If the anthrax did indeed originate at Fort Detrick, then if it wasn't Ivins, someone else there was the original source. That person or persons either made it or stole it, and either mailed it themselves or gave it to the people who did mail it.

So is it pretty convincing the anthrax came from Fort Detrick? From what I've read, it seems to be.

Because if so, there are two compelling things going on here:

1. The investigation into the identity of whoever at the lab provided or sent it.

2. More important to me is the fact that the federal government itself is proving that the anthrax had nothing to do with Iraq or bin Laden, unless someone at the lab worked for or cooperated with their agents. Given the intense security surrounding that base and that lab, I think it's just as likely that US government agents were ordered to commit literally a terrorist act to help push the nation into war. (Am I being paranoid? Is it possible to be paranoid in the face of the Bush administration's criminality?)

In a way, it's commendable that the FBI, one of the most compromised federal agencies, seems to be on the verge of proving Bush-Cheney to be liars and possibly themselves instigators of terrorism, even if separated by layers of subordinates from the direct issue of orders to mail anthrax and thus terrorize the nation into aggressive and baseless war.

Do the facts of the case seem to be heading this way?

Great work!!

-----

To all,

Great work!! Research and investigation open source style. It makes my tiny black heart pump a little faster. How can traditional media or government possibly deal with this kind of mass uprising? Thank you Glenn!

We all know how excited you get when a new talking point come over the transom! You want to run right to the keyboard and tell all your friends at Glenn's about it. But really, it should have some relevance to the thread. At least some.

Or did you think that one was just too exciting to save til tomorrow?

To me, the most damning evidence against the FBI's target is the nearly unanimous and ubiquitous array of people who worked with him and knew him who are absolutely convinced he didn't do it.

The strange thing throughout all of this is how much I personally feel for Bruce Ivins just based on the accounts of those who knew him. And not just his admirable qualities, but the psychological ones as well. From everything I have learned from the numerous descriptions of him from co-workers and friends, he lived his life with integrity and was self-aware enough to know his flaws and smart enough to take action to address them.

This article from The Frederick News-Post Online is essentially all I need to believe he was the wrong guy:

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyID=78365

"There are no coincidences in the mind of the conspiracy theorist."

I once heard that from the Popular Mechanics researchers who debunked the "9/11 conspiracy theorists, and I think it applies equally to law enforcement investigators. Especially after being publicly embarrassed for targeting the wrong guy for the same investigation.

Be sure to read the link that Glenn provided on Meryl Nass’s initial, after getting off work, views of this weak FBI case.

http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/2008/08/beyond-reasonable-doubt.html

She has strong bona fides.

Meryl Nass, Bar Harbor, Maine, United States, My Curriculum Vitae(see sig) links to many of my testimonies and publications. My favorite papers include one investigating Zimbabwe's major anthrax epidemic, and a review of anthrax vaccine's usefulness in biological warfare.

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ac3k73cqjc4p_22gxxxb3g6

I once heard that from the Popular Mechanics researchers who debunked the "9/11 conspiracy theorists,

Popular Mechanic, feh! Where's my flying car? Where's my nuclear powered house? They don't know anything. Ever try to build something from their plans?

I wouldn't trust 'em. And those twin towers were some of the flimsiest buildings ever constructed. I wonder how the got it past the NY inspectors? Man, a couple of struts weaken, and down she goes! Even the 48 massive beams tied with diagonals wich make up the core of the towers. One good knock, and it all came down.

In today's partial disclosure by the Government, Dr. Ivins now is tagged with the following self-diagnosis, allegedly set forth in an e-mail:

"I get incredible paranoid, delusional thoughts at times, and there's nothing I can do until they go away, either by themselves or with drugs."

Uh, there's a big problem with that, Doc (or whomever composed this so-called compelling 'circumstantial' evidence).

The problem is that people actually suffering from delusional disorder (formerly "paranoia") are completely unaware that they are, in fact, suffering from any delusions. Just one of of those quirky psychological conditions that tells the victim he is not sick.

It all depends on how delusional and paranoid. A close family member has a "light" mental illness, fairly well controlled with Prozac. When he decides that he "really doesn't need the meds" he'll start spiraling up with the delusions and paranoia, but is quite aware of what is happening -- he just believes the delusions are true and the paranoia is justified. Then he realizes he's going over the edge again, visits the doctor, gets back on the meds and is fine.

I also had a close friend with a fairly severe psychosis, who was committed to institutions a number of times, hearing voices, extremely paranoid, etc. The last time, when he felt himself spiraling down into the delusional state again -- he was very much aware it was happening -- he took his own life because he couldn't stand descending into delusion again.

Only anecdotal, personal experience, but in both cases, the parties were quite aware of their mental states at some time.

While looking up the so-called camel club, I came across this 2002 Laura Rozen article about Assaad and Detrick linked from Raimondo:

take away points (link at signature):

"As soon as it came out" about the anthrax letters, "the first thing that came to my mind was Fort Detrick," said the scientist, who requested anonymity and is now employed in academia. "I don't know how many labs are utilizing anthrax from Detrick. Detrick represents a repository of many organisms, and they would send it out to various other labs. A lot of people who were working on anthrax in this country got their anthrax from Fort Detrick."

The scientist also claimed that he understood DNA analysis being performed by a private lab in Rockville, Md., had already determined that the source of the anthrax in the letter sent to Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy was from Detrick. However, the private lab has told journalists that it will be another two weeks to a month before they publicly reveal their results.

....

Langford describes walking in to work one morning and seeing a group of lab scientists and technicians huddled behind closed doors in the room that houses an electron microscope. What Langford concluded was that certain scientists were covertly working on projects at night and on weekends that had been ordered halted by their division chief. He further concluded that employees were desperately trying to find old specimens of biological agents, including anthrax, they could "re-label" to cover up specimens that had gone missing in the chaos of prohibited, after-hours lab work.