Anthrax Update
I first heard this in Deborah Tedford’s NPR piece, Scientist In Anthrax Case Dead Of Apparent Suicide, but The Smoking Gun has more details about Dr. Ivins’s mental history as revealed in an application for a “peace order”, Maryland’s version of a restraining order, filed by a mental health counselor.
Someone is going to be required to explain what Dr. Ivins, with a long history of talking about “homicidal actions, threats and plans” going back to his graduate student days, was doing with a security clearance and working in a bio-weapons lab.
When you are being investigated for a major security clearance one of the first things you are required to do is sign releases giving investigators access to all of your records, including medical records. How could something like this be missed?
If the Feds weren’t ready to arrest him on the anthrax charges, he was facing a forced commitment hearing, that he had avoided in July by voluntarily checking to a clinic, and then checking himself out.
He did the Feds a big favor by going for suicide, because he had a solid insanity defense available.
