that doesn't bark. Much of their evidence seems not to even be believed by the investigators themselves. Homicidial maniac - check; Security clearance - check. Sociopathic killer - check; Highest civilian award - check. Death by inhalation anthrax - check; hazmat suits - ?

Gerald Posner is not an expert on anything and, as far as I am concerned, is a total government stooge. His book Case Closed, supporting the governments position in the Kennedy assassination, was an intellectually embarrassing demonstration of far you can unhinge your jaw while still smiling.

Whatever he is selling be very wary.

Posner on Countdown

9/11 expert Gerald Posner gives his views on the weaknesses of the Ivins investigation. (see sig)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#26015772

-- Retired Military Patriot

That warmongering, government loving anticonspiracy theorist who wrote Case Closed, his book that contends "Lee Harvey Oswald, the widely suspected assassin of John F. Kennedy, and Oswald's assailant, Jack Ruby, acted alone and without the aid of a conspiracy" Case Closed was a nominated finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for History, BTW. That Gerald Posner? You can't trust him. He's not a true believer! And the CIA has infiltrated the Pulitzer board.

Cue Twilight Zone Theme....

... that matters.

"I strongly prefer that they (Countdown) use what I find/write with no credit than not use it at all." GG

That, fellow American, is what makes you ... one of the best. That's my last fanboy post till the next :)

"How do anonymous claims by Justice and FBI officials merit immediate broadcast like this? This is the worst-managed PR campaign in history - do they expect ANYONE to believe this?"

-- CargoCult

Yep, works like a charm. Amazing but true.

I think KO's show tonight did an ok job of covering this. Wish he would have Daschle and Leahy on just to remind people of the context of the events. That seems to have been lost.

And GG also, I demand that you and KO kiss and make up! [runs for the logout button/]

Of course not, they all have their illustrious careers to preserve.

It's not just careers. It's family income and security. To what depth we can only guess.

I am not advocating for selfishness here, but rare, indeed, would be the person who would sacrifice the possible future of his/her own, and family's, lives.

Ivin's colleagues have stood up and spoken in his behalf, which is more than can be said of some of his family.

That New York Post story has this very interesting bit:

A former senior official at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases - the high-security lab in Maryland where Ivins worked for 36 years - believed the mad researcher mailed the anthrax-laced letters to move government resources to his field.

"It had to have been a motive," the official told the LA Times. "I don't think he ever intended to kill anybody. He just wanted to prove 'Look, this is possible.' He probably had no clue that it would aerosolize through those envelopes and kill those postal workers."

First of all, who is this "former senior official"? Was he a member of the Camel Club or one who turned a blind eye to it? Was he one of the people responsible for the supposedly lax security? And why is he talking anonymously if he no longer works there and Ivins is dead?

Secondly, what is this about anthrax (or 'thrax, as NYP calls it) "aerosolizing" through an envelope? Is that meant to explain why something that wasn't a powder could act like a powder? Any scientific evidence of that?

I imagine you get a lot of pleaing for mercy experience with your better half.

We all have to take responsibility for our actions at some point, and unfortunately, I have cheated my wife in a way for which there can be very little forgiveness for. Since this is neither the time or the place, here goes.

When we met, she was 26 and I was 36. After a whirlwind courtship,(she told her friends she was "carbon-dating") I finally dropped Mariah and proposed to my wife. "You're too ancient, daddy-oh, positively pre-cambrian for a flapper like me!" She pointed out. I beguiled her with the assurance that ten years would pass in a honeysuckle-covered bee-loud flash and she would then join me in ossification. "And then we will have the whole rest of our lives together" I cooed.

Her doubts were asuaged and we were bethrothed.

After the wedding, we pulled Mom's head out of the oven and life staggered on like a pig about to die of the botts. Ah! Many's the romantic evening we spent looking over our rapidly growing portfolio of bills, liens and subpeonas, some of them rare first editions.

A decade passed and finally her 36th birthday came, That's when she found out that yes, she was indeed now 36, but I was 46! I don't think she ever forgave me for that. And when she turned 46, and discovered (by perusing my diary, but she had to know the truth) I was 56! A mere two-decade's held grudge became real resentment.

Can you blame her?

Thanks. Overlooked that.

-I think they feel comfortable closing the case precisely because we don't have a real Congress.-

CNN is suggesting the case is going to be closed early this week(?)

If there is one thing one would think these people would understand...

he was obsessed with a sorority & so he sent antrax to daschle & leahy?!?!

The mailbox just off the campus of Princeton University where the letters were mailed sits about 100 yards away from where the college's Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter stores its rush materials, initiation robes and other property. -- Glenn

...it would be the consequences of panty-sniffing.