[8月7日] FBI Reveals Evidence Against Army Scientist In Anthrax Case
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Washington
06 August 2008
The Justice Department has shed some light on the evidence it has against the prime suspect in the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, a U.S. Army scientist who killed himself last week. At a news conference Wednesday, U.S. officials said the scientist, Bruce Ivins, had custody of a large flask of highly purified anthrax spores that were found to be identical to the poison that killed five people and left 17 injured. Cindy Saine has the story from Washington.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeffrey Taylor, told a roomful of reporters gathered in Washington that the evidence in dozens of newly unsealed court documents all points to one conclusion.
"Based upon the totality of the evidence we had gathered against him, we are confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks," said Jeffrey Taylor.
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks letters thraced with anthrax were mailed to lawmakers, newsrooms and elsewhere, futher unsettling Americans and making many people afraid to open their mailbox. For seven years, the case remained unresolved.
The prosecutor said he regrets that investigators will not have the opportunity to present the evidence to the jury. Taylor said the most important piece of evidence, which he referred to as the "murder weapon" was a flask of anthrax.
"As the court documents allege, the parent material of the anthrax spores used in the attacks was a single flask of spores that was created and solely maintained by Dr. Ivins," he said.
Investigators said they had also traced back to Ivins lab the exact type of envelope used to mail the anthrax-laden letters, and that he had worked unusually long hours in his lab around the time of the attacks and could not provide a good explanation for the extra hours.
For 35 years, Dr. Bruce Ivins was one of the U.S. government's leading scientists researching vaccines and cures for exposure to anthrax. His work at the U.S. Army's biochemical laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland earned him the Pentagon's highest honor for civilian employees.
