NY Times Letter - Ivins Suicide

To the Editor:

Focus on Dr. Bruce E. Ivins’s suicide obscures the remarkable fact that the anthrax that killed five people came from a United States defense laboratory, even if evidence against any individual is not conclusive.

Before 2001, some of us in public health described bioterrorism as an exaggerated threat. No one had ever died from bioterrorism, and we warned that the proliferation of laboratories studying anthrax and other biological weapons agents was a terrible mistake, diverting money from real health needs and dangerously multiplying the number of people with access.

After the 2001 anthrax letters, our warnings were buried in an avalanche of fear-mongering; to this day, billions are being spent to support many more such labs.

With the only bioterrorist casualties traceable to a defense laboratory, isn’t it time for a new look at whether the bioterrorism scare was as fictitious and harmful as the W.M.D. scare that helped lead us into the Iraq war disaster, and whether the huge spending on so-called bioterrorism defense continues to increase the public’s risk from accidental or purposeful release of the dangerous materials being studied?

Hillel W. Cohen

Bronx, Aug. 2, 2008

The writer is an associate professor of epidemiology and population health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Bruce Ivins Suicide

Reliable source says:

Conspiracy theory below, take with liberal dose of salt (if you pass this

on, please leave my name and identifying info out of it):

They desperately want this investigation to be closed before Bush Jr. leaves

office. The trail from Ivins leads to Bush the Elder's cronies.

This reeks. While it's entirely likely and possible Ivins was/is involved

in the episode, he was/is a low-level operative with little motive.

As a govt employee, he receives no additional compensation from anything he

develops for govt. His only hope for more money is to leave govt service

and go to private sector. It makes not a bit of difference if he developed

a new vaccine or not, with his background as USAMRIID anthrax researcher, he

would be hired by any company working on anthrax vaccine. Any company

making anthrax vaccine would be using strains/techniques developed by USAMRIID.

Enter a Michigan company named Bioport. In Sept 2001, they were the only

company making anthrax vaccine for US govt. Due to poor quality control,

the FDA had stripped them of their license to produce anthrax vaccine

earlier in 2001. Bioport was in great financial difficulty, unable to sell

their product.

Board of Bioport and investors in Bioport are a who's who of Bush the

Elder's cronies, including Carlyle Group.

After 9/11/01, it's obvious to Bioport folks that funding for bioterrorism

will be bypassed in favor of security for airlines, bombs, etc.

How to get funding for bioterrorism products, and anthrax in particular?

Simply make some high-profile folks/organizations targets of mailed anthrax

to create public hysteria. Tabloid news organizations were first, then

politicians who wielded the pursestrings.

First target was the National Enquirer, then NY Post, and NY Times and network

news organizations, I think NBC, ABC, and CBS. That's the hysteria-whipping part.

Then they mailed it to Sen. Leahy and Tom Daschle. That's

the pursestring part.

Mailings started on 9/18/01, exactly one week after 9/11/01. All the

mailings except one were on Jewish holidays (Rosh Hashonah, Yom Kippur,

Succoth). I heard a rumor that a Jewish star was enclosed in the envelope

mailed to the Natl Enquirer, don't know if that's true.

The letters were mailed in the Princeton NJ area, and processed at the

Trenton NJ postal facility. The anthrax strain was a specific military one,

about nine US facilities had access to it, most important were USAMRIID and Bioport.

I think it's likely Ivins did the actual mailings. Princeton NJ is an easy

drive from Fredrick MD, and can be done without hitting toll roads where

toll booth surveillance would be used. As a bioagent and infectious disease

researcher, he would have been vaccinated against anthrax and other

diseases, and thus could safely handle the letters. He would also be

competent at handling them without contaminating his vehicle, which could

have incriminated him had someone come in contact with anthrax from the vehicle.

But what motive? Bioport had plenty of financial motive, but why Ivins?

Newspaper reports say he was 62 at the time of death. That means he was 55

at the time of the anthrax attacks. 55 is the minimum retirement age for

govt Civil Service employees, and he could conceivably have been looking for

more remunerative private sector employment post-retirement.

I'm sure as a prominent USAMRIID anthrax researcher, he was well-known to

Bioport folks. Perhaps they promised him a lucrative job post-retirement.

Reading the news accounts, it seems that all the Hatfill "person of

interest" stuff was intended to throw off media from focusing on the real

McCoy. The news reports today say that Ivins was acting strangely in the

first six months post-anthrax attack, and he was under

investigation/suspicion early on. But all they did was haunt and harass

Hatfill for years until he won his settlement in June 2008. Note that the

"person of interest" rumor mill was started by Bush Jr. crony Ashcroft.

Latest news is that mental health professionals are saying Ivins was a nut

job. Hard to believe he received and retained the super-duper security

clearances required for his job if that's true.

So... my take on it is that familiar insight from Deep Throat... "Follow the

money." The money trail leads to investors in Bioport, and that leads to

Bush the Elder and his friends.

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Reading today's newswires I am flabbergasted...

They are all writing about how supposedly Ivins' motive was to "test his

cure" on people. First off, a vaccine is not a cure, it is prophilactic: it prevents disease, does not cure disease.

Looks like no one

writing about this story ever passed a basic biology course. Second, they

fail to make a link to how development of a working vaccine could possibly

be a motive. It's not plausible. Show me the money.

These are the same gullible knuckleheads who swallowed (and promoted) the

official line on Iraq and WMDs. As Britney Spears sang, "Whoops, you did it

again..."

Interesting note... I read the Wikipedia article on Bioport, it is repointed

to the newly formed/restructured parent company Emerging Biosciences, and

reads like a flak's press release. Previously, the Bioport Wiki had all the

details about the FDA's recission of their vaccine license, the investment

by Carlyle, the side effects of the vaccine, etc. Waaay sanitized version

up there now, I wonder if the original is in the Wayback Machine.