The allegations sounded suspect to people he worked with, and those who knew Dr. Ivins personally. Local public doubt didn’t mean he wasn’t guilty, but the media took this rather complicated scenario, full of twists and a lot of circumstantial evidence, and ran with it. So did law enforcement.The story became more and more convincing to the general public by virtue of what the FBI put out there. Dr. Ivins, a social conservative and practicing Roman Catholic, supposedly committed suicide before any of this could be resolved in a court of law. There is always that gnawing doubt. After all, they almost ruined Dr. Steven Jay Hatfill’s life, convinced he was the anthrax man, before that case went sour, and they went after Irvins.

The DOJ concluded last winter that Ivins was guilty, and that he perpetrated the crime alone. The FBI requested another report. This report was executed by the National Research Council, a subsidiary of sorts of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, “a private, nonprofit institution that provides policy advice under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln that was originally granted to the NAS in 1863“. Which is probably why the full written report is behind a paywall and not accessible to those without institutional access of some kind. Whether Dr. Irvins was the villain or the victim is still unclear despite this second “official” report having been concluded.

This here is the briefing. The video is about an hour long. I found it fascinating, but I am a geek that way. More fascinating for what it didn’t say, couldn’t say.

This report determines that a determination can’t be made because the facts are not as conclusive as stated in the DOJ investigative summary. It looks like “he could have done it”, “may have done it” but we can’t say that with certainty, and to be certain, yes we’d need further less scientific research.

That is dumbfounding.

Almost dinner notes actually. I’m waiting to attend a meeting, so here I sit.

HT / Kevin . Copy and pasted really. Lavena Johnson awareness still picking up, via google email newsand blog alerts, as well as technorati.

Danielle Vyas petition is a mere 110 signatures away from reaching its 3000 signature goal. Please go and add your name if you haven’t already. Once the goal is reached Danielle will be hand-delivering the petition to her Representative, Shelley Berkeley. Keep updated via the main site on the sidebar and sign the color of change petition as well.

—

A NYT article calls the Anthrax evidence against Dr Irvins mostly circumstantial.

–

People are buying McCain’s ads, at least according to polls. As we fall further into the unfathomable chasm of intellectual, technological and moral decline, I’m sharping my rendition of Who’s Sorry Now.

Which version do you prefer?

I personally think people are just tired of polls.
—

China is initiating another degrading human rights violation. At least as far as I’m concerned.

The XY Games, on testing women to make sure they are really women.

An imperfect test to make sure the women competing are really women.

I say lets test the men to make sure they are manly enough, certainly there is a level of masculinity which must be reached before a man is considered male enough for the Olympics. They do not ban transsexuals from the Olympics as long as a gender is specified. Why is it women are always the ones to be humiliated. In the case where there is still a good chance the women will be humiliated for no reason, it is plain wrong

Consequently, when news is made on any of the above subjects I can’t help but devour it.

The first scientist they tried to pin the antrhax on, Steven J. Hatfill, the one they spent years investigating, hounding, to death, ruining his life, recently settled a lawsuit with the Justice department for millions. They moved on to another researcher Bruce E. Ivins. He died yesterday of an overdose of prescription drugs just as they were “closing in”, planning to prosecute with a whole lot of new evidence.

In this report from ABC news I read:

A social worker named Jean Duley had filed a protection order against Ivins last month, alleging that he had made “threats of homicidal intent” in mid-July. The court documents also indicate that Ivins had been admitted to a hospital in the area and was under psychiatric care.

“Client has a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats, actions, plans threats & actions toward therapist [sic]. Dr. David Irwin his psychiatrist called him homicidal, sociopathic, with clear intentions,” a handwritten page submitted with the application stated.

My question, and I’m sure it’s your question as well, is this. Are they trying to tell me that the same government who knew everything they wanted to know about anybody they wanted to know it about (at least since the tights and beret wearing beatniks are communist era), hired a man to work with a biological weapon of mass destruction not knowing his history?

Or are you telling me they hired a man to work with biological weapons of mass destruction despite knowing his questionable mental status?

* throws hands up in the air*

Go away.

Just doesn’t make sense to me.

“The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it’s so rare.”

Daniel Moynihan

Either the government is more ignorant than I feared or this poor researcher was a convenient patsy.

It sucks either way we look at it.