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2008-08-07 Home Front: WoT

Feds: Anthrax Suspect Had Mental Health Issues

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Posted by Fred 2008-08-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top

#1 If he was trying to sell his blood for its anti-bodies qualities, that would suggest a well thought out plan. Who knows?

Posted by McZoid 2008-08-07 00:52|| 2008-08-07 00:52|| Front Page Top

#2 ....adequate explanation for his late-night laboratory work" around the time the anthrax letters were sent.

Government employee working voluntary overtime? No FBI alarm bells went off on this one? Now that IS the definition of DENIAL!

Posted by Besoeker 2008-08-07 08:30|| 2008-08-07 08:30|| Front Page Top

#3 How on earth this guy retained his clearances given his mental health issues is way beyond my comprehension.

Sheesh!

Posted by lotp 2008-08-07 08:53|| 2008-08-07 08:53|| Front Page Top

#4 You'd think the guy who had access to the genetically identical Anthrax would have been suspected earlier.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-08-07 09:26|| 2008-08-07 09:26|| Front Page Top

#5 I gather they did suspect him, but he'd bleached his lab and equipment clean and they couldn't find grounds to nail him. Then when more sophisticated means of dna analysis were available they could show it was his lab's very specific mix of strains that was mailed.

Posted by lotp 2008-08-07 09:31|| 2008-08-07 09:31|| Front Page Top

#6 U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said that a scientific breakthrough in 2005 allowed investigators to trace the anthrax used in the attacks to a single flask of anthrax that was under Ivins' custody at an Army lab in Fort Detrick, Md.

Investigators focused on Ivins as the main suspect in 2007, after eliminating dozens of others who had access to the flask as possible suspects, he said.

Two years! How would we feel about that if the perp's name had been Mohammed Ibrahim?

The FBI and DoJ have not covered themselves in glory on this one, yet again, and the damage to their credibility will have serious consequences for our ability to conduct the WOT as a police action and to conduct lawfare. The DoJ is starting to look more screwed up than the USAF.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-08-07 09:31|| 2008-08-07 09:31|| Front Page Top

#7 Stiff competition there NS but I suspect you're right.

Posted by lotp 2008-08-07 09:40|| 2008-08-07 09:40|| Front Page Top

#8 I wonder what his rationale was in choosing victims? Seem to be vocal Democrats, NBC, and tabloid editors.

Posted by Danielle 2008-08-07 10:50|| 2008-08-07 10:50|| Front Page Top

#9 No, that would follow a logical pattern. This guy was crazy, remember?

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-08-07 11:21|| 2008-08-07 11:21|| Front Page Top

#10 The appearance of failure is often cover for a successful intelligence operation. In the Hatfill "investigation," it was revealed that some of the agents involved were actually in Division Five, which is responsible for foreign counterintelligence. I would not take any report on the AMERITHRAX at face value. But that's just me.

Posted by Plastic Snoopy 2008-08-07 12:58|| 2008-08-07 12:58|| Front Page Top

#11 I see a big flaw in the "Geneticaly identical" anthrax claim.

He was working with small samples, that alone means that there's a large supply somewhere that that "Small sample" came from?

That entire supplt would be "Geneticaly identical"

So where is it?

Posted by Redneck Jim">Redneck Jim 2008-08-07 17:25|| 2008-08-07 17:25|| Front Page Top

#12 Before he was dubbed "a person of interest" in the case, Hatfill had been part of a tight circle of U.S. government officials and consultants working to counter the global bioterror threat. Accurate or not, Dr. Steve Hatfill's bravado about his USG activities and his African exploits very nearly did him in. Bragging about being an "ex-Green Beret" and working the bush with the Selous Scouts and SAS in Rhodesia and South Africa...NOT smart.

Posted by Besoeker 2008-08-07 20:13|| 2008-08-07 20:13|| Front Page Top

#13 Besoeker: Hatfill was instructing USA Special Forces on mobile Iraqi BW labs well after he was named a "person of interest." Check the dates.

The Hatfill investigation was not a real investigation. I don't believe the Ivins investigation was real, either. I suspect Redneck Jim is completely correct about the DNA matching.

Posted by Plastic Snoopy 2008-08-07 22:26|| 2008-08-07 22:26|| Front Page Top

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