Tuesday, August 19, 2008

When Scientists Go Bad, They Get Whacked by the FBI?

Bruce E. Ivins seems to have been one bad scientist, the kind you do not want to take to a laboratory and leave alone. How bad? Hard to say. They are looking into this. The guy killed himself, making new interviews impossible.

"Since his death, a number of scientists have said that the limited forensic evidence that the F.B.I. made public in linking the attacks to Dr. Ivins is inconclusive."

Whack!

FBI Details Anthrax Case, but Doubts Remain
New York Times
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and NICHOLAS WADE WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON — Federal Bureau of Investigation officials on Monday laid out their most detailed scientific case to date against Bruce E. Ivins, the military scientist accused of being the anthrax killer, but they acknowledged that the many mysteries of the case meant an air of uncertainty would always surround it.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to put the suspicions to bed,” said Vahid Majidi, head of the F.B.I.’s weapons of mass destruction division. “There’s always going to be a spore on a grassy knoll.”

At a two-hour briefing for reporters, Dr. Majidi was joined by seven other leading scientists from inside and outside the bureau. They discussed in intricate detail the halting scientific path that led them from two main samples of anthrax used in the 2001 attacks, to four genetic mutations unique to the samples, to 100 scientists in the United States who had access to that particular strain, and ultimately to Dr. Ivins.

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