Apparent suicide in anthrax case
Bruce E. Ivins, a scientist who helped the FBI investigate the 2001 mail attacks, was about to face charges.
FOR THE RECORD:
Anthrax investigation: An article in Friday's Section A about the 2001 anthrax mailings said that suspect Bruce E. Ivins had worked for the last 18 years at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md. It should have said the last 28 years. —
Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case, played a central role in research to improve anthrax vaccines by preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.
Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins also helped the FBI analyze the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator's office in Washington.Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after ingesting a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, said a friend and colleague, who declined to be identified out of concern that he would be harassed by the FBI.The death -- without any mention of suicide -- was announced to Ivins' colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, through a staffwide e-mail."People here are pretty shook up about it," said Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for USAMRIID, who said she was not at liberty to discuss details surrounding the death.The anthrax mailings killed five people, crippled national mail service, shut down a Senate office building and spread fear of further terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.The extraordinary turn of events followed the government's payment in June of a settlement valued at $5.82 million to a former government scientist, Steven J. Hatfill , who was long targeted as the FBI's chief suspect despite a lack of any evidence that he had ever possessed anthrax.The payout to Hatfill, a highly unusual development that all but exonerated him in the mailings, was an essential step to clear the way for prosecuting Ivins, according to lawyers familiar with the matter.Federal investigators moved away from Hatfill -- for years the only publicly identified "person of interest" -- and ultimately concluded that Ivins was the culprit after FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III changed leadership of the investigation in late 2006.The FBI's new top investigators -- Vincent B. Lisi and Edward W. Montooth -- instructed agents to reexamine leads or potential suspects that may have received insufficient attention. Moreover, significant progress was made in analyzing genetic properties of the anthrax powder recovered from letters addressed to two senators.The renewed efforts led the FBI back to USAMRIID, where agents first questioned scientists in December 2001, a few weeks after the fatal mailings.By spring of this year, FBI agents were still contacting Ivins' present and former colleagues. At USAMRIID and elsewhere, scientists acquainted with Ivins were asked to sign confidentiality agreements in order to prevent leaks of new investigative details.Ivins, employed as a civilian at Ft. Detrick, earlier had attracted the attention of Army officials because of anthrax contaminations that Ivins failed to report for five months. In sworn oral and written statements to an Army investigator, Ivins said that he had erred by keeping the episodes secret -- from December 2001 to late April 2002. He said he had swabbed and bleached more than 20 areas that he suspected were contaminated by a sloppy lab technician."In retrospect, although my concern for biosafety was honest and my desire to refrain from crying 'Wolf!' . . . was sincere, I should have notified my supervisor ahead of time of my worries about a possible breach in biocontainment," Ivins told the Army. "I thought that quietly and diligently cleaning the dirty desk area would both eliminate any possible [anthrax] contamination as well as prevent unintended anxiety at the institute."The Army chose not to discipline Ivins regarding his failure to report the contamination. Officials said that penalizing Ivins might discourage other employees from voluntarily reporting accidental spills of "hot" agents.But Ivins' recollections should have raised serious questions about his veracity and his intentions, according to some of those familiar with the investigation. For instance, although Ivins said that he swabbed areas near and within his personal office, and bleached surfaces to kill any spores, and that some of the swabs tested positive, he was vague about what should have been an essential next step:
NBC anthrax letter sent to Tom Brokaw.A man about to be indicted by the United States Department of Justice died Tuesday. His lawyer has called the death a suicide.

Bruce Edwards Ivins, 62, was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital in Frederick, Maryland, where he died of an overdose of Tylenol and codeine, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported Friday.

Ivins, who worked at the biodefense laboratories in Fort Detrick, Maryland for 18 years, was about to be charged by the Justice Department in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and infected 17 others.

Ivin's lawyer, Paul Kemp, insisted that his client had no role in the attacks, which targeted politicians in Washington DC, and members of the media in New York City and Florida.

"For six years, Dr. Ivins fully cooperated with that investigation, assisting the government in every way that was asked of him," Mr. Kemp told the ''New York Times''. "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."

Both the ''New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times'' report that Ivins assisted the FBI and other agencies in the investigation after the 2001 attacks.

The ''Los Angeles Times'' reports that Ivins was reinvestigated beginning in 2006 after FBI Director Robert Mueller changed the case's leadership. Before then, the only labeled "person of interest" was Steven J. Hatfill. He has since been cleared and paid between $4.6 and $5.82 million by the U.S. Government as part of a settlement stemming for 2003 law suits filed against the Justice Department and government officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The ''New York Times'' also reported that a spokesman for Hatfill said that rushing to judgment in the case is a mistake.

“Everybody is jumping to the conclusion that because this guy committed suicide, he must be the anthrax killer,” Mr. Clawson told the ''New York Times''. “That is a lousy premise. The pressure of these F.B.I. investigations on individuals is phenomenal, and it is quite likely that this guy cracked under that pressure but had nothing to do with the killings.”

The ''New York Times'' reports that Ivins had been undergoing psychiatric treatment within the last month and had a restraining order placed on him by a woman he was allegedly stalking and threatening.

According to National Public Radio (NPR), mental health professional Jean C. Duley requested that Frederick County court issue a "peace order", a type of restraining order, against Ivins in July. Duley submitted documents to the court which show a history of "homicidal actions, threats and plans."

The ''New York Times'' also reports that Ivins was a religious man. Members of his congregation gathered early Friday to pray for him at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Frederick.

The Associated Press cites one of Ivins' colleagues who said he had been removed from his work area as he was thought to be a potential threat to others. According to NPR, one colleague said he was "emotionally fractured by the federal scrutiny."