Merrill Goozner discusses a BMJ article by Nigel Hawke about Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, and how it might help those of us in the less-regulated medical world to get useful information on pharmaceuticals. Excerpts: The global pharmaceutical industry considers Great Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) about as…

Excerpts from Dr. Jon Abramson’s ABC News Op-Ed: It’s perfect. Pfizer buys Wyeth‘s pipeline, the behemoth marketing power of Pfizer gets leveraged, the work force gets consolidated and the $22 billion borrowed is read as a sign that banks are willing to lend again… The core problem with American medicine isn’t really access or cost….

Here (or here, if you are having trouble viewing the first set of images) is a side by side comparison of the Sandia pictures (from Anonymous) with pictures of 2 different batches of anthrax spores from another paper. One picture shows anthrax spores WITH an intact exosporium, the other WITHOUT an intact exosporium. Clearly the…

Wonderful article by economist Uwe Reinhardt clarifying bizarre hospital charges and third-party reimbursements, and how much of the healthcare dollar they waste. Excerpt: Americans can be forgiven their ignorance on this issue because, as I put it in a recent paper on the subject, the pricing of hospital services is best described as “Chaos Behind…

Article by Justin Palk The U.S. Army released 33 pages of Bruce Ivins’ e-mails Thursday from his account at Fort Detrick. The e-mails, obtained by The Frederick News-Post under the Federal Freedom of Information Act, span the period from September 1998 through January 2002. The documents contain 16 threads of communication, some including multiple e-mails…

Excerpts from the article: … IDF soldiers were given seven doses of an anti-anthrax vaccine developed by the Nes Tziona biological institute. But there was no extended medical supervision of the vaccinated soldiers. A year and a half ago, a group of soldiers vaccinated in the experiment asked the IDF and Defense Ministry for all…

Medco (this is the pharmacy benefits company that settled for $155 million over charges of defrauding the federal government and paying kickbacks in 2006) manager Dave Snow has jumped into the healthcare debate. His idea is to force doctors to prescribe pre-selected treatments: if you diagnose A, you treat with B. Obviously, Mr. Snow doesn’t…

Pictures of coated and uncoated spores are here, courtesy of Anonymous.

Global Security Newswire articleNational Journal Group Friday, Jan. 16, 2009By Elaine M. Grossman WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration violated its own regulations three years ago in approving the anthrax vaccine to prevent infection by a “weaponized” form of the disease, attorneys for eight Defense Department employees alleged in a brief filed last week…

Barry Kissin, an attorney in Frederick, Maryland, analyzes several assertions in Scott Shane’s January 4 article, by reviewing media and other reports published since 2001. These include the unsupported claim that the “chemical signature” of the water used to grow the letter anthrax could only come from Frederick, Maryland, and that other US government and…

The Frederick Post has made available a pdf of the Frederick Police Department report regarding its investigation of Ivins’ last days. I have several questions after reading this material. First, I would assume that Ivins made two trips to the Giant Eagle pharmacy an hour apart in order to drop off prescriptions then pick up…

Scott Shane’s newest, detailed exploration of Bruce Ivins can be summarized in Shane’s statement, “unless new evidence were to surface, the enormous public investment in the case would appear to have yielded nothing more persuasive than a strong hunch, based on a pattern of damning circumstances, that Dr. Ivins was the perpetrator.” Let me make…

Excerpted from an article in the December 29 Charleston, W.V. Daily Mail: …. The senator said it was shameful that neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledge Gulf War syndrome as a real illness. “We were stonewalled by the DOD in hearing after hearing after hearing,” Rockefeller said of several…

There are 2 errors in what I posted below about the forensic analysis discussed in Professor Jacques Ravel’s slides. The first correction is that the over 1,100 samples submitted to the FBI were screened for genotypic differences, and may not have been screened for morphologic differences. The second error is that the slides say wild-type…

Dr. Jacques Ravel of U Maryland, formerly of the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), spoke at the MIT faculty club on December 16, 2008 to discuss the scientific evaluation of the anthrax letters’ spores. I requested but did not receive an invitation to the event (despite my Bachelor’s degree in Biology from MIT and some…

From the Annapolis Capital, Maryland “Lennox said military safety reviews in recent months endorsed many of the security changes already made, from improved cameras and lights to satellite surveillance. But other changes were deemed not workable or too expensive, including limits on scientists’ hours or a system that would prohibit workers from being alone with…

Although this conclusion is nothing new to many of us, it is gratifying to get confirmation from the National Academy of Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences, and to hear a Sandia National Labs scientist, Paul Kotula, acknowledge that 200 tries to reverse engineer the spores did not create an identical match. Which simply…

Zimbabwe media are reporting that Zimbabwe government officials are blaming British operatives during the liberation struggle–and today–for cholera and anthrax epidemics currently affecting the country: http://www.newsnet.co.zw/index.php?nID=14583“Dr Ndlovu quoted a research by Tom Mangold, a researcher in Warfare and Jeff Goldberg, an investigative journalist based in Washington DC, who made the stunning revelations that the British…

A 3-part series of articles by Marcus Stern looks into the financial costs, usefulness and risks of the $48 billion dollars spent on bioterrorism responses since 9/11/01. Additional material with videos can be found at the thought-provoking, new web magazine FLYP (Nov. 25-Dec 12 issue, main story–and the visuals are lovely).

This is an introductory talk I gave in 1995 about health care reform. It seems equally relevant today. I will post additional thoughts on improving our health care system as the new administration considers ways to cover all Americans, improve quality and cut costs. I think it is doable! Hint regarding a future post: we…

If you drop anthrax spores in areas where livestock graze or wild animals roam, anthrax’s bitter harvest may keep returning. Under the proper weather conditions, spores can regrow and multiply locally. Animals grazing close to the ground may ingest anthrax-infected soil. The animals die suddenly. And hungry humans who butcher, consume or even use the…

Editorial from the Washington Post: …The new attorney general also should ensure that an independent commission or the inspector general review the anthrax investigation. In the summer, the FBI identified Fort Detrick scientist Bruce E. Ivins as the lone suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five and sickened many more. Mr. Ivins took…

Op-Ed, 11/23/08 Two clear facts shine from the clouded mystery of anthrax attacks on America and our government’s tenuous claim seven years later of closing the case with the suicide of a suspect. Fact No. 1: Government warnings about anthrax being a weapon of mass destruction were false. Somebody dispersed the most lethal strain our…

And every one of the nine studies found a relationship between receiving anthrax vaccine and developing symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome. In eight of the nine studies, the relationship was statistically significant. The study with non-significant results was partly retracted by the authors (from the group associated with Simon Wessely, a UK psychiatrist and controversial…

Deborah Rudacille of the Baltimore Examiner has two more excellent articles exploring the underside of anthrax vaccine; its manufacturer Emergent Biosolutions (formerly named Bioport); and how the anthrax attacks provided life support to both the vaccination program, which was about to be cancelled, and to Emergent, which produced only one product: anthrax vaccine. Exhaustively researched,…

By Sara Michael http://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/local/112108emsANTHRAX.html Baltimore Examiner 11/21/08 U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Washington, D.C., office was shuttered in 2001 after anthrax spores were found, so he’s “very sensitive” to the investigation into the crime, he said. Now, Cummings said he supports a review of the investigation. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., proposed legislation in September to…

Reading the entire chapter on vaccines, the RAC report does a fairly good job of reviewing the evidence (with a few notable omissions) and its recommendations are sound: from page 125 of the report: Recent studies have indicated that the current anthrax vaccine is associated with high rates of acute adverse reactions, particularly in women….

A major report on Gulf War Illness written by the VA Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC) was made public on November 17. This is the most important document yet produced on Gulf War illnesses. About 1800 references are cited. The report gets it right about how many have developed the syndrome…

“Bruce Ivins was a cold-blooded murderer, a deranged psycho-killer, who in the fall of 2001, cooked up a virulent batch of powdered anthrax, drove to Princeton, N.J., and mailed letters loaded with the lethal mix to five news organizations and two U.S. senators. At least, that’s what the FBI says. The letters infected 22 people,…

Justin Palk, Frederick News-Post http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/archives/fnp_display.htm?storyID=88347 From World War II through 1975, thousands of service members and veterans were potentially exposed to chemical or biological weapons as subjects or observers of tests carried out by the Department of Defense. The department unveiled a new website Monday to provide information about what happened during those tests. The…

October 2008 Dear Representative ——–, I am writing with concerns about a liability shield just issued for anthrax vaccine, a huge new waste of government funds in anthrax vaccine purchases by DHHS, and expansion of anthrax vaccinations to civilian first responders, which is poised to begin after a CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)…

From Judith Miller, let go from the NY Times for her poorly sourced, Iraq war drumbeat articles, who is now at Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, writing in their City Journal (reprinted by FrontPageMag.com): a long and valuable piece on the biodefense enterprise that has developed since 9/11. It includes the following: Moreover, while there…

Susannah Cahalan’s NY Post story provides a needed counterpoint to last week’s Washington Post puff piece on the Bruce Ivins case. Who would have expected to find higher journalistic standards at the NY Post than at its Washington namesake? New information in this story includes the fact that the FBI was renting the house next…

Today’s front page Washington Post article by Joby Warrick on the Ivins case appears to present the FBI’s side of the story. I will post excerpts from the article and comment (in italics) on its inconsistencies. Abshire focused her lens on a moldlike clump. Anthrax bacteria were growing here, but some of the cells were…

Robert Roos News Editor Oct 23, 2008 (CIDRAP News) – The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has opened the door to voluntary anthrax vaccination for first responders, revising an 8-year-old recommendation against that step. The committee, meeting yesterday, said the risk of anthrax exposure for emergency responders is low but “may not be…

CDC published a report October 1 on its very expensive, 43 month-long trial of anthrax vaccine, but inexplicably discussed only the first 7 months and only 65% of the subjects. No explanation was given for why only partial data were provided in this important paper. Bloomberg may provide the reason; the selected data discussed in…

Representative Rush Holt, Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel of the House Committee on Appropriations, and a Representative whose constituents were directly affected by the anthrax attacks, has requested that the National Academy of Science also answer the following questions, should it elect to undertake an independent review of the FBI’s scientific methods…

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, also known as Division C of P.L. 109-148 (2005) limits liability with respect to pandemic flu and other public health countermeasures. A Congressional Research Service Report for Congress by Henry Cohen, Legislative Attorney notes the following: 1. The ONLY circumstance in which a shielded person could be held…

Mayur Pahilajani – iStockAnalyst WriterNew York, NY Shares of Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE: EBS) topped 52-week mark after the bell on Friday as investors gained confidence in the company after the Rockville-based biotech’s profitable anthrax treatments won emergency protection. On October 9, the firm announced that the vaccine Biothrax and its Anthrax Immune Globulin, both…

Fri, Oct. 17, 2008 By ALAN BAVLEY The Kansas City Star Sure, the economy is causing a crisis, but what about anthrax? How about smallpox? In a little noticed move, federal officials this month have declared a series of public health emergencies relating to potential weapons of biological terror. On Oct. 1, Health and Human…

Elaine GrossmanGlobal Security Newswire Oct. 17, 2008WASHINGTON – The U.S. Health and Human Services Department early this month moved to shield government, industry and business officials from lawsuits filed by those who have received the anthrax vaccine (see GSN , Sept. 5, 2007). Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt established legal immunity for public…

In a particularly Kafka-esque memorandum, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff wrote to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt on September 23, 2008 and said bluntly that he had no evidence for an anthrax emergency… however, there exists a non-negligible risk there may someday be one, so feel free to invoke the…

October 23, 2007: GAO says HHS has announced that it will issue another rPA anthrax vaccine proposal but has not formally reviewed what went wrong with the VaxGen contract. “They may repeat their mistakes in the absence of a corrective plan,” the report says.

Elaine GrossmanGlobal Security Newswire: Oct. 16, 2008 WASHINGTON – A U.S. government advisory panel next week could recommend that state and local public health officials consider administering anthrax vaccines to as many as 3 million first responders nationwide, Global Security Newswire has learned. The panel, convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would…

Excerpts from Wired Blog: The emergency was declared earlier this month by the Department of Health and Human Services, and will last until 2015. Whether it will protect public health is debatable, but it will certainly protect makers of faulty anthrax vaccines. The act is supposed to be invoked when the Secretary of Homeland Security…

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA), passed by the United States Congress and signed into law in December, 2005, is a controversial tort liability shield intended to protect vaccine manufacturers from financial risk in the event of a declared public health emergency. The Act does not specify any criteria for determining the existence…

This week DHHS contracted to buy 14.5 million more doses of EBS’ anthrax vaccine. It has already purchased about 25 million doses for a civilian stockpile. This supply may be where the vaccine for first responders will come from. GAO reported in 2007 on the large losses DHHS will incur when the anthrax vaccine outdates;…

The October 3 article by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee (below) discusses the FBI’s request to NAS. How can the National Academy of Sciences answer whether the scientific work would meet evidentiary standards in a court of law? They are scientists, not lawyers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has provided the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS)…

1. Omitting one dose, and injecting the vaccine deeper into muscle was widely reported to reduce adverse effects. But only brief local reactions at the skin are reduced, as one might expect with a deeper shot. The occurrence of the more consequential systemic adverse events was “not significantly influence[d]” by route of administration. 2. Women…

Thanks to Marisa Taylor at McClatchy Newspapers for this well-researched report on where the release of the records stands, and how the FBI justifies withholding these records.

Nature discusses weaponization and silicon, but not much new yet.

A letter published in the Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, April 2004 described two lab workers using standard procedures to grow and handle anthrax at USAMRIID. Despite this, medium leaked from a flask and spores were recovered from the nares of one of the workers. The potential for inhalation anthrax was considered serious, and…

Following two dissatisfying Congressional hearings on the anthrax letters, and in the 110th Congress’ final week, Congressman Rush Holt filed HR 7049 as a shot across the bow: he is serious about getting to the bottom of the anthrax letter attacks. The 111th Congress will have to pick up this ball and run with it,…

The Washington Post reports on $113.6 million in government contracts to develop new anthrax vaccines. Two rival biotechs — Emergent BioSolutions of Rockville and PharmAthene of Annapolis — announced yesterday that they received separate federal development contracts. This is further evidence that, despite a $448 million contract landed by Emergent to supply 18.75 million doses…

Here is the FBI letter to NAS with a list of questions for NAS to address. Perhaps of interest, it is dated September 15, the day before the first Congressional hearing, but fails to commit to the study financially until October. NAS was not aware of the FBI’s interest in moving forward until Director Mueller…

A judge unsealed a new batch of court documents in the anthrax case on Wednesday, at http://www.usdoj.gov/amerithrax/

USA Today: The FBI never examined anthrax samples from the 2001 contamination event at (Ivins’) biodefense lab, which he allegedly covered up after the anthrax mailings. Yet these samples should have been the first to examine once Ivins was deemed a suspect.

1. I agree with all scientific conclusions [of the Analytical Chemistry article] except for the one that the silicon in the spore coat excludes its artificial origin. Sandia people think about the exosporium as an absolute barrier for small molecules but it is a diffuse, loosely-bound, and permeable layer. We can think about the spores…

News article from the journal Analytical Chemistry

Article by Scott Shane September 23, 2008 WASHINGTON — Congressional critics of the F.B.I.’s anthrax investigation are seeking an independent review of the seven-year inquiry to assess the bureau’s performance and its conclusion that an Army scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, carried out the 2001 attacks alone. Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, would create…

Editorial from the The New York Post, reprinted in the Troy, NY Record: The often-partisan Democratic-run Congress has found a worthy target for the legislative branch’s constitutional oversight responsibilities: The FBI anthrax investigations. The House Judiciary Committee notified FBI Director Robert Mueller that oversight hearings will focus on the bureau’s investigation of Dr. Bruce Ivins…

SUN EDITORIAL: Overcoming Anthrax Doubts: Panel that will review government investigation of attacks must be independent (September 20, 2008) The FBI, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., and postal inspectors did not convince everyone last month when they laid out their case against the late Army microbiologist Dr. Bruce Ivins. Ivins, they said with surety,…

Scientific American today posted an article on the Sandia anthrax investigation performed by materials scientists. I’m not sure how much it adds to the weaponization discussion, and it includes some minor errors, but does expand on the role and timeline of Sandia’s work for the anthrax investigation.

Dr. Popov worked in the former Soviet Union’s Biopreparat Program and is a professor at George Mason University. Having met with him several years ago, I can attest to his impressive knowledge of anthrax. Here he demonstrates a deep understanding of the principles of weaponization. Some of his other comments include the following: 1. The…

Anthrax Suspicions: Why an independent look at the FBI probe is essential Friday, September 19, 2008; Page A18 THERE’S NO better proof of the need for an independent review of the FBI’s anthrax investigation than the words of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Mr. Leahy was one of the intended recipients of anthrax-filled letters sent…

Webcast of the hearing can be viewed here Remember Senator Grassley’s 18 questions about the case, posed to the FBI on August 7? They have still not been answered. Senator Grassley was very impressive during the hearing: logical, refusing to be sidetracked, steady like a bulldozer. He also submitted a Statement for the Record, from…

An LA Times article by David Willman discusses an email response by virologist Peter Jahrling, one of the first people to examine the Daschle anthrax, and to remark repeatedly on its properties that indicated deliberate weaponization: After being informed of the events at the (9/16/2008 House Judiciary Committee) hearing, Jahrling renounced his earlier analysis. “In…

Webcast of the hearing can be accessed here. Eight senators attended some of today’s hearing, and had a lot more to say about the anthrax letters. The Washington Post, AP, Reuters, USA Today and Salon (Glenn Greenwald) have all posted reports of the hearing, in which the FBI was lambasted over the letters case. Most…

The House Judiciary Committee hearing can be viewed here. Eleven or twelve members attended the House Judiciary Committee’s FBI oversight hearing today. Repeatedly, they expressed disappointment with the FBI’s continuing failure to answer their questions, and to respond to written questions. Director Mueller only produced a written response to the Committee’s September 5, 2008 letter…

David Harris of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that in light of questions about the FBI’s public identification of the late Dr. Bruce Ivins as “the only person responsible” for the 2001 anthrax attacks, Congress should demand an independent investigation to test the government’s evidence of its accusatory claim.

With respect to whether and how the spores were weaponized, I have both feet in the weaponization camp, having reviewed numerous anthrax epidemics and seen nothing like the Senate letters’ effect elsewhere, except Sverdlovsk. Yeltsin later admitted the 1979 Sverdlovsk epidemic resulted from a leak of anthrax from a biowarfare program. However, the problem remains…

From Sandia is a press release discussing their analysis of the spores From Dr. Henry L. Niman is a discussion of how some letters only caused cutaneous anthrax, while others only caused inhalation anthrax, strong indirect support for weaponization, since in nature there are vastly more cutaneous than inhalation cases, even in areas where spores…

The Scott Shane/Eric Lichtblau New York Times article, titled “Seeking Details, Lawmakers Cite Anthrax Doubts,” is found in today’s Sunday paper, although it went online yesterday. It deserves its own post, because it is so important to this developing story. It is chock full of interesting information and quotes, like this one about how the…

Today’s excellent NY Times piece by Scott Shane and Eric Lichtblau reveals that Ivins as “sole custodian” of the RMR-1029 anthrax flask was a fiction. The flask was not always stored in Ivins’ laboratory, but kept in another building at different times between 1997 and 2001, greatly increasing the number of those who had access…

The FBI has completed its disclosures, and the media, bloggers and scientists have spent a month discussing the anthrax letters case and putative guilt of Bruce Ivins. Where does the case stand, and what remains to be answered? Hoax Letters Remain a MysteryAt least one hoax letter was apparently thought by the FBI to have…

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS Sept. 5, 2008 By Seth Stern, CQ Staff Members of the House Judiciary Committee made clear Friday they expect more answers from the FBI about its August announcement that a government scientist was responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Committee members submitted a list of questions…

from the Daily Kos, by Califlander A few months ago, Plutonium Page wrote a diary about the anthrax attacks that made reference to Richard Preston’s 2002 book on the subject, called The Demon in the Freezer. Because I’d read some of Preston’s earlier work and found it interesting, I picked up a copy of The…

See September 6 version above

If Not Ivins by Katherine Heerbrandt When Norm Covert, a conservative former Fort Detrick public affairs officer, and attorney Barry Kissin, liberal activist opposing Detrick’s biolab expansion, agree that Bruce Ivins was not the anthrax killer, either the world’s spinning off its axis, or the truth is staring us so hard in the face we’d…

A transcript of the FBI’s scientific (afternoon of Aug. 18, 2008) briefing for media can be found here.

FDA answered a Freedom of Information Act request for me today. I asked how many adverse event reports had been filed for anthrax vaccine (5,931 reports through July 22, 2008) and how many FDA had designated as SERIOUS (618 reports). Serious reports are those indicating an event requiring hospitalization, a life-threatening event, permanent disability, or…

Science 22 August 2008:Vol. 321. no. 5892, pp. 1026 – 1027 excerpted from the body of the article: (my apologies that a free link is not available) …The FBI disclosed earlier that only eight samples had all four mutations; on Monday, it said that all but one of these came from USAMRIID. And all eight…

Excerpt from original story in The Oregonian indicates extensive contacts and debriefs between Haigwood and the FBI over 6 years. Although agents were close-mouthed with almost everyone else during this investigation, they apparently opened their case files for Dr. Haigwood: “Haigwood, who researches HIV transmission and vaccines, said she contacted the FBI shortly after the…

The FBI and major media have placed a lot of emphasis on the techniques used to identify the specific batch of Ames anthrax used in the Daschle/Leahy letters. Careful consideration of these methods is certainly important, for their accuracy is critical to the FBI’s theory of the case. However, at the end of the day,…

In an editorial published online today, titled “Case Not Closed,” Nature noted that “Only full disclosure can lift suspicions that the FBI has again targeted an innocent man:” … neither the conclusions drawn from the scientific analysis, nor such crucial legal elements as the veracity of the provenance and handling of samples, have been tested…

Washington Post and New York Times editorials today find the FBI’s revelations unconvincing, and call for an independent, scientific review of the evidence.

Does this case hinge on the first samples Ivins gave to the FBI, of which one was sent to Dr. Paul Keim in Arizona? Why does that sample matter, if the flask the FBI later confiscated had the same strain and genetic variability? Furthermore, if Keim’s sample is critical to the case, one must ask,…

I did not attend either FBI briefing, and the comments below relate to multiple news reports of the briefing. 1. Either one flask or two contained the specific anthrax strain in the letters–it was reported both ways in different newspapers, and apparently there was disagreement at the meeting.2. Two labs had this strain, but the…

Speaking to motive for the Daschle and Leahy letters, there might be multiple motives. The letters likely influenced their decisions on upcoming legislation like the Patriotic Act, and both had considerable power to promote or suppress legislation. The letters were likely intended to frighten all Congressional Members, whose office buildings were affected, and who, like…

A local Maryland paper provides new information from a colleague who worked at USAMRIID with Ivins through 2007, and published USAMRIID’s official response to questions.

Eric Lichtblau (NY Times) and Robert Roos (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy ) have written two comprehensive articles discussing the scientific and other evidence that has been presented. Lichtblau also discusses a closed-door FBI briefing that took place on August 14. They conclude the case is found seriously wanting.

David Willman tells us today that the FBI missed Ivins for so many years because it was obsessed with Hatfill. Is this the FBI’s apologia? The FBI is a federal law enforcement agency; it is not a person with feelings and quirks. I don’t think we can let the FBI off the hook because of…

Itching to grapple with the scientific analysis employed by the FBI? Martin Enserink and Yudhijit Bhattacharjee of Science have done the best reporting yet on the kinds of microbial forensic evidence we are likely to see. Meanwhile, Carrie Johnson reports on House and Senate Judiciary Committee oversight panels, which have proposed September hearings to investigate…

On August 7, 2008 Senator Grassley wrote to Attorney General Mukasey and FBI Director Mueller asking them to answer 18 excellent questions about their investigation.

Case Analysis in a Nutshell 1. Ivins cannot be placed at the Princeton mailbox at either of the two times he would have to have been there.2. There are additional hoax letters that have not been discussed by FBI in the information released Wednesday; may we assume Ivins could not be placed at those mailbox…

On June 29, 2007 a Government Accountability Office report was issued regarding the military Vaccine Healthcare Centers, which were formed in 2001 to take care of injuries from anthrax vaccine. They have treated 2,400 ill soldiers, the vast majority for illnesses developing in close proximity to anthrax vaccinations. Page 4 of the report says, “Officials…

Thanks to a comment, I just reread Don Foster’s The Message in the Anthrax, published in Vanity Fair and Reader’s Digest in 2003. This is a must-read if you want to understand the universe of evidence that has accrued in this case. Foster discusses the hoax letters; the Assaad story (by Laura Rozen); how the…

DNA is just another anthrax clue, not clincher: Its use in distinguishing bacteria is limited. Some scientists want to know what else implicated Bruce ivins. By Faye Flam, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer DNA evidence alone wasn’t a smoking gun in the case against Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks, say microbiologists…

See Brad Friedman’s piece at The Guardian, UK, and this Washington Post Editorial Holes in the Anthrax Case? The nation and the FBI would benefit from an independent review of the investigation. Saturday, August 9, 2008; A14 ON WEDNESDAY, the federal government made public much of its case against accused anthrax killer Bruce E. Ivins….

In his news conference on Wednesday, August 6, US Attorney Jeffrey Taylor mentioned (evidence point 4) that while Ivins had been under 24/7 surveillance, he discarded some materials on DNA coding. If the FBI was about to charge Ivins, you would expect he was still under 24/7 surveillance, right? Well, a tylenol overdose is entirely…