By Norman M. Covert

(Editor’s Note: This is the first of two columns regarding the late Dr. Bruce Ivins of Fort Detrick, Md., who was accused of being the notorious anthrax bomber.)

Frederick, Md.

It is probable that the G-Men of the U. S. Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are content, sleeping well tonight. One might observe that Mrs. Diane Ivins and her family have been denied such slumber. Dr. Bruce Ivins is surely in the care of his Father in Heaven.

After eight-plus years, the G-Men declare in the “Amerithrax Investigative Summary” released Friday Feb. 19, 2010:

“…Administrative and investigative steps taken in the past year toward closure of the investigation confirm the conclusion that Dr. Ivins perpetrated the (2001) anthrax letter attacks … (B)ased on the evidence set forth above, the investigation … has been concluded.”

Some may question if this bureaucratic theater has closed the curtain on the scenario’s final act. Naysayers believe the prologue is sure to come. The scenery may tumble from the catwalk and the spotlight will eventually shine on the actual terrorist.

This, too, will bring vindication and reinstatement of Dr. Ivins to the register of laureate scientists of Fort Detrick. It won’t dry the family’s tears or its disappointment in those sworn to protect their beloved country.

The media has taken up the clarion call of the Justice Department, portraying Dr. Ivins as a scientist suffering from irreparable social and mental ills.　Nothing new is evident in the report

Significantly no B. anthracis spores were uncovered in Dr. Ivins home, garage, autos, van or other personal effects – a prima facie fact in his favor. Neither his handwriting nor fingerprints can be associated with the letters, another favorable defense fact. The report’s discussion of possible links to the post office box in Trenton, N.J., fail the test of reason and opportunity, plus the instances are more embarrassing for him than being supportive of a terrorist indictment.

The quest to indict Dr. Ivins appears based more on what happened from 2006 until 2008, a time when the FBI’s fleet of black Suburbans was a fixture blocking the Ivins driveway on Military Road in Frederick, a stone’s throw from the Fort Detrick main gate. The FBI gambit intimidated Dr. Ivins, whose life was made one of misery and fear, not to mention the need for a lawyer.

Past and present colleagues express skepticism of the FBI/Justice Department science in media interviews and letters to area newspapers. Dr. Henry Heine’s comments Feb. 23, 2010, on Bob Miller’s “Morning Express” show on WFMD (AM930) should have led the next morning’s Frederick News-Post. Instead the local daily published a bland rehash of the Justice Department’s investigation in its edition Sunday morning February 28. You may hear the interview at http://www.wfmd.com.

The bio-defense veterans laud Dr. Ivins’ brilliant research the past 30 years. They point out, however, that his specialty did not include skill in preparing such massive quantities of the highly refined anthrax concoction served in the deadly letters.

The B. anthracis vaccine work at the U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) lacks the required equipment to brew the slurry in sufficient quantity. Dr. Ivins could not have conducted the sophisticated drying and other prep work in a few late night hours in the lab, away from the prying eyes of colleagues. He could not have contained the brilliantly active spores.　The Justice Department insists its DNA

The FBI analysis was headed by Claire Fraser-Liggett of the University of Maryland Institute for Genome Science. Her work is being assessed by the National Academies of Science, which says it will not offer an opinion on the veracity of any supposed link between the genome science, Dr. Ivins and the attacks.

In November 2001, a skittery and vulnerable American public demanded former President George W. Bush find and prosecute the person or persons who developed the sophisticated, weapons grade B. anthracis found in envelopes mailed to Florida, New York City and Washington and environs.

President Bush assigned former Attorney General John Ashcroft to find the bomber, using all government resources. The Justice Department was already scrambling with the disparate U.S. foreign and domestic intelligence and law enforcement agencies to carve out their piece of the pie in the new war against terrorism.

Jeffrey Taylor, a Harvard-schooled lawyer, was an advisor to Mr. Ashcroft. One of Taylor’s first tasks was to write several acceptable provisions for the U.S. Patriot act.

The Patriot Act, a wartime necessity, ultimately provided martial law-like authority to domestic intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies. Agents would use the new authority to monitor terrorist suspects’ communications and wield virtually warrantless search and seizure.　Ultimately, Taylor’s work on the Patriot Act ... (missing from source...).

There is no doubting Taylor’s patriotic zeal, but he was thrust into uncharted territory and given the keys to the candy store. The opportunity for abuse of power was rampant in The Patriot Act. Such abuse occurred frequently as FBI agents rounded up anyone in their crosshairs, still learning the extent of their authority. They left a trail of ruined lives before coming to Frederick and Fort Detrick.

Luckless former Fort Detrick virologist Dr. Steven Hatfill was guilty of a couple amateurish personal and professional miscues that made him vulnerable. He had come to USAMRIID in 1998, moving across post to the National Cancer Institutes campus in late 1999. He possessed little knowledge of B. anthracis, a fact ignored as the FBI continued its “hot pursuit.”

Mr. Taylor came close to obtaining an indictment after two search warrants bared Dr. Hatfill’s flat in the Detrick Apartments on Frederick’s W. Seventh Street. The searches were media theater, yielding nothing of value. Consider, too, the explanations after a suspect farm pond produced virtually nothing.

Mr. Taylor’s team uncovered doubtful circumstantial evidence against Dr. Hatfill. He sued the government for its reckless media leaks of his probable guilt as a “person of interest.”

In June 2008, the U. S. District Court of Appeals in Washington negotiated an agreement foregoing further explanation and that the case against Hatfill would be dropped. He was awarded more than $2.5 million, plus and an annual allowance of $150,000.　Exonerated in August 2008, Dr. Hatfill  ... (missing from source...).

Such a financial settlement doesn’t seem probable in the Ivins family’s immediate future, but the Hon. Mr. Taylor’s Justice Department credentials include his having lost a $100 million communications fraud case because he prosecuted using the wrong statute.

Mr. Taylor resigned his post in August 2009, thus he was scarce when the report was issued without comment more than a fortnight ago. New Attorney General Eric Holder must be satisfied with the resolution, which declares, “We won!”

Silence from the current Oval Office may indicate the new administration isn’t much interested in truth, veracity, the welfare of Ivins’ family or Bruce’s legacy. It’s a shameful performance by all involved.

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By Norman M. Covert

Frederick, Maryland.

(Editor’s Note: This is the second installment regarding the late Dr. Bruce Ivins of Fort Detrick, Md. who was accused of being the notorious anthrax bomber.)

Many scientific and lay persons express dismay at the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Amerithrax report. It begs the reader to believe its conclusions despite a host of miscalculations, far-reaching circumstantial evidence and omission of some mitigating facts. This creative assessment of evidentiary material lacks Hollywood’s blandishments, but not the creativity.

The report would have you believe the late Dr. Bruce E. Ivins is a clone of “Star Wars” cinematic villain Darth Vader. The tragicomedy here is that Dr. Ivins is miscast with the narrative seeming to portray the DOJ as the bumbling character Dark Helmet and his sidekicks in Hollywood’s “Space Balls” spoof.

Like Dr. Ivins the analogous dark side of Fort Detrick does not exist. There is no secret laboratory beneath the former airport runway parallel to Military Road. Offensive biological warfare (BW) came to an abrupt halt. Despite braying of dissenters, the U. S. Army cannot be a scofflaw.

Several hundred professional and support personnel vacated Fort Detrick after President Richard M. Nixon issued Executive Orders in Nov. 1969 forbidding offensive BW research. He retained defensive research, a small percentage of the work force then. The former U. S. Army Medical Unit (USAMU) became the U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases USAMRIID.

Overt destruction of bio-weapon stockpiles was undertaken in the network of BW research complexes, including Fort Detrick. Then Frederick County Public Health Officer Dr. Forbes Burgess was a witness. It was recorded on still photography, 16mm motion picture film and other media technologies of the era, all of which is available in the National Archives and Records Center.

The National Academies of Science (NAS) presented its awaited report on the existing and new facility of the U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), but faced a collection of dissenters who groused about potential dangers apparently glossed over by the distinguished, multi-disciplined group.

The report tossed a bone to local insurgents regarding one piece of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS). However, it averred that USAMRIID goes above and beyond in its complex to ensure safety. The new facility promises to be even better, which ensures another season at least of some local protestations.

Fort Detrick/USAMRIID leadership was urged to cultivate closer communication with the Frederick community. New Mayor Randy McClement is anxious for such dialogue, which eroded during the early days of former Mayor Jennifer Dougherty’s administration. Flashes of interaction ensued before she was kicked out of City Hall.

In the mid-80s a former local pastor’s mistrust was allayed after he served a term as community member of the institute’s human use committee. Its professionalism, thorough review and consideration for the 250 or so Medical Research Volunteer Subjects (MRVS) changed his thinking.

This writer and a local farmer/doctor of veterinary medicine served more than a decade together as non-scientific and community members, respectively, of the Institute’s Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

The committees reviewed protocols with a critical eye. Dr. Ivins presented 18-page protocol No. 01-28 in June 2001, designed to take research another step toward improving the efficacy of the anthrax vaccine.

Dr. Ivins was professional and quick to answer detailed challenges, earning the committee’s approval. He proposed to use a strain of B. anthracis drawn from the original Ames stock at USAMRIID, not the RMR 1029, which the DOJ says was basis for the letter spores.

The DOJ certainly overreached in slandering the besieged Dr. Ivins. He may have been the last chance suspect among microbiologists at USAMRIID. Each was vulnerable to suspicion after using demonstrating their individual skills to assay evidence from the letter bombs.

USAMRIID’s team found the dry anthrax spores to be among the most sophisticated they had ever seen. The silicon-laced spores bore little resemblance to their wet product used to expose research animals.

The former Pilot Plant (Bldg. 470) at Fort Detrick once possessed and produced the volumes of B. anthracis slurry in pursuit of weaponization. Such equipment, including a large volume lyophilizer, did not exist at Fort Detrick in the summer and fall of 2001. Dr. Ivins and his colleagues were limited to small volume vessels to brew the wet product they needed.

Time, the experts say, also mitigates Dr. Ivins as the killer. It would have taken many months to produce the amount of slurry needed to realize the final amounts of product. Each letter was said to contain around two grams of spores.

USAMRIID’s negative airflow system carries outside air from the two entrances through HEPA filters prior to outside exhaust. This reduces to near zero any threat to the community.

Inside the building is another question. Two Fort Detrick tradesmen died as a result of exposure to anthrax spores inside the old Pilot Plant. The DOJ scenario would result in almost certain contamination and infection of epidemic proportion inside the building. Spores could not be contained within the BL3 suite.

The latter scenario would have played into the hands of local doomsday believers. However, it did not happen.

Someone was going to take the fall for the attacks – it was demanded. The lack of direct evidence contained in the DOJ report suggests the investigation had gone as far as it could and Dr. Ivins had been made vulnerable. The report is an indictment of those who simply failed in their investigation — a sorry ending to this screenplay. #

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Norman M. Covert is retired as archivist and historian of Fort Detrick. He is an expert on biochemical warfare. He is an author, writer and consultant. His writings on The Ivins Affair appeared in March in the www.TheTentacle.com and is used with permission of The Tentacle.