Just on practical grounds, it's essentially impossible for Bruce Ivins to have been the culprit in the 9/18 and 10/09 anthrax mailings (two separate events, the first round going to media outlets and the second to Congressional offices), as Fort Detrick didn't have the required material to manufacture the stuff. His convenient suicide prior to being named as a suspect made any risk moot of a repeat of the failed effort to blame Steven Hatfill (who won $6 million in a defamation lawsuit over the bogus allegations by Justice 7 FBI). If Hatfill had 'committed suicide' it's pretty clear they'd have closed the case then as well.
As far as who did have the means, well, after the revelations about the scale of the Soviet bioweapons progam by a pair of defectors in the early 1990s, various US agencies worked to replicate some of their 'advances in the field', such as preparation of highly aerosilizable dry anthrax powder, in programs which ran through at least 2000, named Jefferson, Clear Vision, maybe a few others, in violation of BWC treaty obligations not to manufacture bioweapons (they claimed it was for 'studying defenses'). Notably Fort Detrick wasn't involved with any of that; it was a place in Ohio contracted to the CIA called Battelle Memorial Institue that did the actual work, apparently. That's likely where the material in the letters was sourced from, although it's anyone's guess whose bright idea it was.
All of Ivin's colleagues at Fort Detrick know he didn't have the means and some said so publicly later, although the FBI slapped the whole place with a gag order for years.
Ironically, Hatfill turned into a Trump inside team member promoting hydroxychloroquine and the attempted 2020 election coup, causing more damage than the anthrax attacks.
photochemsyn|3 years ago
As far as who did have the means, well, after the revelations about the scale of the Soviet bioweapons progam by a pair of defectors in the early 1990s, various US agencies worked to replicate some of their 'advances in the field', such as preparation of highly aerosilizable dry anthrax powder, in programs which ran through at least 2000, named Jefferson, Clear Vision, maybe a few others, in violation of BWC treaty obligations not to manufacture bioweapons (they claimed it was for 'studying defenses'). Notably Fort Detrick wasn't involved with any of that; it was a place in Ohio contracted to the CIA called Battelle Memorial Institue that did the actual work, apparently. That's likely where the material in the letters was sourced from, although it's anyone's guess whose bright idea it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Clear_Vision
All of Ivin's colleagues at Fort Detrick know he didn't have the means and some said so publicly later, although the FBI slapped the whole place with a gag order for years.
lupire|3 years ago
unknown|3 years ago
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