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• Wednesday, August 6, 2008 11:43 AM

  Feds reveal details of Ivins investigation

  From the Frederick News Post

  Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins became a “person necessitating further investigation” in regard to the anthrax attacks shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, for several reasons, according to federal documents released at 2 p.m. today.

  The reasons include:

  • at the time of the attacks, he was the custodian of a large flask of highly purified anthrax spores that possess certain genetic mutations identical to the anthrax used in the attacks.

  • Ivins has been unable to give investigators an adequate explanation for his late night laboratory work hours around the time of both anthrax mailings.

  • Ivins has claimed that he was suffering serious mental health issues in the months preceding the attacks, and had told a co-worker that he had “incredible paranoid, delusional thoughts at times” and feared that he might not be able to control his behavior.

  • Ivins is believed to have submitted false samples of anthrax from his lab to the FBI for forensic analysis in order to mislead investigators.

  • at the time of the attacks, Ivins was under pressure at work to assist a private company to that had lost its FDA approval to produce an anthrax vaccine the Army needed for U.S. troops, and which Ivins believed was essential for the anthrax program at USAMRIID.

  • Ivins sent an e-mail to [REDACTED] a few days before the anthrax attacks warning [REDACTED] that “Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas” and have “just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans,” language similar to the anthrax letters warning “WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX ... DEATH TO AMERICA ... DEATH TO ISRAEL.”

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  —Morally_Bankrupt Read Morally_Bankrupt's other letters
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