Is There Enough?

Recently there have been reports of a 7 year case opened by the FBI involing anthrax mailings and a NCI scientist named Bruce Ivins. If you don't know what anthrax is, it's a type of virus that is highly lethal and used in biomilitary warfare. The largest supply of anthrax is located at Fort Detrick, Maryland, which, coincidentally, is also where the National Cancer Institute is stationed. Bruce Ivins was a military scientist who worked on the cures of Anthrax and studied the effects Anthrax has on people and animals.

The case started in 2001, when letters containing Anthrax was sent to colleges and other government buildings. The result was a complete quarintine of the White House. The mailings killed at least 10 innocent people, causing the FBI to open up a case. At the beggining, the FBI suspected Ivin's colleague of the mailings and had him interrogated and under suspicion for 2 years. However, Ivin's colleague was later set free after there was no clear evidence against him and payed $5 million in repercusions. Later, the FBI turned their investigation to Ivin.

Ivin had given the FBI a false sample of Anthrax to use in their case, and he was one of the only authorized personnel to obtain the anthrax. Before that, he had complained as to the limited number of test units, claiming that they would not know how anthrax effected humans unless they tested it on humans. The military, naturally denied this request, claiming that monkeys would be enough. When Ivin learned that the FBI was hot on his trail, he committed suicide, causing the FBI to close the case. The FBI claimed that Bruce Ivin was the only person in the scheme.

However, many people are skeptical as to if Bruce Ivin really was the mailer. Some people believe that the FBI is just using Ivin's death as an excuse to close the 7 year old case, and claim that there is not enough evidence to go against him. Ivin's lawyer claims that if Bruce was still alive, there would be no doubt that he would've been proved innocent. So now, with the facts all lain out, it's up to the reader to make the decision. Did the FBI have enough evidence to back its theory, or is it just a cover-up to the poor investigation of this crime? We'll never know.