The news that top anthrax specialist Bruce E. Ivins apparently committed suicide as the government was preparing to charge him in the 2001 anthrax terrorist attacks, and especially this Glenn Greenwald column about the questions it raises, led me to Google around seeking more information about Ivins. Some letters to the editor written by one Bruce Ivins of Frederick, Maryland, may give some insight into his mindset.
A search of the archives at The Frederick News-Post yielded ten hits, although at least one was a response to one of Ivins' letters.
The most recent, and incendiary, was a 2006 letter from Ivins:
Rabbi Morris Kosman is entirely correct in summarily rejecting the demands of the Frederick Imam for a "dialogue."
By blood and faith, Jews are God's chosen, and have no need for "dialogue" with any gentile. End of "dialogue."
--
BRUCE IVINS
Frederick
And this letter from shortly after the 2004 election reads, in part:
Whether Americans like it or not, the results of the presidential election have propelled charismatic and evangelical Christians into new heights of political power. Many of those individuals would agree that the laws of this nation should be compatible with the Gospel, if not actually based upon it.
Whether we're on the "Christian Nation Express" or not, we all need to be ready for a wild political ride these next four years through a landscape of issues deemed important by conservative Christians.
A story from the News-Post today says that Ivins was hospitalized last month for making "homicidal threats:"
Bruce E. Ivins, a leading military anthrax researcher who worked for the past 18 years at Fort Detrick, was committed to Sheppard Pratt Hospital early last month after making threats of homicidal intent, according to a protective order reviewed by The Frederick News-Post this morning.
Sheppard Pratt is a a psychiatric hospital in Baltimore County.
The News-Post has learned that Ivins was scheduled to appear in Frederick County District Court on Thursday on a peace order charge.
That same story, as well as a sidebar obituary, also seems to confirm that Ivins lived in Frederick:
He and his wife, Diane, owned a small white home just outside the main gate to Fort Detrick, about two blocks from an apartment where Hatfill once lived.
It's important to emphasize that Ivins was not convicted of anything, although news accounts suggest he could have faced death penalty charges. I would also note that I did a quick telephone records search for "Bruce Ivins" of Maryland and found only one Bruce Ivins listed in Frederick.
The New York Times article I linked to in the introduction has this passage from Ivins' lawyer proclaiming his innocence:
Mr. Ivins, who was a biodefense researcher at Fort Detrick, had been told of the investigation into the anthrax incidents, said his lawyer, Paul F. Kemp, who issued a statement insisting that his client was innocent.
"For six years, Dr. Ivins fully cooperated with that investigation, assisting the government in every way that was asked of him," Mr. Kemp said. "The relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo takes its toll in different ways on different people, as has already been seen in this investigation. In Dr. Ivins’ case, it led to his untimely death."
The death of Mr. Ivins, a church-going family man who grew up in Ohio, is the most dramatic development in the case of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people and made 17 others ill in the fall of 2001 when they were exposed to anthrax spores sent through the mails. Letters containing anthrax powder was also sent to lawmakers’ offices on Capitol Hill, causing great alarm in the capital when it was still jittery from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Letters were also found containing a similar-looking powder but no anthrax.
Hopefully the real truth will come out about this case, whatever it may be. Demanding Congressional investigations from the current Congress is rather useless, overall, but the next Congress should definitely delve into the entire matter of the anthrax attacks.
UPDATE-- The Frederick News-Post has a story up of their archived LTE's from Ivins, so it's the same person. Perhaps I missed it at first reading, or perhaps it's gone up since I started working on this diary.