Thomas Frank will be present for a live chat Book Salon at Firedoglake at 5 pm Eastern today. George Lakoff tomorrow at the same time.

I don't see mention of the microbiologist's "he stalked me for 30 years" AP story ... but what was conspicuously absent in her account was any actual "menace" or "bad feelings" ... the stalking (which may well have been Ivins for all I know -- she certainly has no proof) could just as easily be attributed to "unrequited affection" and something "malevolent" ... creepy, sure.

I have cringed many times over Ivins' coworkers and friends describing him as this sort of funny looking, small, nerdy, goofy guy... and felt relieved he was spared these casual comments. I suspect he was well-aware of the distain of these people. No, I'm not suggesting some "bullied take revenge" motive, but it is appalling to me how someone of Ivins' career and accomplishments becomes reduced to some cartoon figure without dignity.

Some of the alleged stalking incidents, appear to have been moments when Ivins was able to "show off" his accomplishments in her "non-nerd" world. She was very accomplished as well.

I've been stalked. It is creepy. But it was more creepy before the internet, google, and Classmates.com, not to mention those cheap internet "find someone fast" sites.

More anti-science, anti-intellectual boy's club world view. They're going to avoid all those fact-things. They found their nerdy, panty-sniffing, sorority-obsessed suspect 2 years ago -- there's no hint of doubt in THEIR minds ...

Bush would be proud.

Yesterday, the Washington Post revealed details on when the FBI thinks Dr. Ivins went to Princeton to mail the first set of letters:

...

Meanwhile, bits of fresh information continued to come out. A partial log of Ivins's work hours shows that he worked late in the lab on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 16, signing out at 9:52 p.m. after two hours and 15 minutes. The next morning, the sources said, he showed up as usual but stayed only briefly before taking leave hours. Authorities assume that he drove to Princeton immediately after that, dropping the letters in a mailbox on a well-traveled street across from the university campus. Ivins would have had to have left quickly to return for an appointment in the early evening, about 4 or 5 p.m.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

However, on page 8 of the FBI affidavit:

...

The investigation examined Dr. Ivins's laboratory activity immediately before and after the window of opportunity for the mailing of the Post and Brokaw letters to New York which began at 5:00 p.m. Monday, September 17,2001 and ended at noon on Tuesday, September 18,

2001.

....

http://www.usdoj.gov/amerithrax/07-524-M-01%20attachmen...

Frederick, MD to Princeton, NJ is a 3 1/2 hr drive, let's say 3 hrs speeding. So if he made a 4:XX meeting, he left Princeton at 1:XX on Monday the 17th. There's no way, using the leave hours cited, the Dr. Ivins could have made the window needed to mail the first batch of anthax.

From the New York Sun, two years ago:

A federal judge in New York has ordered a journalist at ABC News, Brian Ross, to disclose the identities of the government sources he relied upon when reporting about the anthrax attacks of 2001.

Mr. Ross is now the sixth reporter to have been ordered to give up sources to assist with a civil lawsuit brought by a former Army scientist, Steven Hatfill, whom the government named as a "person of interest" in the investigation into the deadly anthrax mailings. Mr. Hatfill, who was never charged with the mailings, is suing the federal government for invading his privacy.

The ruling, signed last week by Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, comes a month after a federal judge in Washington first ordered five reporters from the Washington Post, Newsweek, and other news outlets to name their sources. Since that first order, two of the sources have come forward and identified themselves, according to a letter filed last week by a lawyer for Mr. Hatfill, Charles Kimmett. The letter does not identify the sources beyond saying they are former Justice Department employees, nor does it say to which reporters the sources spoke.

http://www.nysun.com/national/journalist-ross-of-abc-or... /

I mean, all this hearsay, and I got tell Ivins looks like very peaceful kind of guy. (I know I'm judging a book by it's cover) It just seems to me that man look for cure would not have been interested in killing people with Anthrax. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

I would be nice to get some character witness just to talk about how they knew the late Mr. Irvins as the man.

I think that would actually help getting an independent investigation of all of this rubbish we're being told.

along with folks involved in the Wikipedia wars ... in which Ivins seems to have been fairly clearly ID'd.

It seems that many years ago -- while in college -- he may have obtained a copy of the sorority's "secret book" and the threat of revealing its contents was an ongoing source of "something" (power, amusement, I don't know) for him.

While this sorority's inner workings, secrets and scandals seem pretty trivial and immature, it's probably only fair to consider Skull-and-Bone, the Masons, and other secret societies.

Ivins seems to have gotten a thrill out of taunting this sorority house ... and he had their book of secrets... Not necessarily the "menacing" figure we've been led to imagine.

I couldn't find any indication of hostility or threat here either... not even the adolescent revenge of a would-be lover scorned. Perhaps just not willing to put his tiny power over these women behind entirely.

I remind all that we have yet to be told what his alleged "peculiar ideas about women" were ...

If you go back and read all the news stories from the end of June 2008, when Hatfill won his case, it is pretty revealing. Consider what one of the lead agents (sued by Hatfill) had to say, as related at ABC:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5276220

EXCLUSIVE: How the FBI Botched the Anthrax Case, June 30

"The anthrax investigation, almost from the beginning, was hampered by top-heavy leadership from high ranking, but inexperienced FBI officials, which led to a close-minded focus on just one suspect and amateurish investigative techniques that robbed agents in the field the ability operate successfully. I saw it firsthand as one of the FBI agents assigned to the anthrax case and directly involved in the investigation of Dr. Steven Hatfill."

This led to new pressures for complete disclosure by the FBI and Justice:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8842_has_the_anthrax.html

For example:

Rep. Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, told the International Herald Tribune that he plans to press FBI Director Robert Mueller for information about the investigation. "As today's settlement announcement confirms, this case was botched from the very beginning," Holt said on Friday. "The FBI did a poor job collecting evidence, and then inappropriately focused on one individual as a suspect for too long, developing an erroneous theory of the case that has led to this very expensive dead end."

Clearly, the FBI was under a lot of pressure to close this case, from the top down, meaning that the heads of the FBI and Justice are directly responsible. You have to wonder what kind of communications go on between the FBI, Justice and the White House over this matter. So far, the White House has said nothing about this publicly, or is that right?

So far, neither branch of the forensic analysis - the genetic identification or the weaponized spore recipe - can be said to implicate Ivins. The rest of the government's case appears to be mostly attempts at character assassination via anonymous leaks and smears.

Ike Solem

ike_solm@hotmail.com