Random drug testing...

Isn't that sort of test usually reserved for lower level workers, not researchers or professors?

-- Anonymust

Yeah, one assumes he wasn't required to pee in a cup like the rest of us peons

Whether Ivins was guilty or not, the wholesale bumbling absurdity of the FBI's effort over almost 7 long years only points out the ridiculousness of the claim that law enforcement post-9/11 needs warranteless wiretapping and similar "tools" because things like judicial review, even by special courts, takes too long, and that once such procedures are in place the agencies designed to keep us safe will act swiftly, selflessly and smoothly in the furtherance of justice.

Studying the timeline of what the FBI knew and when they acted, you'd think post horses had to gallop across a China-sized empire in order for the Homeland Security Emperor to decree certain elementary things to happen - i.e., getting a good sample two years after you received a bad one, or searching the home of a suspect in November of 2007 your touted genetic analysis has linked to the attack spores the summer of 2004.

First, show you can work with a hammer without bashing your thumb. Then we'll think about giving you a nailgun.

A normal nutbar wouldn't act on his paranoia. You need a specific kind of nutbar (or terrorist, state or nonstate) to send anthrax letters. A thoroughly delusional one.

That's why 99% of nutbars don't send mail bombs, but Ted K did.

The NYtimes did an ariticle on Ivins mentl health problems today. I still don't understand why Ivins was allowed to continue working in this lab with both his alcohol and mental health problems. Ivin is mental stress did not start with the FBI probe it started in 2000. It was not the first time in his life he had mental health issues either.

However it still may not make the case. so far the evidence they have released in very circumstantial.

I thought it was outrageous the FBI & Bush administration had a press conference on the day of Ivin's funeral to announce he was the killer. How cruel.

I had experienced dealing with a relative who was diagnosed with schizo affective disorder. She often did nasty revengeful things ,then denied them. Tthe Dr. said if she was having a thought disruptions she may not have remembered doing them.

Once when I thought she was doing much better and very euphoric, both her psychologist and psychiatrist suggested she admit herself to the psychic ward, and she agreed. They told me patients often seem content and euphoric just before committing suicide as they have made the final decision.

The story below is from the Frederick News-Post's website. I hope others are checking their websites to see if they have comments from Ivin's under these other names. It would be interesting to read his comments.

Ivins comments on News-Post stories

Originally published August 07, 2008

By Sarah Fortney

News-Post Staff

Bruce Ivins may have read and shared his comments about articles on The Frederick News-Post's website.

Ivins was the FBI's prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings, which killed five people and injured 17 others just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Search warrants, among the documents unsealed Wednesday by the U.S. District Court, listed email accounts Ivins had created, including goldenphoenix111@hotmail.com, kingbadger7@aol.com and jimmyflathead@yahoo.com.

At least one commenter, kingbadger7@aol.com, posted comments on the News-Post's website

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyID=78498

If anything, those posts make him sound far more rational than other public pronouncements that had emerged. If posting under many psuedonymous alias is an indicator of bioterror tendencies, then LWM should be the FBI's primary suspect ;>

Still, it's worth noting that when people off themselves, they usually choose methods that don't take days to finish them off.

-- Silash

I still don't find it remotely suspicious that a person would try to take his/her life with a prescription narcotic.

A normal nutbar wouldn't act on his paranoia. You need a specific kind of nutbar (or terrorist, state or nonstate) to send anthrax letters. A thoroughly delusional one.

That's why 99% of nutbars don't send mail bombs, but Ted K did.

-- Baldie McEagle

There is a very thin line between ideation and action. Most people never cross that line but once crossed, it may just as well never have existed at all. What it takes to move someone over that line varies from individual to individual and abuse of certain substances can erase that line altogether. Especially alcohol and some stimulants.

160 was as the crow flies

Google maps

Driving directions to Princeton, NJ

194 mi – about 3 hours 23 mins

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google-dd&utm_medium=ha

But a local may know other routes that are actually quicker, even more direct, or less so but with a quicker travel time and that 3 hours and 23 minutes assumes normal traffic conditions and conservative speeds.

I ask because that summer was filled with dire warning of terrorist attacks and ever increasing threat levels -- a fact many seem to have forgotten -- July in particular was almost laughable as threats mounted, mostly having to do with foreign travel, but there were reports of "lots of chatter"

As a counter-terrorism old-timer, Ivins and all the other guys at Detrick must have been going out of their minds in dread and anticipation. Yes, Bin Laden was a known threat and bio weapons and chemical weapons had been discussed since GWI and were part of the "theory" about Gulf War Syndrome.

Point being only that it's not suprising that Ivins and other were working overtime before 09/11 ... or that some anthrax researcher felt an urgency to get a better vaccine on line and in production -- NATIONAL SECURITY ...

I suspect the Detrick scientists believe they do invaluable work to protect the nation and its citizen. I have little trouble imaging someone bogged down by lack of funding, personnel and "support" deciding that America needed to "wake up" to the anthrax threat.

How the letter sender lived with the deaths and the illness and chaos he caused I cannot imagine.

It might have been Ivins, but I suspect the frustrations were well shared in the department -- to get caught with no excellent vaccine in America's hour of need.

I may have the timeline a bit off wrt the old vaccine but I suspect that summer and all those threats got the old adrenaline rushing.

I have no idea if it was Ivins -- alone or with an accomplice.