BY DAVID SALTONSTALL and JAMES GORDON MEEK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, August 2nd 2008, 6:32 PM
Mitchell/AP
FBI and local law enforcement closed the building which houses the offices of several supermarket tabloids after the Anthrax virus was found in an employee's nose and on a computer keyboard.
The FBI had expected Bruce Ivins to plead guilty in the anthrax case, but those who knew him are doubtful, and Ivins' suicide made it unlikely that the truth will come out.
After years of bungled leads and investigative missteps - including the $5.8 million it cost feds to settle a lawsuit with an earlier target of suspicion, Ivins' colleague - the FBI and federal prosecutors took their time to build a damning file on the anthrax vaccine specialist.
"The agents kept this close-held," a counterterrorism official briefed on details of the Ivins probe told the Daily News on Saturday. "They took their time until they had enough evidence to completely overwhelm Ivins, and they expected him to plead guilty."
After Ivins committed suicide, the acknowledged "developments" in the "Amerithrax" attacks that killed five people in the months after 9/11. It did not mention Ivins.
Former Senate Democratic leader , whose office received a poisoned letter in 2001, said Saturday that it was time for answers.
"It's been seven years; there's a lot of unanswered questions, and I think the American people deserve to know more than they do today," he said.
The former head of the lab where Ivins worked also says it's time for the FBI to lay its evidence on the table.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Adamovicz told The News that the FBI's probe into the 2001 anthrax killings had upended the work of the lab by turning scientists into suspects - and pushed his pal over the edge.
"I just cannot see that Bruce would in any way, shape or form be responsible for something like that," he said. "I'd like to see these charges substantiated, because just like [with] Dr. Hatfill, there could be nothing to these allegations."
He said the FBI has created a psychologically toxic atmosphere for scientists at Fort Detrick.
"We were there processing information for agents and then one day they turned around and treated us all like suspects," he said. The agents' criteria for additional suspicion was "who's working the most overtime," said Adamovicz, who also was questioned by the feds.
Adamovicz said he last saw Ivins about three weeks ago and he seemed "fine." Asked about court documents alleging Ivins recently threatened to kill people, Adamovicz expressed bafflement.
"It is disturbing if that is true, but I would like to see that clarified," he said.
Adamovicz described his friend as a diligent worker but also an "eccentric" who always could be counted on to pen a poem or compose a song for a departing co-worker.
"The Bruce I knew," Adamovicz said, "would not have anything to do with this."
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Q & A - AP
Some of the remaining gaps in the FBI anthrax case
By The Associated PressTue Aug 5, 12:53 PM ET
In the week since the government's top suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks committed suicide, a sometimes bizarre portrait of 62-year-old Army scientist Bruce Ivins has emerged. But while Ivins had access to the deadly toxin and his therapist's portrayal of him is haunting, there are a number of unanswered questions in the FBI's case against Ivins.
Some may be answered when the Justice Department unseals key documents detailing its evidence against Ivins. Others will remain unanswered, adding more uncertainty to an already mysterious case.
Below are some of the biggest unanswered questions in the "Amerithrax" case and the possible answers that have emerged so far.
Q: How could Ivins get access to powdered anthrax, since the biological warfare lab at Ft. Detrick did not deal with the toxin in that form?
A: There is no indication that authorities can prove Ivins made the powdered form of bacteria. Investigators say that in 2001, Ivins borrowed a device, known as a lyopholizer, capable of converting anthrax spores into powder. But some colleagues say it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for Ivins to do that unnoticed.
Q: How can the FBI link Ivins to the anthrax for certain?
A: The FBI used advanced DNA testing to track the anthrax that killed five people to a sample Ivins controlled, but as many as 12 others had access to it. It's unclear for now exactly how the FBI eliminated those others as suspects.
Q: What motive would Ivins have had to unleash an attack?
A: One investigative theory is that Ivins released the toxin as a way to test cures he was developing or a vaccine he had recently patented. But it's unclear whether the FBI can prove that. Ivins' therapist said the scientist had a history of homicidal and sociopath tendencies, but his friends say his mental deterioration was caused by the FBI's relentless pursuit.
Q: Did Ivins travel to Princeton, N.J., where the anthrax letters are believed to have been mailed?
A: Authorities cannot place Ivins in Princeton when the letters were mailed. And the only explanation for why he'd make the seven-hour round trip is bizarre. Authorities say Ivins was obsessed with the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, dating back to his own college days. The Princeton mailbox is not far from the school's sorority office and authorities say Ivins had made unexpected visits to the sorority at other schools.
Q: Why target media organizations and politicians?
A: The FBI's initial behavior analysis said it's unlikely that NBC News, the New York Post, then-Sen. Tom Daschle were selected randomly. Analysts said the targets "are probably very important to the offender" and may have been the focus of his contempt. There is no indication, for now at least, that Ivins demonstrated such feelings. Under the theory that Ivins was testing his cure, lawmakers and media might drum up attention for the importance of anthrax drugs, but it's unclear whether there's any evidence about that.
Q: Has the FBI matched handwriting samples from the letters?
A: FBI handwriting analysts described a distinct writing style on the envelopes and letters sent along with the anthrax. The letters were all capitalized and block-style. The names and addresses tilted downward from left to right. The word "cannot" was written as "can not." The numeral one was written quite formally. The writer selected dashes instead of slashes in the date "09-11-01." The FBI has seized numerous documents in the case but it's unclear whether the handwriting has been matched.
By The Associated PressTue Aug 5, 12:53 PM ET
In the week since the government's top suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks committed suicide, a sometimes bizarre portrait of 62-year-old Army scientist Bruce Ivins has emerged. But while Ivins had access to the deadly toxin and his therapist's portrayal of him is haunting, there are a number of unanswered questions in the FBI's case against Ivins.
Some may be answered when the Justice Department unseals key documents detailing its evidence against Ivins. Others will remain unanswered, adding more uncertainty to an already mysterious case.
Below are some of the biggest unanswered questions in the "Amerithrax" case and the possible answers that have emerged so far.
Q: How could Ivins get access to powdered anthrax, since the biological warfare lab at Ft. Detrick did not deal with the toxin in that form?
A: There is no indication that authorities can prove Ivins made the powdered form of bacteria. Investigators say that in 2001, Ivins borrowed a device, known as a lyopholizer, capable of converting anthrax spores into powder. But some colleagues say it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for Ivins to do that unnoticed.
Q: How can the FBI link Ivins to the anthrax for certain?
A: The FBI used advanced DNA testing to track the anthrax that killed five people to a sample Ivins controlled, but as many as 12 others had access to it. It's unclear for now exactly how the FBI eliminated those others as suspects.
Q: What motive would Ivins have had to unleash an attack?
A: One investigative theory is that Ivins released the toxin as a way to test cures he was developing or a vaccine he had recently patented. But it's unclear whether the FBI can prove that. Ivins' therapist said the scientist had a history of homicidal and sociopath tendencies, but his friends say his mental deterioration was caused by the FBI's relentless pursuit.
Q: Did Ivins travel to Princeton, N.J., where the anthrax letters are believed to have been mailed?
A: Authorities cannot place Ivins in Princeton when the letters were mailed. And the only explanation for why he'd make the seven-hour round trip is bizarre. Authorities say Ivins was obsessed with the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, dating back to his own college days. The Princeton mailbox is not far from the school's sorority office and authorities say Ivins had made unexpected visits to the sorority at other schools.
Q: Why target media organizations and politicians?
A: The FBI's initial behavior analysis said it's unlikely that NBC News, the New York Post, then-Sen. Tom Daschle were selected randomly. Analysts said the targets "are probably very important to the offender" and may have been the focus of his contempt. There is no indication, for now at least, that Ivins demonstrated such feelings. Under the theory that Ivins was testing his cure, lawmakers and media might drum up attention for the importance of anthrax drugs, but it's unclear whether there's any evidence about that.
Q: Has the FBI matched handwriting samples from the letters?
A: FBI handwriting analysts described a distinct writing style on the envelopes and letters sent along with the anthrax. The letters were all capitalized and block-style. The names and addresses tilted downward from left to right. The word "cannot" was written as "can not." The numeral one was written quite formally. The writer selected dashes instead of slashes in the date "09-11-01." The FBI has seized numerous documents in the case but it's unclear whether the handwriting has been matched.
FBI terror tactics
FBI used aggressive tactics in anthrax probe
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.
The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation.
The last thing the FBI needed was another embarrassment. Overreaching damaged the FBI's reputation in the high-profile investigations: the Centennial Olympic Park bombing probe that falsely accused Richard Jewell; the theft of nuclear secrets and botched prosecution of scientist Wen Ho Lee; and, in this same anthrax probe, the smearing of an innocent man — Ivins' colleague Steven Hatfill.
In the current case, Ivins complained privately that FBI agents had offered his son, Andy, $2.5 million, plus "the sports car of his choice" late last year if he would turn over evidence implicating his father in the anthrax attacks, according to a former U.S. scientist who described himself as a friend of Ivins.
Ivins also said the FBI confronted Ivins' daughter, Amanda, with photographs of victims of the anthrax attacks and told her, "This is what your father did," according to the scientist, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because their conversation was confidential.
The scientist said Ivins was angered by the FBI's alleged actions, which he said included following Ivins' family on shopping trips.
Washington attorney Barry Coburn, who represents Amanda Ivins, declined to comment on the investigation. An attorney for Andy Ivins also declined to comment.
The FBI declined to describe its investigative techniques of Ivins.
FBI official John Miller said that "what we have seen over the past few days has been a mix of improper disclosures of partial information mixed with inaccurate information and then drawn into unfounded conclusions. None of that serves the victims, their families or the public."
The FBI "always moves aggressively to get to the bottom of the facts, but that does not include mistreatment of anybody and I don't know of any case where that's happened," said former FBI deputy director Weldon Kennedy, who was with the bureau for 34 years. "That doesn't mean that from time to time people don't make mistakes," he added.
Dr. W. Russell Byrne, a friend and former supervisor of Ivins at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., said he had heard from other Ivins associates that investigators were going after Ivins' daughter. But Byrne said those conversations were always short because people were afraid to talk.
"The FBI had asked everybody to sign these nondisclosure things," Byrne said. "They didn't want to run afoul of the FBI."
Byrne, who retired from the lab four years ago, said FBI agents interviewed him seven to 12 times since the investigation began — and he got off easy.
"I think I'm the only person at USAMRIID who didn't get polygraphed," he said.
Byrne said he was told by people who had recently worked with Ivins that the investigation had taken an emotional toll on the researcher. "One person said he'd sit at his desk and weep," he said.
Questions about the FBI's conduct come as the government takes steps that could signal an end to its investigation. On Wednesday, FBI officials plan to begin briefing family members of victims in the 2001 attacks.
The government is expected to declare the case solved but will keep it open for now, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Several legal and investigatory matters need to be wrapped up before the case can officially be closed, they said.
Some questions may be answered when documents related to the case are released, as soon as Wednesday. For others, the answers may be incomplete, even bizarre. Some may simply never be answered.
It is unclear how the FBI eliminated as suspects others in the lab who had access to the anthrax. It's not clear what, if any, evidence bolsters the theory that the attacks may have been a twisted effort to test a cure for the toxin. Investigators also can't place Ivins in Princeton, N.J., when the letters were mailed from a mailbox there.
Richard Schuler, attorney for anthrax victim Robert Stevens' widow, Maureen Stevens, said his client will attend Wednesday's FBI briefing with a list of questions.
"No. 1 is, 'Did Bruce Ivins mail the anthrax that killed Robert Stevens?'" Schuler said, adding, "I've got healthy skepticism."
Critics of the bureau in and out of government say that in major cases, like the anthrax investigation, it can be difficult for the bureau to stop once it embarks on a single-minded pursuit of a suspect, with any internal dissenters shut out as disloyal subordinates.
Before the FBI focused on Ivins, its sights were set on Hatfill, whose career as a bioscientist was ruined after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft named him a "person of interest" in the probe.
Hatfill sued the agency, which recently agreed to pay Hatfill nearly $6 million to settle the lawsuit.
Complaints that the FBI behaved too aggressively conflict with its straight-laced, crime-fighting image of starched agents hunting terrorists.
During its focus on Hatfill, the FBI conducted what became known as "bumper lock surveillance," in which investigators trailed Hatfill so closely that he accused agents of running over his foot with their surveillance vehicle.
FBI agents showed up once to videotape Hatfill in a hotel hallway in Tyson's Corner, Va., when Hatfill was meeting with a prospective employer, according to FBI depositions filed in Hatfill's lawsuit against the government. He didn't get the job.
One of the FBI agents who helped run the anthrax investigation, Robert Roth, said FBI Director Robert Mueller had expressed frustration with the pace of the investigation. He also acknowledged that, under FBI guidelines, targets of surveillance aren't supposed to know they're being followed.
"Generally, it's supposed to be covert," Roth told lawyers in Hatfill's lawsuit.
In the 1996 Atlanta Olympic park bombing that dragged Jewell into the limelight, the security guard became the focus of the FBI probe for three months, after initially being hailed as a hero for moving people away from the bomb before it exploded.
The bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Ala. Those explosives killed a police officer, maimed a nurse and injured several other people.
In another case, the FBI used as evidence the secrets that a person tells a therapist.
In the Wen Ho Lee case, Lee became the focus of a federal probe into how China may have obtained classified nuclear warhead blueprints. Prosecutors eventually charged him only with mishandling nuclear data, and held him for nine months. In what amounted to a collapse of the government's case, prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain in which Lee pleaded guilty to one of 59 counts.
In 2004, the FBI wrongly arrested lawyer Brandon Mayfield after the Madrid terrorist bombings, due to a misidentified fingerprint. The Justice Department's internal watchdog faulted the bureau for sloppy work. Spanish authorities had doubted the validity of the fingerprint match, but the U.S. government initiated a lengthy investigation, eventually settling with Mayfield for $2 million.
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.
The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation.
The last thing the FBI needed was another embarrassment. Overreaching damaged the FBI's reputation in the high-profile investigations: the Centennial Olympic Park bombing probe that falsely accused Richard Jewell; the theft of nuclear secrets and botched prosecution of scientist Wen Ho Lee; and, in this same anthrax probe, the smearing of an innocent man — Ivins' colleague Steven Hatfill.
In the current case, Ivins complained privately that FBI agents had offered his son, Andy, $2.5 million, plus "the sports car of his choice" late last year if he would turn over evidence implicating his father in the anthrax attacks, according to a former U.S. scientist who described himself as a friend of Ivins.
Ivins also said the FBI confronted Ivins' daughter, Amanda, with photographs of victims of the anthrax attacks and told her, "This is what your father did," according to the scientist, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because their conversation was confidential.
The scientist said Ivins was angered by the FBI's alleged actions, which he said included following Ivins' family on shopping trips.
Washington attorney Barry Coburn, who represents Amanda Ivins, declined to comment on the investigation. An attorney for Andy Ivins also declined to comment.
The FBI declined to describe its investigative techniques of Ivins.
FBI official John Miller said that "what we have seen over the past few days has been a mix of improper disclosures of partial information mixed with inaccurate information and then drawn into unfounded conclusions. None of that serves the victims, their families or the public."
The FBI "always moves aggressively to get to the bottom of the facts, but that does not include mistreatment of anybody and I don't know of any case where that's happened," said former FBI deputy director Weldon Kennedy, who was with the bureau for 34 years. "That doesn't mean that from time to time people don't make mistakes," he added.
Dr. W. Russell Byrne, a friend and former supervisor of Ivins at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., said he had heard from other Ivins associates that investigators were going after Ivins' daughter. But Byrne said those conversations were always short because people were afraid to talk.
"The FBI had asked everybody to sign these nondisclosure things," Byrne said. "They didn't want to run afoul of the FBI."
Byrne, who retired from the lab four years ago, said FBI agents interviewed him seven to 12 times since the investigation began — and he got off easy.
"I think I'm the only person at USAMRIID who didn't get polygraphed," he said.
Byrne said he was told by people who had recently worked with Ivins that the investigation had taken an emotional toll on the researcher. "One person said he'd sit at his desk and weep," he said.
Questions about the FBI's conduct come as the government takes steps that could signal an end to its investigation. On Wednesday, FBI officials plan to begin briefing family members of victims in the 2001 attacks.
The government is expected to declare the case solved but will keep it open for now, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Several legal and investigatory matters need to be wrapped up before the case can officially be closed, they said.
Some questions may be answered when documents related to the case are released, as soon as Wednesday. For others, the answers may be incomplete, even bizarre. Some may simply never be answered.
It is unclear how the FBI eliminated as suspects others in the lab who had access to the anthrax. It's not clear what, if any, evidence bolsters the theory that the attacks may have been a twisted effort to test a cure for the toxin. Investigators also can't place Ivins in Princeton, N.J., when the letters were mailed from a mailbox there.
Richard Schuler, attorney for anthrax victim Robert Stevens' widow, Maureen Stevens, said his client will attend Wednesday's FBI briefing with a list of questions.
"No. 1 is, 'Did Bruce Ivins mail the anthrax that killed Robert Stevens?'" Schuler said, adding, "I've got healthy skepticism."
Critics of the bureau in and out of government say that in major cases, like the anthrax investigation, it can be difficult for the bureau to stop once it embarks on a single-minded pursuit of a suspect, with any internal dissenters shut out as disloyal subordinates.
Before the FBI focused on Ivins, its sights were set on Hatfill, whose career as a bioscientist was ruined after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft named him a "person of interest" in the probe.
Hatfill sued the agency, which recently agreed to pay Hatfill nearly $6 million to settle the lawsuit.
Complaints that the FBI behaved too aggressively conflict with its straight-laced, crime-fighting image of starched agents hunting terrorists.
During its focus on Hatfill, the FBI conducted what became known as "bumper lock surveillance," in which investigators trailed Hatfill so closely that he accused agents of running over his foot with their surveillance vehicle.
FBI agents showed up once to videotape Hatfill in a hotel hallway in Tyson's Corner, Va., when Hatfill was meeting with a prospective employer, according to FBI depositions filed in Hatfill's lawsuit against the government. He didn't get the job.
One of the FBI agents who helped run the anthrax investigation, Robert Roth, said FBI Director Robert Mueller had expressed frustration with the pace of the investigation. He also acknowledged that, under FBI guidelines, targets of surveillance aren't supposed to know they're being followed.
"Generally, it's supposed to be covert," Roth told lawyers in Hatfill's lawsuit.
In the 1996 Atlanta Olympic park bombing that dragged Jewell into the limelight, the security guard became the focus of the FBI probe for three months, after initially being hailed as a hero for moving people away from the bomb before it exploded.
The bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Ala. Those explosives killed a police officer, maimed a nurse and injured several other people.
In another case, the FBI used as evidence the secrets that a person tells a therapist.
In the Wen Ho Lee case, Lee became the focus of a federal probe into how China may have obtained classified nuclear warhead blueprints. Prosecutors eventually charged him only with mishandling nuclear data, and held him for nine months. In what amounted to a collapse of the government's case, prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain in which Lee pleaded guilty to one of 59 counts.
In 2004, the FBI wrongly arrested lawyer Brandon Mayfield after the Madrid terrorist bombings, due to a misidentified fingerprint. The Justice Department's internal watchdog faulted the bureau for sloppy work. Spanish authorities had doubted the validity of the fingerprint match, but the U.S. government initiated a lengthy investigation, eventually settling with Mayfield for $2 million.
FNP 08/05/08
'I'm scared to death' of Ivins, Duley testifiesOriginally published August 05, 2008By Gina Gallucci-White News-Post Staff
DULEY DESCRIBES HARASSMENT, THREATS
Jean Duley testified that she was “scared to death” of Dr. Bruce Ivins after he left her a string of harrassing phone messages, according to an audio recording taken during a July 24 peace order hearing.
Jean Duley testified that she was "scared to death" of Bruce Ivins after he left her a string of harassing phone messages, according to an audio recording taken during a July 24 peace order hearing.
Duley, 45, told Judge Milnor Roberts that Ivins planned to "go out in a blaze of glory," had bought a bulletproof vest and a gun and planned to kill his co-workers.
The audio recording was obtained by The Frederick News-Post on Monday.
Duley told the court she got to know Ivins while running group and individual counseling sessions at the Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick where she worked as the program director.
When questioned by her attorney Mary McGuirk Drawbaugh, Duley said she knew him for at least the past six months and told the court she saw him once a week.
Drawbaugh: "And during the course of your involvement with him, professionally, did he ever make any threats that were what you would consider to be homicidal in nature?"
Duley: "Yes."
Drawbaugh: "OK. And did he make any threats that you would consider to be threatening to your personal safety during the course of those six months?"
Duley: "Yes. I do."
During a July 9 group session, Duley described Ivins as "extremely agitated" and "out of control." When she asked him what was going on, he told the group "a very long and detailed homicidal plan" including killing his co-workers and roaming the streets of Frederick trying to pick a fight with somebody so that he could stab the person.
Since he was "about to be indicted on capital murder charges he was going to go out in a blaze of glory that he was going to take everybody out with him. ... That they weren't going to take him out without a fight," she told the court.
Duley was concerned because she said she knew him so well, so she tried to get as many details about the attacks as possible. The next day, July 10, she called the Frederick Police Department who removed him from USAMRIID at Fort Detrick and had him committed to Frederick Memorial Hospital.
On July 11, he called her twice just before 4:30 a.m. She told the court the first message was just "sort of a ranting, blaming me for having this done to him. It was sort of just rambling." In the second message Ivins told her "obviously we no longer have a therapeutic relationship and how could I do this to him."
After he was transferred to Sheppard Pratt Health System, a psychiatric hospital in Baltimore, he called her again at 11:25 a.m. July 12.
"That one was rather scary," Duley said in the recording. "He very calmly thanked me for ruining his life and opening ... allowing the FBI to now be able to prosecute him for the murders and that it was all my fault. And É it's going to be my fault that they can now get him."
Drawbaugh did not enter the telephone recordings into evidence for the court because FBI agents had taken them for their investigation.
Ivins was supposed to have a permanent commitment hearing at Sheppard Pratt, but Duley said his attorney advised him to check himself in voluntarily so that he may leave when he wished. Drawbaugh told the court he probably was being released from the hospital as the hearing was going on. --
She decided to get the peace order after an FBI agent working the case suggested it.
Drawbaugh: "At this time, Ms. Duley, are you fearful for your personal safety?"
Duley: "I am and so is the FBI."
Drawbaugh: "OK. And can you tell the court why it is based on what you have testified to during the course of since July 9 that you are fearful of your safety?"
Duley: "As far back as the year 2000, the respondent has actually attempted to murder several other people either through poisoning. He is a revenge killer. When he feels he that he has been slighted or has had ... especially towards women ... he plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killing. He has been forensically diagnosed by several top psychiatrists as a sociopathic homicidal killer."
Roberts granted the temporary peace order and set a hearing for a final peace order Thursday -- a day before Duley was set to testify against Ivins before a federal grand jury.
The court ordered Ivins not to abuse or contact Duley or go to her home or job. The order was dismissed Thursday after Ivins' apparent suicide.
Drawbaugh: "Is there anything further that you think Judge Roberts needs to know with regards to the situation before he makes his decision?"
Duley: "I'm scared to death."
Post your comments »
August 05, 2008 @ 06:34 AM: davedennwas this info reported to anyone outside of the sessions prior to the last few days? the reason I ask is if he was this bad off why was he allowed to continue to work with Biologial warfare materials and allowed to buy a hand gun? was it his security clearance made him auotmaticly clear was this info sat on until it was to late. anyone else say's "I'll get you" gets locked up and labled unstable for life on the first time. just curious, it is still sad either way.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:33 AM: steven09NBC news reported this morning that Ivins borrowed freeze drying equipment that could have been used to turn the wet anthrax into a dry powder form that was used in the attack.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:00 AM: firedupterpIvins "bought a bulletproof vest and a gun and planned to kill his co-workers" Duley said. Has anyone found the vest or gun??? Interesting that this is the first of Ivins buying a vest and gun. I am starting to think that Dunley is a drama queen.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:16 AM: rscott25My wole feel on this is, some one at that lab committed this crime. If we are to believe these so called posters who workerked that say Irvin's didn't have the expertise, then who did? Taliban in Afghanistan? snuck it through customs? Some pimple faced pund in New Jerjersey with nothing to do on a Friday night? or the most obvious, someone with the skill, tecqnique and experience with working with the pathogen. Ultimately, it comes down to placing a person in NJ. That is really what it boils down to. If they can put Irvin's there, case cosed, if not, they are blowing smoke. I will defer to the government here, but not blanket. They do have to make a case, otherwise, I will jump on the conspiracy bandwagon.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 AM: superglide_84she passes herself off as some kind of a professional therapist which she isnt. shes more of a supervised therapist.who also has addiction problems of her own. i would question how she kept her job this long and is she qualified to make some of the remarks about this man that she did.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 AM: frederick.countyThe freeze-drying equipment that Ivins signed out, whereby one could conceivably make dry anthrax spores, was part of his job, wherein he was working on a project for DARPA. He was told to do so, so that item still does not make the indiviidual suspicious. One huge danger in any investigation is stating that "this is the suspect so now find anything that ties the suspect to the crime," is that anything circumstantialis brought in. For example, regarding the New Jersey sorority tie, the investigators originally brought a picture of Hatfill to the sorority and asked individuals therein if they ever saw Hatfill by the mailbox where the letters were allegedly mailed. And the FBI still cannot tie Ivns to being at that mailbox.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:25 AM: frederick.countyfiredupterp - Yes, that is correct. According to the therapist, Ivins gave the slip to 17 FBI Special Agents who were surveilling him round-the-clock, disabled the GPS tracker on his car, then bought a handgun without the knowledge of the surveilling team, and finally somehow obliterated all the gun licensing papwerwork at ATF so that no record would exist. If one wrote these events in a detective novel, it would get tossed in the trash as being too inane.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:25 AM: cawidenerrscott, I totally agree with you. It is not a long list of folks with enough knowledge to be able to pull of this crime. Why in the world would his therapist make any of this stuff up? Doesn't sound like she's being a drama queen to me - especially since some of these more recent threats were made in a GROUP session. I'm sure if he carried off some sort of terrible crime (like that of VA Tech shooting spree), then everyone would be blaming her for not taking his threats seriously. Sounds like something further tragic was avoided.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:46 AM: recordhighcawidener, I'm with you in that there doesn't seem to be any reason for Duley (the therapist) to make any of this stuff up. And it sounds like there is a lot of evidence to back her up, such as voice mails, evaluations at FMH and the psychiatric hospital in Baltimore, and statements from other people in the group sessions. A lot of people have tried to portray her as the sociopath in this case, but I just don't see it.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:52 AM: pmccraken68Duley had 2.5 million reasons to lie about it. Her fiance said they were broke and she couldn't (?) work.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:08 AM: christopher.alleyShe has more of a criminal past than he did so why should we believe her? She has a major reason to make stuff up: MONEY! Wonder how much the advance will be on her book? Wonder if she will get a roll in oliver stones next movie titled "The Magic Spore Theory"! Maybe arlen specter will show us how it was only one spore invovled in ALL of the deaths and he will trace it all back to a 21st century patsy!
August 05, 2008 @ 09:22 AM: recordhighpmccraken68, OK... so you've lost me. Are you implying that Duley concocted this whole story so that she could sue Ivins or maybe sell her story for $2.5 million because she is broke? If so, I don't think that's likely. Ivins probably didn't have that much money, and too many of the facts are corroborated by evidence that she could not concoct (e.g., voice mails from Ivins, psychiatric evaluations, other witnesses, the FBI investigation of Ivins, etc.). Plus, it's my understanding that at least parts of her financial and employment troubles are related to her involvement in this case.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:31 AM: recordhighWhy is it that every time some otherwise unremarkable person ends up in a high profile situation people claim that it is all a ploy to sell their story for millions of dollars? A lot of people do end up selling their stories (and usually for less than millions of dollars), but to think that it is all part of some master plan is just ridiculous.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:34 AM: kapahuluhaoleDuley may have thought this was her 15 minutes of fame that would lead to the jackpot of a TV movie. With her history of drug abuse and brushes with the law she is not a credible witness. Anyone remember Richard Jewell? Ivins and Hatfill were not the first victims to be hounded by the FBI. I say let's have congressional hearings on this investigation and let the truth come out.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:43 AM: frederick.countyThe therapist has hired an attorney for legal protection. Understandable. And the two computer sysems taken from the FCPL that tie the therapist to the allegedly sealed Grand Jury information that was leaked and appears in one of her handwritten notations in Frederick District Court is the prime reason for legal representation. Not the only one, but the prime one.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:49 AM: teacher5701Can she be held accountable for the 2001 deaths since she has known since 2000 that he had "issues" with people?
August 05, 2008 @ 10:10 AM: jbyrne2619I don't think the therapist made anything up. But I do have questions. If top psychiatrists diagnosed him as a homicidal sociopath, why were they not treating him themselves? Why hand him to an entry level "theripist" (her spelling, see the court order). Were they too busywith more high level clients? And if there was evidence or confession of past attempted murders and current homicidal plans, why was he not arrested IMMEDIATELY? Why didn't the others in the group therapy session report his statements to the police? Why did she want a restraining order for herself but did nothing to protect the other random people he wanted to take out with him? Why did she wait 14 days to file the complaint? Again, I don't doubt her truthfulness, but I just don't see why she was chosen to be in that place at that time, it makes no sense at all. And why did she leave her job? Why is her employer not backing her up? Why didn't they pay for her lawyer since these threats happened at her place of employment? What IS going on here? I honestly feel sorry for her, she's a victim here and there are many others involved who should be answering these questions. I hope journalists are asking.
August 05, 2008 @ 10:13 AM: pmccraken68Not only that, jbyrne, but when he was committed to Sheppard Pratt, if he was a danger to himself and others, why did they let him go? Whether he was "eligible" to sign himself out or not, something like that should have been a reason to supercede that, or like you said, a reason to incarcerate him. It makes no sense.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:02 AM: Barkia I definitely question her "truthfulness"! If the FBI was so concerned for her, where were "they"? Everything about this woman "smells fishy" to me! The peace order, in her own handwriting, shows that she spelled (Fort Detrick) "Deitrich"....she could not spell the past tense of "subpoena"....she had a few words "scratched out" when she couldn't seem to get a timeline in order. She obviously has some alcohol issues and yet she is allowed to counsel? She is not a certified therapist....so, there's some misrepresentation there. Her whole "testimony" doesn't seem too credible. What about the others in this "group"? Where's the vest and the gun? A high profiled scientist being "GROUP counseled" by an ill educated alcoholic....ummm, ok....NOT!
August 05, 2008 @ 11:10 AM: steven09pmmcracken....He was let go from the mental hospital because he had a good lawyer. It is my understanding that under Maryland law, if someone voluntarily checks themself into a mental facilty like that they are also allowed to check themselves out at their own free will. He got legal advice to check himself in voluntarily after he was there and there was a commitment hearing in the works. Other than he had a history of flipping out (my term) since Grad school, I don't really want to focus on his mental record or the therapist. Like someone posted yesterday, he probably didn't score as high on the crazy scale as, say, the BTK killer. I prefer to focus on the facts in the case and the more we hear the more it points to Ivins. Let's review some of what we know as fact. First, the FBI has screwed the case up in the past. This doesn't give them the best appearance but also this doesn't discount that this time they did not screw up. Second, Ivins was generally a nice guy in the community. No one disputes this and it is probably why a lot of people are coming to his defense so adamantly. Third, no one as of yet has linked him personally to either the mailbox in New Jersey or in Florida. There is some indirect link with the NJ mailbox in that it was very close to a KKG sorority house and he has been linked to that sorority....but again, that is an indirect link. So that seems to be the case for his innocence. On the other side we have the fact that the FBI has now concluded scientifically that the anthrax used in the attacks came from a lab under Ivins control. That 10 people had access to this lab. So that presumably narrows the list of people who could obtain this specific anthrax to 10, one of which was Ivins. Some scientists have claimed that he did not have the knowledge or the equipment to turn the wet anthrax into the refined dry spores. We now know that he did in fact have the knowledge and access to the equipment. The equipment to do this is rarely used in his lab, but Ivins used it in the fall of 2001, shortly before the attack. He put in extraodinarily long hours at work during this time. Also, the freeze drying machine could have been concealed in his lab. We also know, although we have only one such public account at the moment, that he had a history of making "homicidal threats" (not my words) that dated back many years. Duly, evidently, was not the only mental health professional to diagnose his instability. Without linking him directly to one of the mailboxes in NJ or Florida, the case against Ivins is going to be circumstantial. However, I think that it is a very solid circumstantial case. People have been convicted on much less. I do wonder about Florida. The FBI has botched that because they were originally flashing Hatfill's picture around the town, not Ivins' picture. But, according to the FBI, you can drive to Princeton and back in about 7 hours and that could be conceivably concealed. However, it is much more difficult to conceal a trip to Florida. I want to learn how the FBI tries to explain that.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:13 AM: atore61I think all of us have the same questions..I'm wondering where this mans WIFE was during all of this?holy crap,your husband is committed here and there,no body bothered to talk to her?especially if some woman is saying all these things about your husband.I don't get it.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:30 AM: mikes00069Does anyone see beyond the glorified facts of this death...how has it taken this many years and they still had not charged him with anything, but now that he is dead, they were planning on formally charging him this week. something sounds really fishy...and no that is not culler lake
August 05, 2008 @ 11:36 AM: forsurewrongI don't know which way this case will go; however, I think the people need a lot of answers. WHy was Ivins being watched for over a year? What does or did the FBI have against him? How do they know (FBI) that he had any issues with this sorriety in NJ? How did he turn the liquid virus into powder? WHo was this psychiatrist that declaired Ivins as being a sociopath? When was Duley a practicing addiction counselor with an DUI less then a year ago? Why wasn't Levi handling this case, did he even know about Ivins's reported behvaiors? I don't want to fry anyone, I just want to undestand what happened here. DUley may have been a good counselor, but she was not sober, or if she was, she had very little sobriety time, which places her at risk of ongoing alcohol use. I think that there are multiple, large system failures in this case that need to be given a closer look. If Ivins was able to get a gun, how was it able to be obtained when he was being watched so closely by the FBI? Why wasn't Duley protected by the FBI? SOme one please help me to understand all of this and connect all the dots that are currently a mess. I think DUley is a victim of the state because she was allowed to counsel with very little sobriety. If this is something that our state allows then I think we as the people who could be affected by this practice need to speakout. If the FBI wasn't going to help DUley stay safe then, we as the public, need to speakout so that this will never happen again. NOTHING is ever changed in this country until some one forces it to be changed.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:54 AM: steven09mikes....I think that part of the reason that it took so long to charge him was that the FBI screwed up the case, at least at first. They spent years and years and many resources trying to put it on Hatfill. Plus, some of the techniques used to track the anthrax DNA have only been around the last couple of years. As for why he comitted suicide now, obviously the feds and the psycho therapist think that was due to the fact that he was going to be charged this week. Although I do hear what you are saying. I mean, if there was someone else out there involved and Ivins was getting ready to be charged, would be convenient to knock him off. Kinda like Jack Ruby did in Oswald or something. But if you were going to do that you wouldn't want to do it by sticking a bunch of Tylenol down a guy's throat. It can take days for to kill a guy that way. Plus, just speculation here, I bet the police found a note that we do not know about yet. When the press asked Chief Dine about whether a note was found he would not say. Usually if there was no note left they can disclose that. Of course, this is a complex case legally and this is just my speculations.
August 05, 2008 @ 12:05 PM: pmccraken68Here's a thought...does anyone know where the Anthrax came from? What I mean is, aside from the vials that the DNA tests led to, where did those vials come from? Are they the original isolate? If not, what passage is contained in "THE vials"? It's possible that the DNA could match the anthrax in "Ivins' vials" (and I use that reference loosely, because I still maintain that he was NOT the only one with access to those vials...but, moving on...) but there may have been earlier passages (including the original isolate) that are not accounted for. Something to think about...
August 05, 2008 @ 12:49 PM: JOHNNTRInteresting info: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/#postid-updateG4 In their article they say: "Moreover, this morning's Frederick News Post (doing some of the best reporting in the country on this case) reported that it was FBI agents who told Jean Duley to seek a protective order against Ivins -- the action that then created the record used by most media outlets to depict Ivins as a crazed psychopath."
August 05, 2008 @ 01:41 PM: BCianfloneJOHNNTR - That is a very interesting site you noted. Therein, the current Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, states that there are "many reasons why a rational person would lack confidence in the FBI's investigative abilities; and the FBI has ontinuously "stonewalled" both him and all other members of Congress for years as they tried to exercise oversight over the FBI's investigation into the anthrax case; and he declared that nobody should conclude, without much further proof, that the actual anthrax killer has been identified." So, we are now getting ready for ongoing Congressional investigations into the investigation. This is going to be a long-running miniseries. An expensive one.
August 05, 2008 @ 02:02 PM: sfexpat2000What I find unfathomable is why, after the wild claims Duley made in that hearing, Judge Roberts didn't ask her to amplify on her allegations. Because of this women, Dr Ivins, who passed two poligraph tests, is being smeared all over the country for a mental health record and a criminal record he did not have.
August 05, 2008 @ 02:13 PM: BCianfloneNow we find out that Jean Dudley has filed similar protective orders against other men. One was her prior husband. The plot thickens. Read: http://www.atlargely.com/2008/08/jean-c-duley-te.html
August 05, 2008 @ 02:30 PM: aruba95This case gets weirder by the day. Every article raises more questions than it answers!
August 05, 2008 @ 03:05 PM: kosto31If he made the comments in a group session, where are the other group members to collaborate this story? I'll wait patiently
August 05, 2008 @ 03:45 PM: sfexpat2000I did want to congratulate the News-Post for their good reporting. Greenwald is right, they've done a much better job than the AP, whose coverage has been laughable. Also, the FNP has some letters that Ivins wrote in their archive. They don't sound like the letters of an unhinged sociopath but like the thoughtful work of a man who was engaged in his community. When this is over, I hope he and his family get the apology they deserve.
August 05, 2008 @ 04:36 PM: BCianfloneThe Federal Bureau of Investigation hopes to close out the anthrax killer case by Thursday, bringing an end to the nearly seven-year investigation, sources tell ABC 7. Investigators plan to release the evidence in the case after meeting with the 17 anthrax survivors and the family members of the five people killed in the attacks on Wednesday. Now this is the latest story that has just come out.
August 05, 2008 @ 04:36 PM: BCianfloneAnd if anyone needs any type of grief counseling over all this, Jean Duley is available.
August 05, 2008 @ 04:55 PM: hitbabe Glenn Greenwald has been following this closely. Here's a link to his blog, but if you look around salon.com you'll see his other articles on this subject. He did a great job investigating this - and to his own credit, credits the FNP with superb reporting about this too. http: // www. salon. com/ opinion/ greenwald/
August 05, 2008 @ 05:55 PM: fuzzycowBCianflone--no she's not, she's in an undisclosed location shooting skeet with Cheney, remember?? ;)
August 05, 2008 @ 06:16 PM: mako352Recordhigh..you are one of the only sane people commenting.I believe that it was Ivins who told Duley that he had bought a gun and vest and was going to go out in a blaze of glory.Duley is being hung out to dry by everyone involved. She cannot defend herself...yet. She did not wish for this to happen. I wish you people would stop speculating and pray for patience.
August 05, 2008 @ 06:25 PM: sfexpat2000mako: You nor I know what Ivins said because we only have Duley's word for it. And she is not credible. Her testimony before the court is full of free standing allegations that have not been corroborated in any way. She couldn't even spell "therapist" correctly on the paperwork. The language she uses about Ivins is not the language any clinician would use. "Homocidal sociopath" is not a diagnoses. It's language that sounds like a bad impression of a mental health professional. Put that together with her own history and consider if you want to take her word over someone who had no criminal record, no mental health record and who isn't here to give you his side of the story.
August 05, 2008 @ 06:42 PM: mako352Sfexpat. Oh I guess you know Ms. Duley personally to say she is not credible. Again speculation.See how your mind works. Have you talked to her about her past? Has she spoken to you about this case? Has she said a word to defend herself? Until she does we calmly sit and wait.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:00 PM: kapahuluhaoleMako: To say Duley is not credible is not speculation. It's called deductive reasoning (or using your brain). The woman had/had drug and alcohol problems and has had brushes with the law. This is not the kind of witness a prosecutor wants to put on the stand.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:13 PM: mako352I promise you that you will owe this woman an appology for your deductive reasoning.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:13 PM: hlnsheehanThe Frederick News-Post is doing good work and asking valid questions. As a European, I'm delighted to see you being more honest than the MSM. Personally I believe that Duley was fed a load of crap from the Feds which probably did frighten her, and they knew which buttons to press regarding her previous convictions and current financial status. Suffice to say, I think one innocent man is dead, and another woman's life is probably ruined. All to promote a war on Iraq initially, and then to cover it up!
August 05, 2008 @ 07:27 PM: kilskeerThere's much awry with this story. The substance abusing social worker is startling enough, then add the tarnished credibility of the FBI, the wacky sorority-obsession theory --- if that were all, then it would be fishy enough. Now I find out the identity of one of the "top" psychiatrists whose testimony factored into this, and alarms are really sounding. The guy is the quintessential hack, career army, retired & in private practice in a shabby Gaithersburg office. This guy sorely lacks insight & discernment, a true hack, and I'd not put an iota of stock in a movie review from him, let alone assessment of anyone's psyche. Indeed, something is rotten in Detrick...
August 05, 2008 @ 07:51 PM: hlnsheehanPlease elaborate further. I haven't got the latest news on this.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:55 PM: hlnsheehanBut I do agree with you, something is not right in Detrick.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 PM: kilskeerhlnsheehan, I just happen to know of this shrink from personal experience. I'm leery of saying his name, since I said negative things about him, even though true. Can I be sued?? His name is out there; I found it so, you'll find it easily enough. A
August 05, 2008 @ 08:37 PM: kilskeerhlnsheehan, check this: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0801081anthrax2.html
August 05, 2008 @ 09:00 PM: fuzzycowkapa--Thanks for the Wall Street Journal tip. I wonder if anyone from the FBI talked to Ken Alibek about this?? I'm not saying he did it, but as a defector from the Russian bio-warfare program, he might have some insight. I'm guessing they didn't....otherwise Bruce wouldn't be dead!
August 05, 2008 @ 09:09 PM: frederick.countyNow, these additional recent facts on the Ivins tragedy are also beyond belief and they make me disgusted: The FBI confronted Ivins' daughter, Amanda, with photographs of victims of the anthrax attacks and told her, "This is what your father did!" according to a colleague of Ivins. The FBI would follow Ivins all around town, especially to the local grocery store as well as places that it could be shown to others that he was under police surveillance, with the result that the scientist, according to his coworkers, would come to work and "sit at his desk and weep." Also, the FBI cornered the scientist's son and offered him $2.5 million to rat him out and told him the FBI would buy him the "sports car of his choice" if he would give something good on his father that would implicate him in a crime. There are and will be more instances to be revealed, especially when the investigation on the investigators begins, which will be similar to the 9/11 commission - that faulted the FBI for not doing its job then.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:10 PM: mako352Trust me. She won`t have to.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:27 PM: frederick.countyThere is now an additional statement within the news link given above that the therapist may well be investigated for committing a federal crime, and emails are being analyzed that would link the LA Times to receiving sealed Grand Jury information to her. Computers at the FCPL may be involved. Then again, the entity that would be investigating her is about to be investigated as well, so a flow chart may be in order to keep track of this mess.
August 05, 2008 @ 10:20 PM: steven09Well fellow bloggers. I'm sure some of you will never forgive me for my view here, but I've tried to keep an open mind. I never knew Ivins or his family. As previously stated I have some experience with Dr. Levy's office for marriage counciling. While it was not Ms. Duly, I have stated and will state again that the counselor I saw made matters worse in my personal opinion. So I am no fan of that office. Still, nothing said here so far changes my mind. All the evidence points to Ivins. This is not about the counselor. I feel she played little or no role at all. It is about the DNA. That traces it to a maximum of ten people. And of those ten, Ivins has to be the most likely suspect. If it wasn't him, it was one of the other nine. Period. But Ivins is the one the evidence points to. Sorry. I realize that some of you are his friends or co-workers. And the evidence is circumstantial, I'll admit. But the evidence has nothing to do with his counselor, not in my opinion. The scientific evidence points to Ivins. If it wasn't him, it was one of the other nine. The anthrax came from his lab. He reported no anthrax stolen. He checked out the equipment to dry the anthrax. The timing was right. He had a psychological history of making threats from long ago. If the evidence clears him at some point I'll be the first to admit it. But I doubt it will. Was the counselor right, or good? Doesn't matter to me. It's not about her. It's about the DNA and the timeline and the facts, not some two bit counselor's opinion. Her fears, in my opinion, are not part of the facts on which I base my opinion. Sorry.
August 05, 2008 @ 10:37 PM: ericShe is not a therapist, she is a social worker, and she should be held accountable for his death!
DULEY DESCRIBES HARASSMENT, THREATS
Jean Duley testified that she was “scared to death” of Dr. Bruce Ivins after he left her a string of harrassing phone messages, according to an audio recording taken during a July 24 peace order hearing.
Jean Duley testified that she was "scared to death" of Bruce Ivins after he left her a string of harassing phone messages, according to an audio recording taken during a July 24 peace order hearing.
Duley, 45, told Judge Milnor Roberts that Ivins planned to "go out in a blaze of glory," had bought a bulletproof vest and a gun and planned to kill his co-workers.
The audio recording was obtained by The Frederick News-Post on Monday.
Duley told the court she got to know Ivins while running group and individual counseling sessions at the Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick where she worked as the program director.
When questioned by her attorney Mary McGuirk Drawbaugh, Duley said she knew him for at least the past six months and told the court she saw him once a week.
Drawbaugh: "And during the course of your involvement with him, professionally, did he ever make any threats that were what you would consider to be homicidal in nature?"
Duley: "Yes."
Drawbaugh: "OK. And did he make any threats that you would consider to be threatening to your personal safety during the course of those six months?"
Duley: "Yes. I do."
During a July 9 group session, Duley described Ivins as "extremely agitated" and "out of control." When she asked him what was going on, he told the group "a very long and detailed homicidal plan" including killing his co-workers and roaming the streets of Frederick trying to pick a fight with somebody so that he could stab the person.
Since he was "about to be indicted on capital murder charges he was going to go out in a blaze of glory that he was going to take everybody out with him. ... That they weren't going to take him out without a fight," she told the court.
Duley was concerned because she said she knew him so well, so she tried to get as many details about the attacks as possible. The next day, July 10, she called the Frederick Police Department who removed him from USAMRIID at Fort Detrick and had him committed to Frederick Memorial Hospital.
On July 11, he called her twice just before 4:30 a.m. She told the court the first message was just "sort of a ranting, blaming me for having this done to him. It was sort of just rambling." In the second message Ivins told her "obviously we no longer have a therapeutic relationship and how could I do this to him."
After he was transferred to Sheppard Pratt Health System, a psychiatric hospital in Baltimore, he called her again at 11:25 a.m. July 12.
"That one was rather scary," Duley said in the recording. "He very calmly thanked me for ruining his life and opening ... allowing the FBI to now be able to prosecute him for the murders and that it was all my fault. And É it's going to be my fault that they can now get him."
Drawbaugh did not enter the telephone recordings into evidence for the court because FBI agents had taken them for their investigation.
Ivins was supposed to have a permanent commitment hearing at Sheppard Pratt, but Duley said his attorney advised him to check himself in voluntarily so that he may leave when he wished. Drawbaugh told the court he probably was being released from the hospital as the hearing was going on. --
She decided to get the peace order after an FBI agent working the case suggested it.
Drawbaugh: "At this time, Ms. Duley, are you fearful for your personal safety?"
Duley: "I am and so is the FBI."
Drawbaugh: "OK. And can you tell the court why it is based on what you have testified to during the course of since July 9 that you are fearful of your safety?"
Duley: "As far back as the year 2000, the respondent has actually attempted to murder several other people either through poisoning. He is a revenge killer. When he feels he that he has been slighted or has had ... especially towards women ... he plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killing. He has been forensically diagnosed by several top psychiatrists as a sociopathic homicidal killer."
Roberts granted the temporary peace order and set a hearing for a final peace order Thursday -- a day before Duley was set to testify against Ivins before a federal grand jury.
The court ordered Ivins not to abuse or contact Duley or go to her home or job. The order was dismissed Thursday after Ivins' apparent suicide.
Drawbaugh: "Is there anything further that you think Judge Roberts needs to know with regards to the situation before he makes his decision?"
Duley: "I'm scared to death."
Post your comments »
August 05, 2008 @ 06:34 AM: davedennwas this info reported to anyone outside of the sessions prior to the last few days? the reason I ask is if he was this bad off why was he allowed to continue to work with Biologial warfare materials and allowed to buy a hand gun? was it his security clearance made him auotmaticly clear was this info sat on until it was to late. anyone else say's "I'll get you" gets locked up and labled unstable for life on the first time. just curious, it is still sad either way.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:33 AM: steven09NBC news reported this morning that Ivins borrowed freeze drying equipment that could have been used to turn the wet anthrax into a dry powder form that was used in the attack.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:00 AM: firedupterpIvins "bought a bulletproof vest and a gun and planned to kill his co-workers" Duley said. Has anyone found the vest or gun??? Interesting that this is the first of Ivins buying a vest and gun. I am starting to think that Dunley is a drama queen.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:16 AM: rscott25My wole feel on this is, some one at that lab committed this crime. If we are to believe these so called posters who workerked that say Irvin's didn't have the expertise, then who did? Taliban in Afghanistan? snuck it through customs? Some pimple faced pund in New Jerjersey with nothing to do on a Friday night? or the most obvious, someone with the skill, tecqnique and experience with working with the pathogen. Ultimately, it comes down to placing a person in NJ. That is really what it boils down to. If they can put Irvin's there, case cosed, if not, they are blowing smoke. I will defer to the government here, but not blanket. They do have to make a case, otherwise, I will jump on the conspiracy bandwagon.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 AM: superglide_84she passes herself off as some kind of a professional therapist which she isnt. shes more of a supervised therapist.who also has addiction problems of her own. i would question how she kept her job this long and is she qualified to make some of the remarks about this man that she did.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 AM: frederick.countyThe freeze-drying equipment that Ivins signed out, whereby one could conceivably make dry anthrax spores, was part of his job, wherein he was working on a project for DARPA. He was told to do so, so that item still does not make the indiviidual suspicious. One huge danger in any investigation is stating that "this is the suspect so now find anything that ties the suspect to the crime," is that anything circumstantialis brought in. For example, regarding the New Jersey sorority tie, the investigators originally brought a picture of Hatfill to the sorority and asked individuals therein if they ever saw Hatfill by the mailbox where the letters were allegedly mailed. And the FBI still cannot tie Ivns to being at that mailbox.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:25 AM: frederick.countyfiredupterp - Yes, that is correct. According to the therapist, Ivins gave the slip to 17 FBI Special Agents who were surveilling him round-the-clock, disabled the GPS tracker on his car, then bought a handgun without the knowledge of the surveilling team, and finally somehow obliterated all the gun licensing papwerwork at ATF so that no record would exist. If one wrote these events in a detective novel, it would get tossed in the trash as being too inane.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:25 AM: cawidenerrscott, I totally agree with you. It is not a long list of folks with enough knowledge to be able to pull of this crime. Why in the world would his therapist make any of this stuff up? Doesn't sound like she's being a drama queen to me - especially since some of these more recent threats were made in a GROUP session. I'm sure if he carried off some sort of terrible crime (like that of VA Tech shooting spree), then everyone would be blaming her for not taking his threats seriously. Sounds like something further tragic was avoided.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:46 AM: recordhighcawidener, I'm with you in that there doesn't seem to be any reason for Duley (the therapist) to make any of this stuff up. And it sounds like there is a lot of evidence to back her up, such as voice mails, evaluations at FMH and the psychiatric hospital in Baltimore, and statements from other people in the group sessions. A lot of people have tried to portray her as the sociopath in this case, but I just don't see it.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:52 AM: pmccraken68Duley had 2.5 million reasons to lie about it. Her fiance said they were broke and she couldn't (?) work.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:08 AM: christopher.alleyShe has more of a criminal past than he did so why should we believe her? She has a major reason to make stuff up: MONEY! Wonder how much the advance will be on her book? Wonder if she will get a roll in oliver stones next movie titled "The Magic Spore Theory"! Maybe arlen specter will show us how it was only one spore invovled in ALL of the deaths and he will trace it all back to a 21st century patsy!
August 05, 2008 @ 09:22 AM: recordhighpmccraken68, OK... so you've lost me. Are you implying that Duley concocted this whole story so that she could sue Ivins or maybe sell her story for $2.5 million because she is broke? If so, I don't think that's likely. Ivins probably didn't have that much money, and too many of the facts are corroborated by evidence that she could not concoct (e.g., voice mails from Ivins, psychiatric evaluations, other witnesses, the FBI investigation of Ivins, etc.). Plus, it's my understanding that at least parts of her financial and employment troubles are related to her involvement in this case.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:31 AM: recordhighWhy is it that every time some otherwise unremarkable person ends up in a high profile situation people claim that it is all a ploy to sell their story for millions of dollars? A lot of people do end up selling their stories (and usually for less than millions of dollars), but to think that it is all part of some master plan is just ridiculous.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:34 AM: kapahuluhaoleDuley may have thought this was her 15 minutes of fame that would lead to the jackpot of a TV movie. With her history of drug abuse and brushes with the law she is not a credible witness. Anyone remember Richard Jewell? Ivins and Hatfill were not the first victims to be hounded by the FBI. I say let's have congressional hearings on this investigation and let the truth come out.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:43 AM: frederick.countyThe therapist has hired an attorney for legal protection. Understandable. And the two computer sysems taken from the FCPL that tie the therapist to the allegedly sealed Grand Jury information that was leaked and appears in one of her handwritten notations in Frederick District Court is the prime reason for legal representation. Not the only one, but the prime one.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:49 AM: teacher5701Can she be held accountable for the 2001 deaths since she has known since 2000 that he had "issues" with people?
August 05, 2008 @ 10:10 AM: jbyrne2619I don't think the therapist made anything up. But I do have questions. If top psychiatrists diagnosed him as a homicidal sociopath, why were they not treating him themselves? Why hand him to an entry level "theripist" (her spelling, see the court order). Were they too busywith more high level clients? And if there was evidence or confession of past attempted murders and current homicidal plans, why was he not arrested IMMEDIATELY? Why didn't the others in the group therapy session report his statements to the police? Why did she want a restraining order for herself but did nothing to protect the other random people he wanted to take out with him? Why did she wait 14 days to file the complaint? Again, I don't doubt her truthfulness, but I just don't see why she was chosen to be in that place at that time, it makes no sense at all. And why did she leave her job? Why is her employer not backing her up? Why didn't they pay for her lawyer since these threats happened at her place of employment? What IS going on here? I honestly feel sorry for her, she's a victim here and there are many others involved who should be answering these questions. I hope journalists are asking.
August 05, 2008 @ 10:13 AM: pmccraken68Not only that, jbyrne, but when he was committed to Sheppard Pratt, if he was a danger to himself and others, why did they let him go? Whether he was "eligible" to sign himself out or not, something like that should have been a reason to supercede that, or like you said, a reason to incarcerate him. It makes no sense.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:02 AM: Barkia I definitely question her "truthfulness"! If the FBI was so concerned for her, where were "they"? Everything about this woman "smells fishy" to me! The peace order, in her own handwriting, shows that she spelled (Fort Detrick) "Deitrich"....she could not spell the past tense of "subpoena"....she had a few words "scratched out" when she couldn't seem to get a timeline in order. She obviously has some alcohol issues and yet she is allowed to counsel? She is not a certified therapist....so, there's some misrepresentation there. Her whole "testimony" doesn't seem too credible. What about the others in this "group"? Where's the vest and the gun? A high profiled scientist being "GROUP counseled" by an ill educated alcoholic....ummm, ok....NOT!
August 05, 2008 @ 11:10 AM: steven09pmmcracken....He was let go from the mental hospital because he had a good lawyer. It is my understanding that under Maryland law, if someone voluntarily checks themself into a mental facilty like that they are also allowed to check themselves out at their own free will. He got legal advice to check himself in voluntarily after he was there and there was a commitment hearing in the works. Other than he had a history of flipping out (my term) since Grad school, I don't really want to focus on his mental record or the therapist. Like someone posted yesterday, he probably didn't score as high on the crazy scale as, say, the BTK killer. I prefer to focus on the facts in the case and the more we hear the more it points to Ivins. Let's review some of what we know as fact. First, the FBI has screwed the case up in the past. This doesn't give them the best appearance but also this doesn't discount that this time they did not screw up. Second, Ivins was generally a nice guy in the community. No one disputes this and it is probably why a lot of people are coming to his defense so adamantly. Third, no one as of yet has linked him personally to either the mailbox in New Jersey or in Florida. There is some indirect link with the NJ mailbox in that it was very close to a KKG sorority house and he has been linked to that sorority....but again, that is an indirect link. So that seems to be the case for his innocence. On the other side we have the fact that the FBI has now concluded scientifically that the anthrax used in the attacks came from a lab under Ivins control. That 10 people had access to this lab. So that presumably narrows the list of people who could obtain this specific anthrax to 10, one of which was Ivins. Some scientists have claimed that he did not have the knowledge or the equipment to turn the wet anthrax into the refined dry spores. We now know that he did in fact have the knowledge and access to the equipment. The equipment to do this is rarely used in his lab, but Ivins used it in the fall of 2001, shortly before the attack. He put in extraodinarily long hours at work during this time. Also, the freeze drying machine could have been concealed in his lab. We also know, although we have only one such public account at the moment, that he had a history of making "homicidal threats" (not my words) that dated back many years. Duly, evidently, was not the only mental health professional to diagnose his instability. Without linking him directly to one of the mailboxes in NJ or Florida, the case against Ivins is going to be circumstantial. However, I think that it is a very solid circumstantial case. People have been convicted on much less. I do wonder about Florida. The FBI has botched that because they were originally flashing Hatfill's picture around the town, not Ivins' picture. But, according to the FBI, you can drive to Princeton and back in about 7 hours and that could be conceivably concealed. However, it is much more difficult to conceal a trip to Florida. I want to learn how the FBI tries to explain that.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:13 AM: atore61I think all of us have the same questions..I'm wondering where this mans WIFE was during all of this?holy crap,your husband is committed here and there,no body bothered to talk to her?especially if some woman is saying all these things about your husband.I don't get it.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:30 AM: mikes00069Does anyone see beyond the glorified facts of this death...how has it taken this many years and they still had not charged him with anything, but now that he is dead, they were planning on formally charging him this week. something sounds really fishy...and no that is not culler lake
August 05, 2008 @ 11:36 AM: forsurewrongI don't know which way this case will go; however, I think the people need a lot of answers. WHy was Ivins being watched for over a year? What does or did the FBI have against him? How do they know (FBI) that he had any issues with this sorriety in NJ? How did he turn the liquid virus into powder? WHo was this psychiatrist that declaired Ivins as being a sociopath? When was Duley a practicing addiction counselor with an DUI less then a year ago? Why wasn't Levi handling this case, did he even know about Ivins's reported behvaiors? I don't want to fry anyone, I just want to undestand what happened here. DUley may have been a good counselor, but she was not sober, or if she was, she had very little sobriety time, which places her at risk of ongoing alcohol use. I think that there are multiple, large system failures in this case that need to be given a closer look. If Ivins was able to get a gun, how was it able to be obtained when he was being watched so closely by the FBI? Why wasn't Duley protected by the FBI? SOme one please help me to understand all of this and connect all the dots that are currently a mess. I think DUley is a victim of the state because she was allowed to counsel with very little sobriety. If this is something that our state allows then I think we as the people who could be affected by this practice need to speakout. If the FBI wasn't going to help DUley stay safe then, we as the public, need to speakout so that this will never happen again. NOTHING is ever changed in this country until some one forces it to be changed.
August 05, 2008 @ 11:54 AM: steven09mikes....I think that part of the reason that it took so long to charge him was that the FBI screwed up the case, at least at first. They spent years and years and many resources trying to put it on Hatfill. Plus, some of the techniques used to track the anthrax DNA have only been around the last couple of years. As for why he comitted suicide now, obviously the feds and the psycho therapist think that was due to the fact that he was going to be charged this week. Although I do hear what you are saying. I mean, if there was someone else out there involved and Ivins was getting ready to be charged, would be convenient to knock him off. Kinda like Jack Ruby did in Oswald or something. But if you were going to do that you wouldn't want to do it by sticking a bunch of Tylenol down a guy's throat. It can take days for to kill a guy that way. Plus, just speculation here, I bet the police found a note that we do not know about yet. When the press asked Chief Dine about whether a note was found he would not say. Usually if there was no note left they can disclose that. Of course, this is a complex case legally and this is just my speculations.
August 05, 2008 @ 12:05 PM: pmccraken68Here's a thought...does anyone know where the Anthrax came from? What I mean is, aside from the vials that the DNA tests led to, where did those vials come from? Are they the original isolate? If not, what passage is contained in "THE vials"? It's possible that the DNA could match the anthrax in "Ivins' vials" (and I use that reference loosely, because I still maintain that he was NOT the only one with access to those vials...but, moving on...) but there may have been earlier passages (including the original isolate) that are not accounted for. Something to think about...
August 05, 2008 @ 12:49 PM: JOHNNTRInteresting info: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/#postid-updateG4 In their article they say: "Moreover, this morning's Frederick News Post (doing some of the best reporting in the country on this case) reported that it was FBI agents who told Jean Duley to seek a protective order against Ivins -- the action that then created the record used by most media outlets to depict Ivins as a crazed psychopath."
August 05, 2008 @ 01:41 PM: BCianfloneJOHNNTR - That is a very interesting site you noted. Therein, the current Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, states that there are "many reasons why a rational person would lack confidence in the FBI's investigative abilities; and the FBI has ontinuously "stonewalled" both him and all other members of Congress for years as they tried to exercise oversight over the FBI's investigation into the anthrax case; and he declared that nobody should conclude, without much further proof, that the actual anthrax killer has been identified." So, we are now getting ready for ongoing Congressional investigations into the investigation. This is going to be a long-running miniseries. An expensive one.
August 05, 2008 @ 02:02 PM: sfexpat2000What I find unfathomable is why, after the wild claims Duley made in that hearing, Judge Roberts didn't ask her to amplify on her allegations. Because of this women, Dr Ivins, who passed two poligraph tests, is being smeared all over the country for a mental health record and a criminal record he did not have.
August 05, 2008 @ 02:13 PM: BCianfloneNow we find out that Jean Dudley has filed similar protective orders against other men. One was her prior husband. The plot thickens. Read: http://www.atlargely.com/2008/08/jean-c-duley-te.html
August 05, 2008 @ 02:30 PM: aruba95This case gets weirder by the day. Every article raises more questions than it answers!
August 05, 2008 @ 03:05 PM: kosto31If he made the comments in a group session, where are the other group members to collaborate this story? I'll wait patiently
August 05, 2008 @ 03:45 PM: sfexpat2000I did want to congratulate the News-Post for their good reporting. Greenwald is right, they've done a much better job than the AP, whose coverage has been laughable. Also, the FNP has some letters that Ivins wrote in their archive. They don't sound like the letters of an unhinged sociopath but like the thoughtful work of a man who was engaged in his community. When this is over, I hope he and his family get the apology they deserve.
August 05, 2008 @ 04:36 PM: BCianfloneThe Federal Bureau of Investigation hopes to close out the anthrax killer case by Thursday, bringing an end to the nearly seven-year investigation, sources tell ABC 7. Investigators plan to release the evidence in the case after meeting with the 17 anthrax survivors and the family members of the five people killed in the attacks on Wednesday. Now this is the latest story that has just come out.
August 05, 2008 @ 04:36 PM: BCianfloneAnd if anyone needs any type of grief counseling over all this, Jean Duley is available.
August 05, 2008 @ 04:55 PM: hitbabe Glenn Greenwald has been following this closely. Here's a link to his blog, but if you look around salon.com you'll see his other articles on this subject. He did a great job investigating this - and to his own credit, credits the FNP with superb reporting about this too. http: // www. salon. com/ opinion/ greenwald/
August 05, 2008 @ 05:55 PM: fuzzycowBCianflone--no she's not, she's in an undisclosed location shooting skeet with Cheney, remember?? ;)
August 05, 2008 @ 06:16 PM: mako352Recordhigh..you are one of the only sane people commenting.I believe that it was Ivins who told Duley that he had bought a gun and vest and was going to go out in a blaze of glory.Duley is being hung out to dry by everyone involved. She cannot defend herself...yet. She did not wish for this to happen. I wish you people would stop speculating and pray for patience.
August 05, 2008 @ 06:25 PM: sfexpat2000mako: You nor I know what Ivins said because we only have Duley's word for it. And she is not credible. Her testimony before the court is full of free standing allegations that have not been corroborated in any way. She couldn't even spell "therapist" correctly on the paperwork. The language she uses about Ivins is not the language any clinician would use. "Homocidal sociopath" is not a diagnoses. It's language that sounds like a bad impression of a mental health professional. Put that together with her own history and consider if you want to take her word over someone who had no criminal record, no mental health record and who isn't here to give you his side of the story.
August 05, 2008 @ 06:42 PM: mako352Sfexpat. Oh I guess you know Ms. Duley personally to say she is not credible. Again speculation.See how your mind works. Have you talked to her about her past? Has she spoken to you about this case? Has she said a word to defend herself? Until she does we calmly sit and wait.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:00 PM: kapahuluhaoleMako: To say Duley is not credible is not speculation. It's called deductive reasoning (or using your brain). The woman had/had drug and alcohol problems and has had brushes with the law. This is not the kind of witness a prosecutor wants to put on the stand.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:13 PM: mako352I promise you that you will owe this woman an appology for your deductive reasoning.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:13 PM: hlnsheehanThe Frederick News-Post is doing good work and asking valid questions. As a European, I'm delighted to see you being more honest than the MSM. Personally I believe that Duley was fed a load of crap from the Feds which probably did frighten her, and they knew which buttons to press regarding her previous convictions and current financial status. Suffice to say, I think one innocent man is dead, and another woman's life is probably ruined. All to promote a war on Iraq initially, and then to cover it up!
August 05, 2008 @ 07:27 PM: kilskeerThere's much awry with this story. The substance abusing social worker is startling enough, then add the tarnished credibility of the FBI, the wacky sorority-obsession theory --- if that were all, then it would be fishy enough. Now I find out the identity of one of the "top" psychiatrists whose testimony factored into this, and alarms are really sounding. The guy is the quintessential hack, career army, retired & in private practice in a shabby Gaithersburg office. This guy sorely lacks insight & discernment, a true hack, and I'd not put an iota of stock in a movie review from him, let alone assessment of anyone's psyche. Indeed, something is rotten in Detrick...
August 05, 2008 @ 07:51 PM: hlnsheehanPlease elaborate further. I haven't got the latest news on this.
August 05, 2008 @ 07:55 PM: hlnsheehanBut I do agree with you, something is not right in Detrick.
August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 PM: kilskeerhlnsheehan, I just happen to know of this shrink from personal experience. I'm leery of saying his name, since I said negative things about him, even though true. Can I be sued?? His name is out there; I found it so, you'll find it easily enough. A
August 05, 2008 @ 08:37 PM: kilskeerhlnsheehan, check this: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0801081anthrax2.html
August 05, 2008 @ 09:00 PM: fuzzycowkapa--Thanks for the Wall Street Journal tip. I wonder if anyone from the FBI talked to Ken Alibek about this?? I'm not saying he did it, but as a defector from the Russian bio-warfare program, he might have some insight. I'm guessing they didn't....otherwise Bruce wouldn't be dead!
August 05, 2008 @ 09:09 PM: frederick.countyNow, these additional recent facts on the Ivins tragedy are also beyond belief and they make me disgusted: The FBI confronted Ivins' daughter, Amanda, with photographs of victims of the anthrax attacks and told her, "This is what your father did!" according to a colleague of Ivins. The FBI would follow Ivins all around town, especially to the local grocery store as well as places that it could be shown to others that he was under police surveillance, with the result that the scientist, according to his coworkers, would come to work and "sit at his desk and weep." Also, the FBI cornered the scientist's son and offered him $2.5 million to rat him out and told him the FBI would buy him the "sports car of his choice" if he would give something good on his father that would implicate him in a crime. There are and will be more instances to be revealed, especially when the investigation on the investigators begins, which will be similar to the 9/11 commission - that faulted the FBI for not doing its job then.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:10 PM: mako352Trust me. She won`t have to.
August 05, 2008 @ 09:27 PM: frederick.countyThere is now an additional statement within the news link given above that the therapist may well be investigated for committing a federal crime, and emails are being analyzed that would link the LA Times to receiving sealed Grand Jury information to her. Computers at the FCPL may be involved. Then again, the entity that would be investigating her is about to be investigated as well, so a flow chart may be in order to keep track of this mess.
August 05, 2008 @ 10:20 PM: steven09Well fellow bloggers. I'm sure some of you will never forgive me for my view here, but I've tried to keep an open mind. I never knew Ivins or his family. As previously stated I have some experience with Dr. Levy's office for marriage counciling. While it was not Ms. Duly, I have stated and will state again that the counselor I saw made matters worse in my personal opinion. So I am no fan of that office. Still, nothing said here so far changes my mind. All the evidence points to Ivins. This is not about the counselor. I feel she played little or no role at all. It is about the DNA. That traces it to a maximum of ten people. And of those ten, Ivins has to be the most likely suspect. If it wasn't him, it was one of the other nine. Period. But Ivins is the one the evidence points to. Sorry. I realize that some of you are his friends or co-workers. And the evidence is circumstantial, I'll admit. But the evidence has nothing to do with his counselor, not in my opinion. The scientific evidence points to Ivins. If it wasn't him, it was one of the other nine. The anthrax came from his lab. He reported no anthrax stolen. He checked out the equipment to dry the anthrax. The timing was right. He had a psychological history of making threats from long ago. If the evidence clears him at some point I'll be the first to admit it. But I doubt it will. Was the counselor right, or good? Doesn't matter to me. It's not about her. It's about the DNA and the timeline and the facts, not some two bit counselor's opinion. Her fears, in my opinion, are not part of the facts on which I base my opinion. Sorry.
August 05, 2008 @ 10:37 PM: ericShe is not a therapist, she is a social worker, and she should be held accountable for his death!
Washington Post 8/5/08
By Carrie Johnson, Joby Warrick and Marilyn W. ThompsonWashington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, August 5, 2008; Page A01
Bruce E. Ivins, the government's leading suspect in the 2001 anthrax killings, borrowed from a bioweapons lab that fall freeze-drying equipment that allows scientists to quickly convert wet germ cultures into dry spores, according to sources briefed on the case.
Ivins's possession of the drying device, known as a lyopholizer, could help investigators explain how he might have been able to send letters containing deadly anthrax spores to U.S. senators and news organizations.
The device was not commonly used by researchers at the Army's sprawling biodefense complex at Fort Detrick, Md., where Ivins worked as a scientist, employees at the base said. Instead, sources said, Ivins had to go through a formal process to check out the lyopholizer, creating a record on which authorities are now relying. He did at least one project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that would have given him reason to use the drying equipment, according to a former colleague in his lab.
Ivins committed suicide last week. As authorities in Washington debated yesterday how to close the long investigation of him -- a step that would signal they think no one else is culpable in the anthrax attacks -- more details began to emerge about the nature of the case they developed against him.
In recent months, investigators have collected circumstantial building blocks in an effort to establish Ivins's alleged role in the attacks, which traumatized the nation and prompted stringent mail-handling policies. Letters containing the anthrax spores killed five people, including two D.C. area postal workers, and sickened 17 others.
Scientific analysis helped researchers pinpoint the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases as the likely source of the powder, which was the Ames strain of anthrax bacteria used in various projects at Fort Detrick. Further testing allowed them to narrow down the age of the substance, concluding that it had been cultivated no more than two years before the attacks.
Eventually, through more elaborate DNA testing of the power and tissue cultures from the victims, they determined that the powder probably came from supplies made by Ivins, to which about 10 other people had access. Authorities last week cited "new and sophisticated scientific tools" that helped advance the investigation.
Ivins was not charged before his death July 29. Paul F. Kemp, his attorney, has repeatedly asserted Ivins's innocence, and colleagues and friends say government officials fixed on the wrong man in a race to close a seven-year investigation rife with dead ends and missteps. They also note that other U.S. scientists had access to some of the same material and equipment that authorities apparently used to focus on Ivins.
The lyopholizer Ivins used in the fall of 2001 is commonly employed by pharmaceutical companies and laboratories, as well as food processors, to freeze a liquid broth of bacteria and quickly transform it into a dry solid without a thawing stage.
Scientists and biodefense experts familiar with USAMRIID's procedures say that Ivins's department rarely used such freeze-dryers, because the researchers there worked with anthrax bacteria in a liquid form.
"Dry anthrax is much harder to work with," said one scientist familiar with Ivins's lab. A lyopholizer would fit inside the ventilated "biosafety cabinet" at the lab and could have been used without drawing notice, the scientist said. The machine could have processed a few small batches of anthrax liquid in less than a day, he said.
Other biodefense experts noted that the drying step could have been carried out with equipment no more complicated than a kitchen oven. "It is the simplest . . . but it is the least reproducible," said Sergei Popov, a former Soviet bioweapons scientist who now specializes in biodefense at George Mason University. "If you go too fast you get 'sand,' " he said, referring to the coarser anthrax powder used in the first attacks, in September 2001
The second batch of letters contained a much finer powder. "To me, it all indicates that the person experimented with the ways to dry the spores and produced small batches -- some of them not so successfully -- he later used to fill up different envelopes," Popov said. "The spores are naturally clumpy. As I understand, he just overbaked the first batches."
Many of the key documents that would have supported the prosecution of Ivins could be unveiled this week after Justice Department and FBI officials meet with families of the anthrax victims. Authorities were contacting relatives yesterday and seeking a time to meet.
Investigators have been wrong before about who may have perpetrated the attacks. In June, the Justice Department agreed to pay Steven J. Hatfill, a former Fort Detrick researcher once labeled a "person of interest" in the case, a $5.8 million settlement to forgo a privacy lawsuit.
Significant mysteries remain, including whether the attacks that involved letters mailed from Florida and Princeton, N.J., could have been carried out by one person. And many questions remain about Ivins.
Safety officials and lawmakers have wondered how the scientist was able to maintain his security clearance despite emotional problems that led Jean C. Duley, a therapist, to seek a protective order against him last month.
The Army issued final rules last week that would cover workers who act in an aggressive or threatening manner. Those employees would be denied access to toxic or lethal biological agents under the revised regulations. Other potentially disqualifying personality traits include "arrogance, inflexibility, suspiciousness, hostility . . . and extreme moods or mood swings," according to the document.
A spokeswoman for USAMRIID said Fort Detrick had been operating under interim rules covering the same behavior for some time.
Response: August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 AM: frederick.county http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display_comments.htm?StoryID=78406#postComments
The freeze-drying equipment that Ivins signed out, whereby one could conceivably make dry anthrax spores, was part of his job, wherein he was working on a project for DARPA. He was told to do so, so that item still does not make the indiviidual suspicious. One huge danger in any investigation is stating that "this is the suspect so now find anything that ties the suspect to the crime," is that anything circumstantialis brought in. For example, regarding the New Jersey sorority tie, the investigators originally brought a picture of Hatfill to the sorority and asked individuals therein if they ever saw Hatfill by the mailbox where the letters were allegedly mailed. And the FBI still cannot tie Ivns to being at that mailbox.
Bruce E. Ivins, the government's leading suspect in the 2001 anthrax killings, borrowed from a bioweapons lab that fall freeze-drying equipment that allows scientists to quickly convert wet germ cultures into dry spores, according to sources briefed on the case.
Ivins's possession of the drying device, known as a lyopholizer, could help investigators explain how he might have been able to send letters containing deadly anthrax spores to U.S. senators and news organizations.
The device was not commonly used by researchers at the Army's sprawling biodefense complex at Fort Detrick, Md., where Ivins worked as a scientist, employees at the base said. Instead, sources said, Ivins had to go through a formal process to check out the lyopholizer, creating a record on which authorities are now relying. He did at least one project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that would have given him reason to use the drying equipment, according to a former colleague in his lab.
Ivins committed suicide last week. As authorities in Washington debated yesterday how to close the long investigation of him -- a step that would signal they think no one else is culpable in the anthrax attacks -- more details began to emerge about the nature of the case they developed against him.
In recent months, investigators have collected circumstantial building blocks in an effort to establish Ivins's alleged role in the attacks, which traumatized the nation and prompted stringent mail-handling policies. Letters containing the anthrax spores killed five people, including two D.C. area postal workers, and sickened 17 others.
Scientific analysis helped researchers pinpoint the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases as the likely source of the powder, which was the Ames strain of anthrax bacteria used in various projects at Fort Detrick. Further testing allowed them to narrow down the age of the substance, concluding that it had been cultivated no more than two years before the attacks.
Eventually, through more elaborate DNA testing of the power and tissue cultures from the victims, they determined that the powder probably came from supplies made by Ivins, to which about 10 other people had access. Authorities last week cited "new and sophisticated scientific tools" that helped advance the investigation.
Ivins was not charged before his death July 29. Paul F. Kemp, his attorney, has repeatedly asserted Ivins's innocence, and colleagues and friends say government officials fixed on the wrong man in a race to close a seven-year investigation rife with dead ends and missteps. They also note that other U.S. scientists had access to some of the same material and equipment that authorities apparently used to focus on Ivins.
The lyopholizer Ivins used in the fall of 2001 is commonly employed by pharmaceutical companies and laboratories, as well as food processors, to freeze a liquid broth of bacteria and quickly transform it into a dry solid without a thawing stage.
Scientists and biodefense experts familiar with USAMRIID's procedures say that Ivins's department rarely used such freeze-dryers, because the researchers there worked with anthrax bacteria in a liquid form.
"Dry anthrax is much harder to work with," said one scientist familiar with Ivins's lab. A lyopholizer would fit inside the ventilated "biosafety cabinet" at the lab and could have been used without drawing notice, the scientist said. The machine could have processed a few small batches of anthrax liquid in less than a day, he said.
Other biodefense experts noted that the drying step could have been carried out with equipment no more complicated than a kitchen oven. "It is the simplest . . . but it is the least reproducible," said Sergei Popov, a former Soviet bioweapons scientist who now specializes in biodefense at George Mason University. "If you go too fast you get 'sand,' " he said, referring to the coarser anthrax powder used in the first attacks, in September 2001
The second batch of letters contained a much finer powder. "To me, it all indicates that the person experimented with the ways to dry the spores and produced small batches -- some of them not so successfully -- he later used to fill up different envelopes," Popov said. "The spores are naturally clumpy. As I understand, he just overbaked the first batches."
Many of the key documents that would have supported the prosecution of Ivins could be unveiled this week after Justice Department and FBI officials meet with families of the anthrax victims. Authorities were contacting relatives yesterday and seeking a time to meet.
Investigators have been wrong before about who may have perpetrated the attacks. In June, the Justice Department agreed to pay Steven J. Hatfill, a former Fort Detrick researcher once labeled a "person of interest" in the case, a $5.8 million settlement to forgo a privacy lawsuit.
Significant mysteries remain, including whether the attacks that involved letters mailed from Florida and Princeton, N.J., could have been carried out by one person. And many questions remain about Ivins.
Safety officials and lawmakers have wondered how the scientist was able to maintain his security clearance despite emotional problems that led Jean C. Duley, a therapist, to seek a protective order against him last month.
The Army issued final rules last week that would cover workers who act in an aggressive or threatening manner. Those employees would be denied access to toxic or lethal biological agents under the revised regulations. Other potentially disqualifying personality traits include "arrogance, inflexibility, suspiciousness, hostility . . . and extreme moods or mood swings," according to the document.
A spokeswoman for USAMRIID said Fort Detrick had been operating under interim rules covering the same behavior for some time.
Response: August 05, 2008 @ 08:20 AM: frederick.county http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display_comments.htm?StoryID=78406#postComments
The freeze-drying equipment that Ivins signed out, whereby one could conceivably make dry anthrax spores, was part of his job, wherein he was working on a project for DARPA. He was told to do so, so that item still does not make the indiviidual suspicious. One huge danger in any investigation is stating that "this is the suspect so now find anything that ties the suspect to the crime," is that anything circumstantialis brought in. For example, regarding the New Jersey sorority tie, the investigators originally brought a picture of Hatfill to the sorority and asked individuals therein if they ever saw Hatfill by the mailbox where the letters were allegedly mailed. And the FBI still cannot tie Ivns to being at that mailbox.
More on Jean C. Duley
This is one of the weirdest cases I have ever seen. Not only is there this whole business of Duley, which has been explored pretty thoroughly here, but get a whiff of THIS: apparently, unnamed officials say that the motive for the anthrax attacks is (I am not making this up)obsession with a sorority from 30 years ago. (which fits nice and neat with Duley's odd "going back to his graduate days" statement.)
Here's the deal - the anthrax was supposedly mailed from a mailbox on campus in Princeton NJ. This mailbox sits about 100 yards away from a Kappa Kappa Gamma storage facility. (There is no actual sorority house on campus.) So, Ivins was reportedly spurned by a sorority girl at HIS college, 30 years ago, prompting him to send the poison from that location. I know - WUT?
There is no mention of why the anthrax was mailed to media sources and politicians rather than hot college girls (incidentally - Hood College is right down the street from both his house and Ft. Detrick, and full of them), but that's not important. (The *officials* did not mention it, but Ivins' DAD was actually a Princeton guy! That is proof, for sure.) Ivins' has no apparant personal history with Princeton.
Now get this: The *officials* say that there is no proof that Ivins was in NJ, but that he "could have gone after work". Put this in context. The first mailing was postmarked a week after 9/11. Yes, THE nine-eleven. NJ is about a 3-4 hour drive from Frederick MD, at best. What do you suppose the possibility is that Ivins could show up 6-8 hours late from work, and that his wife would not have already called the FBI? Remember it was a WEEK after 9/11. This guy worked in a bio-weapons lab. hello? At the very least, if something so weird had happened, so soon after that, she would have REMEMBERED it. It was a Tuesday. There is obviously no indication that he missed work that day or the next.
Does anyone else think that the FBI is grabbing at straws here? The BS about tracking the DNA is just that - BS. But even if it weren't BS - the fact remains that many people had access to the anthrax. Security was lax back then.
And one of the most important aspects of this case is that Ivins lacked the skills and ability to turn HIS anthrax into the powder form. That is apparently a very specific technical ability, and one which no one believes he had.
Here's the deal - the anthrax was supposedly mailed from a mailbox on campus in Princeton NJ. This mailbox sits about 100 yards away from a Kappa Kappa Gamma storage facility. (There is no actual sorority house on campus.) So, Ivins was reportedly spurned by a sorority girl at HIS college, 30 years ago, prompting him to send the poison from that location. I know - WUT?
There is no mention of why the anthrax was mailed to media sources and politicians rather than hot college girls (incidentally - Hood College is right down the street from both his house and Ft. Detrick, and full of them), but that's not important. (The *officials* did not mention it, but Ivins' DAD was actually a Princeton guy! That is proof, for sure.) Ivins' has no apparant personal history with Princeton.
Now get this: The *officials* say that there is no proof that Ivins was in NJ, but that he "could have gone after work". Put this in context. The first mailing was postmarked a week after 9/11. Yes, THE nine-eleven. NJ is about a 3-4 hour drive from Frederick MD, at best. What do you suppose the possibility is that Ivins could show up 6-8 hours late from work, and that his wife would not have already called the FBI? Remember it was a WEEK after 9/11. This guy worked in a bio-weapons lab. hello? At the very least, if something so weird had happened, so soon after that, she would have REMEMBERED it. It was a Tuesday. There is obviously no indication that he missed work that day or the next.
Does anyone else think that the FBI is grabbing at straws here? The BS about tracking the DNA is just that - BS. But even if it weren't BS - the fact remains that many people had access to the anthrax. Security was lax back then.
And one of the most important aspects of this case is that Ivins lacked the skills and ability to turn HIS anthrax into the powder form. That is apparently a very specific technical ability, and one which no one believes he had.
WSJ 08/05/108
Pressure Grows to Release
Evidence in Anthrax Case
By EVAN PEREZ, ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON and SARAH LUECK
August 5, 2008; Page A3
WASHINGTON -- Federal law-enforcement officials continued to deliberate the release of evidence they say implicates a U.S. military researcher in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Closed-door discussions between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department come amid rising pressure from Congress to unseal evidence against Bruce Ivins, the Fort Detrick, Md., researcher. Dr. Ivins committed suicide last week after being told he would be charged with five deaths and 17 injuries that resulted from anthrax-laced letters sent through the mail.
Associated Press
Fort Detrick's scientists were required to work on the case while simultaneously being targeted as suspects.
Law-enforcement officials say that in addition to tracking the anthrax strain used in the attacks to Fort Detrick, they have emails sent by Dr. Ivins that implicate him in the attacks. They didn't provide details.
The Justice Department's caution stems in part from mistakes that caused investigators to focus on another Fort Detrick scientist, Steven Hatfill. Mr. Hatfill sued the government for wrongly targeting him in the case, and last month the Justice Department agreed to pay him $5.8 million to settle the case.
At meetings in recent days, some Justice Department officials urged a slow approach, to avoid a repeat of mistakes, and that prompted clashes with some FBI officials who believe their case is secure enough, according to officials close to the situation. An FBI official played down any friction, saying, "We had very good talks across all camps, came up with a plan, emailed it around on the weekend and got agreement. Everything is on track."
An attorney for Dr. Ivins has said his late client was innocent and had been prepared to prove it in court.
Dr. Ivins's failure to report a release of anthrax spores in his office in 2001 has emerged as critical evidence in the FBI case against him. Some at Fort Detrick say the intense scrutiny of the facility and its staff may partly explain why their colleague took his life.
Separately, the Associated Press reported Monday that investigators were focusing on emails or other documents from Dr. Ivins that portray a fixation with a sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. The report quoted a sorority adviser in Princeton, N.J., who said she was interviewed by FBI agents.
The anthrax mailings were sent from a mailbox in Princeton. A law-enforcement official confirmed the sorority link but declined to say whether there was any evidence Dr. Ivins was in Princeton during the period the letters were sent.
The seven-year investigation has put Fort Detrick under increased scrutiny. Contamination incidents at the Army's Frederick, Md., infectious-disease facility have been re-examined since a new team of FBI agents took over the investigation in 2006, leading agents to Dr. Ivins, law-enforcement officials say.
Containment and safety were already an issue at the lab in 2001 when Dr. Ivins cleaned up anthrax contamination in his office without immediately informing his superiors, says Col. Arthur Anderson, a pathologist who also is an ethics officer at the lab. Col. Anderson says Dr. Ivins told him about the lapse in safety shortly after it occurred, contradicting Army findings in 2002 that Dr. Ivins had told no one. Dr. Ivins's failure to immediately report the incident to his superiors is now seen by law-enforcement authorities as key evidence against him.
"He didn't tell the safety office, he didn't tell the commander, but he told me," said Col. Anderson, director of the office of human use and ethics.
The investigators' focus on the 2001 contamination incident, along with Dr. Ivins's shifting explanations in a May 2002 interview, have prompted a new examination of safety at the facility, whose work was secret until the 1970s. Soon after Fort Detrick came under greater public scrutiny, reports and evidence of violations began to emerge. In the early 1990s, an internal Army report documented instances of misplaced research specimens, including some for anthrax.
The Army has for several years been cleaning up 10 hazardous waste sites on the Fort Detrick campus, the biggest and most expensive cleanup in the facility's history. The effort is costing more than $50 million.
One of those sites contained more than 2,000 tons of hazardous waste, including samples of live bacteria, nonvirulent anthrax, drums of chemicals and laboratory rats floating in jars of preservative. At the time the debris was discovered, the Army said it hadn't known it was there.
Families in the area who draw their drinking water from wells on their property are being provided bottled water while the Army tests groundwater for contamination.
Pollution in the groundwater near the Fort Detrick campus first surfaced in the early 1990s. In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed that Fort Detrick be designated a Superfund site, potentially giving the EPA oversight of Army efforts to clean up a mile-long plume of groundwater contamination near the facility.
Evidence in Anthrax Case
By EVAN PEREZ, ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON and SARAH LUECK
August 5, 2008; Page A3
WASHINGTON -- Federal law-enforcement officials continued to deliberate the release of evidence they say implicates a U.S. military researcher in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Closed-door discussions between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department come amid rising pressure from Congress to unseal evidence against Bruce Ivins, the Fort Detrick, Md., researcher. Dr. Ivins committed suicide last week after being told he would be charged with five deaths and 17 injuries that resulted from anthrax-laced letters sent through the mail.
Associated Press
Fort Detrick's scientists were required to work on the case while simultaneously being targeted as suspects.
Law-enforcement officials say that in addition to tracking the anthrax strain used in the attacks to Fort Detrick, they have emails sent by Dr. Ivins that implicate him in the attacks. They didn't provide details.
The Justice Department's caution stems in part from mistakes that caused investigators to focus on another Fort Detrick scientist, Steven Hatfill. Mr. Hatfill sued the government for wrongly targeting him in the case, and last month the Justice Department agreed to pay him $5.8 million to settle the case.
At meetings in recent days, some Justice Department officials urged a slow approach, to avoid a repeat of mistakes, and that prompted clashes with some FBI officials who believe their case is secure enough, according to officials close to the situation. An FBI official played down any friction, saying, "We had very good talks across all camps, came up with a plan, emailed it around on the weekend and got agreement. Everything is on track."
An attorney for Dr. Ivins has said his late client was innocent and had been prepared to prove it in court.
Dr. Ivins's failure to report a release of anthrax spores in his office in 2001 has emerged as critical evidence in the FBI case against him. Some at Fort Detrick say the intense scrutiny of the facility and its staff may partly explain why their colleague took his life.
Separately, the Associated Press reported Monday that investigators were focusing on emails or other documents from Dr. Ivins that portray a fixation with a sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. The report quoted a sorority adviser in Princeton, N.J., who said she was interviewed by FBI agents.
The anthrax mailings were sent from a mailbox in Princeton. A law-enforcement official confirmed the sorority link but declined to say whether there was any evidence Dr. Ivins was in Princeton during the period the letters were sent.
The seven-year investigation has put Fort Detrick under increased scrutiny. Contamination incidents at the Army's Frederick, Md., infectious-disease facility have been re-examined since a new team of FBI agents took over the investigation in 2006, leading agents to Dr. Ivins, law-enforcement officials say.
Containment and safety were already an issue at the lab in 2001 when Dr. Ivins cleaned up anthrax contamination in his office without immediately informing his superiors, says Col. Arthur Anderson, a pathologist who also is an ethics officer at the lab. Col. Anderson says Dr. Ivins told him about the lapse in safety shortly after it occurred, contradicting Army findings in 2002 that Dr. Ivins had told no one. Dr. Ivins's failure to immediately report the incident to his superiors is now seen by law-enforcement authorities as key evidence against him.
"He didn't tell the safety office, he didn't tell the commander, but he told me," said Col. Anderson, director of the office of human use and ethics.
The investigators' focus on the 2001 contamination incident, along with Dr. Ivins's shifting explanations in a May 2002 interview, have prompted a new examination of safety at the facility, whose work was secret until the 1970s. Soon after Fort Detrick came under greater public scrutiny, reports and evidence of violations began to emerge. In the early 1990s, an internal Army report documented instances of misplaced research specimens, including some for anthrax.
The Army has for several years been cleaning up 10 hazardous waste sites on the Fort Detrick campus, the biggest and most expensive cleanup in the facility's history. The effort is costing more than $50 million.
One of those sites contained more than 2,000 tons of hazardous waste, including samples of live bacteria, nonvirulent anthrax, drums of chemicals and laboratory rats floating in jars of preservative. At the time the debris was discovered, the Army said it hadn't known it was there.
Families in the area who draw their drinking water from wells on their property are being provided bottled water while the Army tests groundwater for contamination.
Pollution in the groundwater near the Fort Detrick campus first surfaced in the early 1990s. In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed that Fort Detrick be designated a Superfund site, potentially giving the EPA oversight of Army efforts to clean up a mile-long plume of groundwater contamination near the facility.
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