wretchard the cat's Library tagged Anthrax → View Popular

01 Aug 08

Ivins had several letters to the editor published in The Frederick News-Post over the last decade. He denounced taxpayer funding for assisted suicide, pointed readers to a study that suggested a genetic component for homosexuality and said he had stopped listening to local radio station WFMD because he was offended by the language and racially charged commentary of its hosts.
He also commented on the growing political influence of conservative Christians, and he was willing to criticize his church.
"The Roman Catholic Church should learn from other equally worthy Christian denominations and eagerly welcome female clergy as well as married clergy," Ivins wrote.
Byrne said Ivins appeared to be at peace and that he expressed no interest in the anthrax mailings, even after some letters were sent to Fort Detrick for analysis.
"There are people who you just know are ticking bombs," Byrne said. "He was not one of them."

Several of Dr. Ivins’s neighbors and colleagues urged people not to rush to judgment, despite the doctor’s death. They recalled the case of Richard Jewell, who emerged as a suspect in the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics but was ultimately cleared. Little more than a month ago, the Justice Department agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit by another biodefense researcher at the same facility, Steven J. Hatfill. The settlement ended a five-year legal battle over Dr. Hatfill’s allegations that investigators violated his privacy by leaking information on the investigation to journalists.
Pat Clawson, a private investigator and former CNN reporter who has been a spokesman for Dr. Hatfill, said on Friday that news organizations and the public should be “deeply skeptical” about any notion that Dr. Ivins was the anthrax killer unless and until solid evidence is brought forth.

The New York Times stated in their paper that Hatfill had obtained an anti-anthrax medicine (ciprofloxacin) immediately prior to the anthrax mailings. Connolly explained, "Before the attacks he had surgery. So yes, he's on Cipro. But the fuller truth is in fact he was on Cipro because a doctor gave it to him after sinus surgery". Hatfill had previously said the antibiotic was for a lingering sinus infection. ^[13] The omission in the Times' article, of the reason why he had been taking Cipro, is one reason Hatfill sued the newspaper. The newspaper won a summary judgment ruling, in early 2007, squelching the libel suit that had been filed by Steven Hatfill against it and columnist Nicholas Kristof. ^[14]

The attacks were not entirely unexpected. I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official, and I immediately acted on it. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it.
For this and other reasons, the anthrax letters appeared linked to the awful events of Sept. 11.

Despite multiple press reports confirming that White House staff began use of Cipro on September 11, 2001, the incomplete and evasive FOIA response from The White House consisted of a paltry, four e-mail messages and an “administrative alert” concerning testing procedures in reaction to the anthrax deaths of two postal workers, all of which were dated October 23 and October 24, 2001. Judicial Watch has appealed the FOIA response and will take strong legal action to uncover the truth despite the obstructionist tactics of the administration.

In October 2001, press reports revealed that White House staff had been on a regimen of the powerful antibiotic Cipro since the September 11th terrorist attacks. Judicial Watch is aggressively pursuing the disclosure of the facts and the decision for White House staff, and President Bush as well, to begin taking Cipro nearly a month before anthrax was detected on Capitol Hill.