DailyViews: Editorial

Anthrax plot truly bizarre

A mad scientist spreading a deadly substance to achieve his own twisted goals has been the launching point of thousands of movies and books.

But this week we have again been reminded that real life events can be far more bizarre than anything you see on a movie screen or read in a book.

And bizarre is the only way to describe it if investigators are right about the origination of the deadly anthrax mail scare that started shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and its connection to the Tuesday suicide of a government scientist.

Bruce E. Ivins worked for 18 years at the Army’s biological warfare labs at Ft. Detrick, Md. — right up until he killed himself Tuesday. The Justice Department, smarting over last month’s embarrassing and expensive admission of mistaken suspicion, has said only that “substantial” progress was being made in the investigation. Federal officials, however, have told news organizations that the government was closing in on indicting Ivins in a death penalty case.

To many today it may seem a part of a more distant past than just seven years ago. In many ways, even the 9/11 attacks seem to have a more surreal feel about them as time passes.

But there was a time when Americans were literally afraid to open the mail, not because it might contain a bill or bad news, but because the very act could be fatal. Five people died when anthrax powder from anthrax-laced mail and many others got sick.

In businesses, those who handled the mail began wearing masks and disposable gloves while they sorted it. Poisoned letters shut down Senate offices and delayed hundred of U.S. Supreme Court cases when mail to the justices was diverted. Anything that looked suspicious sparked a call to local authorities and a response from biohazard public safety personnel. The anxiety still fresh from the 9/11 attacks was compounded by this new unseen enemy. In Georgia in 2001, more than 500 letters were tested for anthrax, with all the results negative.

While the attacks seemingly went away over the past few years, they never completely went out of everyone’s mind. In mid April 2007, for example, emergency personnel in Albany were dispatched to the Department of Human Resources health office on Slappey Boulevard when a powdery substance was found in a letter. In July 2007, the downtown Albany federal courthouse was locked down when an envelop from a North Carolina detention facility was opened and a granular powder came out. In both cases, the anthrax tests were negative.

Ivins is being portrayed as a brilliant scientist with an emotionally unstable side. In 2003, he won the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service for work he did on the anthrax vaccine. Authorities were investigating whether Ivins spread the toxin so he could test how the treatment worked on people after complaining about the limits that animal testing placed on his work.

Ivins’ attorney says the scientist was innocent of any wrongdoing and had cooperated with authorities in their investigation. The lawyer said Ivins’ death was caused by accusations and innuendo by the government. If so, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Last month, Ivins’ colleague, Steven Hatfill — identified in 2002 by then Attorney General John Ashcroft as a “person of interest” — was paid $5.8 million by the Justice Department after federal officials determined he was wrongfully suspected in the anthrax probe.

We can only hope that this time the FBI got it right.

The Albany Herald Editorial Board

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