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2008-08-01 -Lurid Crime Tales-
BREAKING: Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in
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Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-08-01 06:03|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ]  Top

#1 FBI favorite "person of interest" Dr. Steven Hatfill, said only: "told ya so"
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2008-08-01 08:09||   2008-08-01 08:09|| Front Page Top

#2 Sounds like they know everything but WHY?
Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-08-01 08:14||   2008-08-01 08:14|| Front Page Top

#3 I wasn't aware that you tell people that you're about to prosecute them. He committed suicide but he as easily could have run off to a country that lacks extradition to the U.S. -- say, for example, Iran.
Posted by Steve White 2008-08-01 08:27||   2008-08-01 08:27|| Front Page Top

#4 If it's as easy for the top biodefense researcher working for the US government to jet off to Iran to avoid extradition as it is to swallow a handful of pills, we've got bigger problems.
Posted by Lumpy Gleth5015 2008-08-01 09:20||   2008-08-01 09:20|| Front Page Top

#5 Given the option of suicide, or bankrupting your family and loss of pension benefits he did the right thing. There is no guarantee that he was the one, and he might not have had the strength to survive the circus that was to come, or he might have wanted to spare his wife the trauma. He could have been the next Dr. Hatfill, and I am sure that Dr.Hatfill for the return of the wasted years of his life would gladly exchange all the money he might receive. Few of us could have survived such an auto da fe.
Posted by pilgrim 2008-08-01 09:42||   2008-08-01 09:42|| Front Page Top

#6 Hatfill was awarded $5.81 mil payout. I don't think he suffered much. He's still employed at the lab isn't he ?
Posted by Woozle Elmeter 2700 2008-08-01 09:47||   2008-08-01 09:47|| Front Page Top

#7 I take it you've never been shunned by all around you, and doubted by those you love, Woozle Elmeter 2700.
Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife  2008-08-01 11:03||   2008-08-01 11:03|| Front Page Top

#8 Given the option of suicide, or bankrupting your family and loss of pension benefits he did the right thing.

People died. The suicide looks too much like an admission of guilt. I suspect the survivors' attorneys will be bringing sufficient civil suits against the estate that there won't be much left after defence attorneys' fees are paid, let alone damages found.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-08-01 11:08||   2008-08-01 11:08|| Front Page Top

#9  Hatfill was awarded $5.81 mil payout. I don't think he suffered much. He's still employed at the lab isn't he ?

No.
Posted by .5MT 2008-08-01 11:43|| www.cybernations.net]">[www.cybernations.net]  2008-08-01 11:43|| Front Page Top

#10 How long will it be before the Conspiracy Nutballs claim he was done in and it made to look like suicide in order to protect Bushitler?
Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues  2008-08-01 14:35||   2008-08-01 14:35|| Front Page Top

#11 There is no way that one guy did that on his own, whether Hatfill or Ivins. The Senate anthrax needed state support to prepare.
Posted by Plastic Snoopy 2008-08-01 14:38||   2008-08-01 14:38|| Front Page Top

#12 I'm certain that one person could have done this. I worked at USAMRIID, in the Bacteriology department where this guy worked. It would not have been difficult to remove several vials of frozen Anthrax from the hot suite - which was only P3 then - probalby higher now. I knew Bruce at the time (late 1980's), not well but I knew who he was. He hadn't completed his PHD work then, and I don't recall him being a nut-job, but 20 years is a long time. The article suggests to me that he had some type of mental illness.
Posted by Rob06">Rob06  2008-08-01 15:35||   2008-08-01 15:35|| Front Page Top

#13 And that proves he was guilty?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-08-01 15:39||   2008-08-01 15:39|| Front Page Top

#14 No. It's called an 'anecdote'.
Posted by Steve White  2008-08-01 15:50||   2008-08-01 15:50|| Front Page Top

#15 That's not what I said. I said one person was capable of doing it. Take it easy Grom.
Posted by Rob06">Rob06  2008-08-01 15:51||   2008-08-01 15:51|| Front Page Top

#16 I was commenting on the title, Rob06.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-08-01 16:02||   2008-08-01 16:02|| Front Page Top

#17 Channelling Emily Latella
"Never mind"

...have a nice weekend.
Posted by Rob06">Rob06  2008-08-01 16:08||   2008-08-01 16:08|| Front Page Top

#18 It's not the spores, it's what coated the spores.
Posted by Plastic Snoopy 2008-08-01 16:40||   2008-08-01 16:40|| Front Page Top

#19 I knew Bruce at the time (late 1980's)...and I don't recall him being a nut-job...

According to this, his therapist took out a restraining order on him last week, saying that he'd made specific threats. It also says that he has had "issues" since his graduate days, and that he'd recently been committed (sounds like voluntarily committed) to some sort of mental facility (this one, if it means anything to those in the area).

I saw this in a LA Times article, which I can't find now, but here's a repeat from the SF Chronicle. His brother says:

"I was questioned by the feds, and I sung like a canary," Thomas Ivins said, referring to his efforts to describe his brother's personality and tendencies. "He had in his mind that he was omnipotent."

Lots of stuff coming up on Google news now.
Posted by Angie Schultz 2008-08-01 19:00||   2008-08-01 19:00|| Front Page Top

#20 "Traumatized the nation"? It sure the hell did. Most expected wholesale attacks. And that belief was reasonable.
Posted by Jotch Fillmore2862 2008-08-01 19:14||   2008-08-01 19:14|| Front Page Top

#21 "I sung"? I know I'm a bit of a grammar fiend, but it's sing, sang, has sung. My only hope is that 'twas the journalist who made the error.
Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife  2008-08-01 19:16||   2008-08-01 19:16|| Front Page Top

#22 
FBI's dead suspect, Dr. Bruce Ivins, 62



Glad to see that Dr. Hatfeild survived the FBI's antics and that he was able to get 5.81 mil payout from Gubmint...[you and I]
Posted by Red Dawg">Red Dawg  2008-08-01 19:54||   2008-08-01 19:54|| Front Page Top

23:46 Red Dawg
23:34 liberalhawk
23:24 Anonymoose
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23:00 trailing wife
22:47 bigjim-ky
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22:36 bigjim-ky
22:33 bigjim-ky
22:27 Red Dawg
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