Colleague Comes Forward To Defend Anthrax Suspect 164
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times writes about Henry S. Heine, a former Army microbiologist who worked for years with Bruce E. Ivins, whom the FBI has blamed for the anthrax letter attacks that killed five people in 2001. Heine told a 16-member National Academy of Sciences panel reviewing the FBI's scientific work on the investigation that he believes it is impossible that the deadly spores could have been produced undetected in Ivins's laboratory, as the FBI asserts. Heine told the panel that producing the quantity of spores in the letters would have taken at least a year of intensive work using the equipment at the army lab, an effort that would not have escaped colleagues' notice. Lab technicians who worked closely with Ivins have told Heine they saw no such work. Heine adds that, in addition, the biological containment measures where Ivins worked were inadequate to prevent the spores from floating out of the laboratory into animal cages and offices. 'You'd have had dead animals or dead people.' Asked why he is speaking out now, almost two years after Ivins's suicide, Heine says that Army officials had prohibited comment on the case, silencing him until he left the government laboratory. Although Heine does not dispute that there was a genetic link between the spores in the letters and the anthrax in Ivins's flask, Heine says samples from the flask were widely shared. 'Whoever did this is still running around out there. I truly believe that.'"
Re:Anthrax... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure they would. But the other 299,999,950 of us need to decide if such attacks warrant as much attention as, say, car accidents.
Re:Anthrax... (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah, all 5 of them out of a country of 330,000,000.
An Anthrax Epidemic?
Killed in car accidents 42,116*
Killed by the common flu 20,000*
Killed by murders 15,517*
Killed in airline crashes
(of 477m passenger trips) 120 (1)
Killed by lightning strikes 90*
Killed by Anthrax 5
(1) Annual average over 19 year period.
*Average annual totals in United States.
While their deaths were tragic, putting it in perspective puts death by Anthrax WAY down the list of things to really worry about. Somewhere way down after the 58 / year by lightning, 57 by tornadoes, 48 by hurricanes, etc.
Re:suicide? (Score:2, Insightful)
Everyone says their friend is innocent (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Anthrax... (Score:4, Insightful)
Who said you should spend your time worrying about it?
Re:Anthrax... (Score:5, Insightful)
The "blown out of proportion" aspect of the story was the "threat of terrorism". The anthrax attacks hit the Capitol at the same time legislators were being pressured to pass the PATRIOT Act. The anthrax attacks delivered the unspoken message to our representatives that "nobody is safe from terrorists".
Re:this story is made for paranoid schizophrenics (Score:5, Insightful)
No it screams government incompetence. Someone sent the samples. The FBI jumped to conclusions and harassed a man to death that they thought was a suspect.
It's not the first time. Remember Richard Jewell [wikipedia.org]? After he saved countless lives by noticing a suspicious backpack and evacuating the area around it in Centennial Olympic Park, he was first hailed as a hero. The FBI investigated him for no other reason than he fit the profile of a lone bomber despite having no background with bomb making. What's worse is that he FBI leaked that he was a suspect. After a trial in the media and having all his possessions thoroughly search by the FBI, it wasn't until months later that a US Attorney (and not the FBI) declared he was no longer a suspect. Years later Eric Rudolph admitted he planted the bombs.
Re:Silence != Truth (Score:5, Insightful)
It really makes me wonder if overzealous nuts in the Bush regime could have caused anthrax to be let lose to justify our military actions. I have no trust at all after things like WaterGate and the arms for drugs crap that went on under republican administrations.
Re:suicide? (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you have any idea how little codeine is in those pills? Even downing more than enough for the APA to kill you wouldn't result in significant pain reduction. It wouldn't do squat to alleviate the pain of liver failure.
As logion said, codeine is a joke. Tylenol with codeine is what they hand out when people think they need something stronger than tylenol, but they don't. If they actually need something stronger than tylenol, they will get something with oxycodone in it.
never question authority (Score:1, Insightful)
It was done by rogue elements inside the government who wanted that patriot act passed, plus as a warning to journalists/newsies to never investigate beyond what the government official fairy tale story is on important events, such as 9-11. The mainstream press has just ceased doing any investigative reporting where it could contradict what the official party line is. And you don't need tinfoil, false flag events, using agent provocateurs, etc are SOP with government(s) going way way back, from small town police forces all the way to the top of the military industrial complex. Look at Viet Nam, a huge war promoted in part on a huge lie, the "gulf of tonkin" attack. War is big business, the security police state is big business, and then you have to look at "who profits" the most politically from having US boots on the ground all over the middle east (hint: proxy fighting forces for a regime that is untouchable politically inside the US)
Re:Anthrax... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure "this guy" is more qualified than you to make the call.
Re:Silence != Truth (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd agree, but I'd think if we were running a covert bio-weapons program there'd be pretty tight controls on it - tight enough that if some got mailed to a congressman we'd get the right guy the first time.
This whole thing stinks, but I still don't buy the even more conspiratorial we did it to pass the patriot act - does anyone really believe that a few people getting sick on September 20th 2001 is the real impetus behind patriot?
Re:Silence != Truth (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Can you say inside job? (Score:3, Insightful)
No one was ever charged, and they did not then, nor now, have enough to "prove" (meaning get a conviction) anyone did it. They just got a break when there was a suicide (whether real or arranged) and closed the case.
Re:Anthrax... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Anthrax... (Score:3, Insightful)
The Anthrax found in the letters was allowed to float around in the air in crowded places, too. How many people died?
This guy is giving second-hand and speculative "evidence", and it's not holding up to scrutiny.
Enough to be noticed.
Re:Anthrax... (Score:1, Insightful)
Lol, Obama engineered a financial crisis before he even became president! This guy's a real whiz!
Have fun continuing to invent fantasies even more ludicrous than the GP