After Seven Years And Six Deaths Still No Conclusion To The Anthrax Case

Dr. Bruce Ivins was the latest suspect in the infamous Anthrax mail attacks of 2001. Tuesday he died by an apparent suicide after being notified that criminal charges against him were forthcoming. But does his death bring a close to the investigation?

Dr. Ivins, was a bio-weapons expert who worked at the Army's top biological research unit at Fort Detrick in Frederick, MD. The facility has been a focus of Justice Department and FBI investigators for nearly six years, since anthrax-laced letters arrived at media organizations and U.S. Senate offices shortly after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The anthrax mailings killed five people, including two postal workers at a postal facility in D.C., a Florida photographer, a New York hospital worker and an elderly Connecticut woman died after being exposed to the powder, spreading fear across the country weeks after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon attacks. Ivins became a suspect in 2006 and after the investigation moved away from Dr. Steven Hatfill. Steven Hatfill was another bio-weapons expert who worked at Fort Detrick and had been called a "person of interest" in the anthrax mailings by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. On June 27, 2008 Hatfill was exonerated by the government and a settlement was announced in which the Justice Department has agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle the lawsuit in which Hatfill claimed the Justice Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case. Lawyers for Hatfill said the financial agreement amounted to a resounding vindication of their client. This was not the first time a zealous investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI resulted in scrutiny of someone later to be exonerated. After the bombing of the Centennial Park at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, officials zeroed in on Richard Jewell, a security guard at the park. Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm's way just before a bomb exploded. That blast killed one and injured 111 others. Eventually, the bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph who was captured after spending five years hiding out in the mountains of western North Carolina. He pleaded guilty to the Olympic bombing and three others and is serving life in prison. According to an article in the Washington Post, Ivins started showing signs of strain after the government's settlement with Hatfill was announced. The report said Ivins was facing a forced retirement in September. The death of Ivins would seem to give the government -

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especially the Bush government -an end to the investigation, but according to the Washington Post the investigation is ongoing. That raises in me the question of wheteher or not Ivins was indeed the culprit. I guess until you dot the I’s and cross the t’s it is never over. But what better way to end a stalled investigation than to blame it on a dead man, especially one who commited suicide. I look forward to seeing some of the evidence the government had against Ivins in the coming days and the final report of the Anthrax case. According to an obituary published in the Frederick News-Post Ivins had been a scientist at Fort Detrick for 36 years. He leaves behind his wife of 33 years, Diane Ivins, and his two grown children.