Bioterrorism

In 2001, between the months of September and October, anthrax letters were dropped into a Princeton, N.J. mailbox; killing 5 people and leaving 17 others sickened. The FBI’s investigation determined Bruce Ivins, an Army microbiologist was responsible for these attacks. The genetic analysis portion of their investigation concluded that the mailed anthrax spores were grown from Dr. Bruce Ivins’ laboratory in Frederick, Maryland. After the investigation, the National Academy of Sciences was paid $1.1 million to review and assess the scientific aspects of the investigation.

Although the panel reached no conclusion as to the guilt or innocence of Dr. Ivins, their report revealed that the FBI attached too much certainty to the scientific aspects of the investigation. The report stated that the FBI overstated the strength of genetic analysis, which linked the mailed anthrax to a supply kept by Dr. Ivins. The panel felt that the genetic analysis “did not definitively demonstrate” that the mailed anthrax was grown from the samples acquired from Ivins’ Fort Detrick laboratory. The report also stated that investigators need to reconsider the tests that indicate the possible presence of anthrax at a lab used by Al Qaeda. Although the report did not include any detail on the exact location, such a lab was found in Afghanistan after the American invasion.

Regardless of the evidence, many of Dr. Ivins colleagues at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease refuse to believe that he was guilty of the anthrax mailings. Others believe that the evidence, which was “consistent with and supports an association” between Ivins’ flask and the anthrax mailed, is too close-fitting for Ivins to be innocent. I personally feel that, while there is an ample amount of evidence incriminating Bruce Ivins, the FBI closed this case prematurely. Investigators closed the case following Dr. Ivins’ suicide in 2008. While the case itself may have seemed to be at a dead end, investigators could still identify and characterize the anthrax samples obtained from the mailing, Dr. Ivins’ laboratory, and the samples found in the Al Qaeda lab in Afghanistan.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/us/16anthrax.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print