Yesterday, the Justice Department released tons of materials related to its investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks as it closed the books on the case. According to the Washington Post, "The records offer substantial support for the FBI's contention that biologist Bruce E. Ivins single-handedly prepared and mailed deadly anthrax spores that killed five people and terrorized a nation still reeling from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington... [The documents] starkly portray the mental unraveling of the deceased Army scientist accused of committing the worst act of bioterrorism in U.S. history." more ›

In the wake of the suicide of government biodefense scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins, the only apparent suspect in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, the FBI and Justice Department says it will share case details once it has spoken to victims' families. The agencies consider the case closed, but Senator Tom Daschle – to whom one of the letters was addressed – said, "What troubles me is that Mr. Ivins wasn't indicted, and if he wasn't indicted, how confidant are they that they had the evidence and the information that they needed?" The Washington Post spoke to a friend of Ivins who said the scientist started to drink a liter of vodka and take "large doses of sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs" at night last fall, around the same time the FBI showed his daughter photos of anthrax victims, saying, "Your father did this," and offered his son a $2.5 million reward and a "sports car of his choice" to solve the case. more ›

While the FBI is being pressured to release evidence about why it believed government biodefense scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins was behind the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, salacious tidbits are being divulged. Like how he "maintained a post office box under an assumed name that he used to receive pornographic pictures of blindfolded women" (NY Times) and had a "decades-long obsession with a college sorority" Kappa Kappa Gamma (AP). Pretty much everyone wants answers from the FBI and Department of Justice--the former head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom writes in the Wall Street Journal today that anthrax spores sent to U.S. Senators had a lethality "far exceed[ing] that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program." more ›

Some more details emerge about why FBI investigators suspected government biodefense scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins was behind the 2001 anthrax letter attacks. They matched "specific DNA patterns to anthrax cultures" that Ivins was responsible for in his lab. The FBI enlisted the Institute for Genomic Research to analyze the samples, and J. Craig Venter said the evidence suggested the "[culprit] almost had to be a government scientist." However, someone briefed on the investigation said that the evidence gathered so far was "circumstantial"--plus there's no evidence that Ivins traveled to NJ (where the letters were mailed from). Still, the Justice Department is rumored to be shutting down the investigation this week. more ›

The LA Times, which broke news that government biodefense scientist Bruce Ivins committed suicide earlier this week as federal prosecutors were looking to charge him with the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, now reports that Ivins "stood to gain financially from massive federal spending in the fear-filled aftermath of those killings." Ivins shared two patents for a "genetically engineered anthrax vaccine" and had also applied, with another inventor, "to patent an additive for various biodefense vaccines." more ›

According to the LA Times, Bruce Ivins, a government biodefense scientist at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, died in an apparent suicide. Sources say Ivins, who had aided the FBI with analysis in the anthrax-laced letter attacks in 2001, was going to be charged for the attacks. more ›