Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) Airman Jennifer Grimes receives an anthrax vaccination from Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class David Logan aboard the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7). Iwo Jima is deployed as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Chad R. Erdmann/Released)

The Los Angeles Times has an exclusive story today suggesting that noted microbiologist Bruce Ivins had become a suspect in the 2001 anthrax murders. It further reports that Ivins has apparently committed suicide.

This comes on the heels of the government’s settlement with another scientist, Steven Hatfill, paying him over the next years $5.82 million for invading his privacy and ruining his career.

The story does not address the FBI investigation into Dr. Kenneth Berry, which we have covered extensively here. Dr. Berry has never been charged, either.

The LA Times story is very short on named sources, exactly the type of media attention that helped win Dr. Hatfill his money. The press’s record for reporting on the murders is full of errors due solely to their reliance upon anonymous sources. We know that most of the information leaked in the first months of the investigation was incorrect. It may be that the reports about Dr. Ivins are, as well.

The sloppiness of the technicians involved with the investigation is already known. At least two people contracted an anthrax infection due to their poor lab procedures while handling samples. Dr. Ivins was investigated for some poor lab practices as well, but that does not equate to his being the murderer. Nor does his apparent suicide equate to guilt. He was a proud man, with his job in doubt and expenses piling up. Understandable depression is not guilt.

The FBI has been using the media to attack people they view as “persons of interest” without regard to the normal protocols of criminal investigation and without regard to the damages caused these people by the leaks. The media, the LA Times, are cooperating in this character assassination with little regard for journalistic ethics or human decency.

Wizbang has some good links for Bruce Ivins, his scholarship and scientific stature.

Steven Hatfill has settled his claims against the Federal Government and the FBI for the sum of $2.825 million, CNN reports.

Hatfill, a former Army bioweapons researcher, has steadfastly denied involvement in the attacks and was never charged in the investigation.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, department officials said Steven Hatfill will receive a one-time payment of $2.825 million and a $150,000 annuity.

For all intents and purposes, this investigation is over. Seven years after the attacks and the FBI is no closer to determining who committed those murders than they were then.

The FBI has let us down. By focusing on Hatfill to the exclusion of other potential suspects, and by excluding state-sponsored terror from the very beginning, they failed to conduct a proper investigation. This was a case that any rookie detective could have followed procedure and process and investigated.

Instead we got leak after leak that was flat out wrong. We got a focus on one person, an abusive and punitive investigation that was leaked at every step to the media. Steven Hatfill was tried by media when the FBI was unable to discover any evidence linking him to the attacks.

Hatfill is not the only person ruined by the FBI in this botched investigation. Kenneth Berry lost everything and the FBI came up with zilch.

I wonder how the families of the five people murdered in these attack feel tonight? Where is their justice? Can the FBI explain to them why no one is in jail?

Washington Post

What was initially described as a near-military-grade biological weapon was ultimately found to have had a more ordinary pedigree, containing no additives and no signs of special processing to make the anthrax bacteria more deadly, law enforcement officials confirmed. In addition, the strain of anthrax used in the attacks has turned out to be more common than was initially believed, the officials said.

As a result, after a very public focus on government scientists as the likely source of the attacks, the FBI is today casting a far wider net, as investigators face the daunting prospect of an almost endless list of possible suspects in scores of countries around the globe.

“There is no significant signature in the powder that points to a domestic source,” said one scientist who has extensively studied the tan, talc-like material that paralyzed much of Washington in the deadliest bioterrorism attack in U.S. history.

Let’s review:

1. Weaponized, in part or in total – NO
2. Obtained domesticly, probably at Fort Detrich – NO
3. Suspects are Hatfill and Berry – Unlikely

Back to square one, it seems, and five years have gone past. Maybe the FBI will devote a little time to the possible Iraqi links.