Has anyone interviewed Dr. Ayaad Assaad on who may have set him up as a bioterrorist? I would like to see an interview with him and with the FBI over where that investigation went to. I didn't realize the significance of this until I looked at the time like and read Glenn's article back in 2002. He was fingered via anonymous letter before the first wave of the attack was revealed so it's possible the attacker is the one to have fingered him.

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2002/01/26/assaad/print.html

I would like to hear if Assaad knew Irvins and if so, what sort of relationship they had. I would like to know how much the FBI talked with him after the anthrax attack came to light. I'd like to know if the letters in the anthrax attack were similar to the one that fingered him. This whole revelation of Ivins has raised more questions with me than it has answered.

Interesting bit about Duley's previous name.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080503747.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008080503796&pos=

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5icCsDXbi3Yojuvo5W4j01VxWio0wD92CFQ1O0

Great work from Glen and the Salon readers!

Q: At this time, Ms. Duley, are you fearful for your personal safety?

A: I am and so is the FBI.

Q: OK. And can you tell the court why it is based on what you have testified to during the course of, since July the ninth, that you are fearful of your safety?

A: Um, as far back as the year 2000, the respondent has actually, um, um, attempted to murder several other people, um, either through poisoning, um, he is a revenge killer, um, when he feels, um, that he's been slighted, or, um, um, has had, um, especially towards women, um, he, uh, plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killing, um. He has been forensically diagnosed by several top psychiatrists as a sociopathic, homicidal killer, um. And I have that in evidence. I do have, um, um, and through my, um, working with him, um, I also believe that to be very true.

Q: And you are, as you’ve already testified, cooperating with the FBI with regard to the United States Assistant Attorney’s case with regard to the grand jury, is that correct?

A: Yes.

Q: And it’s my understanding that you’ve requested that Federal Bureau of Investigation offer you some sort of protection and you’ve indicated they’re not able to do that?

A: They’re going to be following him. He is being released today. Um, and, um my assigned FBI agent actually very much suggested I get a protection order, um.

Q: Is there anything further you think Judge Roberts needs to know regarding the situation before he makes a decision?

A: I'm scared to death.

[Comment from PTA Mom - Gee, the FBI was so concerned for Jean Duley's personal safety that "my assigned FBI agent actually very much suggested I get a protection order." If that were the best way to protect women from crazy homicidal men, we wouldn't have any more domestic violence killings in the U.S. And where's the evidence that Duley claimed she had that showed that Ivins was "forensically diagnosed by several top psychiatrists as a sociopathic, homicidal killer"?]

I wonder if you just solved the case. No matter what, we have two criteria for the perp. He thought he wouldn't be caught, and he knows how to do it.

1) Thanks for your prompt response Jim.

However, there are so many conflicting reports that it can't be said with absolute certainty that the material is not highly engineered -- Jim White

Is there (that you know of) any standard for what this term means in this context? Does "highly engineered" mean "of super-uniform size, shape and/or toughness"? The term must have some very specific meanings if it's actually used by anthrax researchers, and that meaning may be revealed by what similar terms convey in related fields of study. I probably should try to cross-post this question to Dr. Ness's blog if appropriate.

I've also been just assuming that centrifuging is the main separation/purification technique, and I've no idea if that would be the case. It's been 22 years since I was a tech in an academic cancer research lab. I can't distinguish a Western blot from my Southern ass.

2) Tibby, no one has indicated that "signing out" a piece of lab equipment involved taking it off-campus. The Army Lab at Ft. Detrick is not a public library.

highly engineered. If it is, then Spertzel is really scary and seems to just taunt the world from the neocon perspective.

Oh, I see what you meant, and that was worth repeating.

Posted what I could find about Irwin just a bit ago.

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/05/anthrax/permalink/7c5436aefd7808470ad7b44810af78f6.html

Looks like we hit at least one site that was the same.

As to Irwin's comments -- nadda! It seems like this is the right guy, only one by that name in the area. Hard to tell from Duley's account -- he may have been Ivin's psychiatrist at the time or he may have been called in on consultation. Was curious partly because, with the suicide, I wondered what kind of psychotropics he had on board and who was prescribing the Tylenol and codeine. I was stunned that they initially weren't going to do a post -- because they "knew how he died." Later there was some noise about doing one. Don't know final result.

I've been very disturbed by Duley's testimony and the forensic issues in this case; posted a number of times. I have grave doubts that any of Duley's testimony at the restraint hearing can be taken at face value. When I saw that Irwin had done his residency at military hospitals, I became more concerned -- probably for the same reasons you are even though I usually try to navigate without a tin foil hat.

Suggest you check my other posts to see what's there and maybe you can push it further. Good luck!

BTW: If you haven't listened to Duley at the hearing it's worth doing.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/audio/national/20080802scientist.mp3