Feds expected to detail evidence in anthrax case
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Investigators will declare case solved, but not closed, government source says
FBI is expected to discuss evidence with survivors, victims' relatives first
Source tells CNN Ivins borrowed machine to convert wet anthrax to powderScientist: 'There is no way' machine Ivins borrowed created kind of anthrax used
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators will detail their case against researcher Bruce Ivins and declare the 2001 anthrax case solved Wednesday, a government source familiar with the case said.
Officials said biodefense researcher Bruce E. Ivins, seen here in 2003, committed suicide.
The case will not be considered closed because of incomplete administrative details, the source said.
Sources said the Justice Department will go to a federal judge Wednesday morning to ask that the anthrax investigation documents be unsealed.
Before details linking Ivins to the anthrax attacks are made public, the FBI is expected to discuss the evidence with survivors and relatives of the victims, the source said.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials say Ivins, 62, was found unconscious at his home July 27 and died at a Maryland hospital July 29, the same day he was to have discussed a plea deal with prosecutors.
A lawyer for Maureen Stevens, the widow of Bob Stevens, the first victim of the attacks, told CNN she was invited to the session and will attend.
The tabloid photo editor died after inhaling anthrax that investigators believe was in a letter sent to American Media Inc., the publisher of the Sun and National Enquirer tabloids, at its offices in Boca Raton, Florida.
A source familiar with the investigation said Tuesday that in the fall of 2001, Ivins borrowed a machine that can convert wet anthrax -- the kind used at Fort Detrick where Ivins worked -- into dry powder -- the kind used in the anthrax letters. See whether freeze-drying equipment could be a clue to the case »
Such machines, called lyopholizers, are not usually used at Fort Detrick, although they are easy to obtain.
Experts said the report may have no significance.
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"I wouldn't necessarily make the conclusion that, just because he had access to a lyophilizer and used a lyophilizer , that that provides a smoking gun, that he must be using this for sinister purposes," said Peter Hotez, chairman of microbiology at George Washington University in Washington.
Richard Spertzel, a former biodefense scientist who worked with Ivins at the lab at Fort Detrick, said a more advanced machine than a lyophilizer would have been necessary.
"There is no way" that a lyophilizer could have created the fine spores contaminating the 2001 letters, he said. In addition, he said, no one working at a U.S. government lab could have produced such high quality anthrax in secret.
Ivins became a suspect after investigators found DNA evidence from the 2001 anthrax mailings on a flask used in his laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases, according to a source who is familiar with the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly about the case. No charges in the anthrax attacks have been made public. Watch a former co-worker express doubt about Ivins' guilt »
Ivins, of Frederick, Maryland, had worked for decades in the biodefense lab at Fort Detrick, where he was trying to develop a better vaccine against the toxin.
The FBI had traced the anthrax used in the attacks to the lab by using a new technology, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation said.
Authorities were looking at whether Ivins may have released anthrax to test a vaccine he was working on, another official said.
Some of the anthrax-laced letters, written in crude block letters, included the words "Take penacilin (sic) now," according to photographs released by the FBI.
At the time of his death, the 62-year-old scientist was under a temporary restraining order sought by a social worker who had counseled him in private and group sessions. She accused him of having harassed, stalked and threatened her with violence.
The woman told the court in her complaint that Ivins had been treated at a mental health facility.
Steven Hatfill, another government scientist who was named by the Justice Department as a "person of interest" in the attacks, was never charged and later sued the department, which settled the case in June.
The skepticism in scientific circles about the strength of the case against Ivins heightens the importance of the government's unveiling of its evidence against the scientist, a former prosecutor said.
"I think the public and the survivors of the anthrax attacks are entitled to see the evidence before the grand jury," said Andrew McBride. "And if there was a draft indictment and they were ready to indict Mr. Ivins, they ought to see that as well."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/06/anthrax.case/index.html
