August 2008: Case Closed

Photo: Captain DJ
The FBI pins the 2001 anthrax attacks on Bruce Ivins. The Fort Detrick scientist won't be around to answer questions, having committed suicide late last month.

One more thing we're meant to put behind us. No reason for further concern about the mailings one week after 9/11, designed to look like the work of Islamic terrorists and aimed at media figures and Democratic senators. Some poor working stiff Post Office employees are among the several murder victims.

Glenn Greenwald on August 5—"The FBI's emerging, leaking case against Ivins,"—

If even the government-loving Time Magazine is now beginning tepidly to wonder "How Solid is the Anthrax Evidence?" -- and is even enumerating several important grounds for skepticism about the case against Ivins -- that's a very good indication of the fact that the FBI's claims are plagued by glaring holes.

A few days earlier, Greenwald outlined some of nagging questions about the media's role in promoting the story in 2001—

•The actions of ABC News represent "the single greatest, unresolved media scandal of this decade." After the attacks, the network repeatedly broadcasts false claims that bentonite has been found in the tested bacteria, linking the anthrax to Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program. This is based on information from what ABC calls "well-placed sources"—in the government, and/or its political operatives. ABC has never revealed who told these lies.
• ABC reports in October 2001 that the bentonite was discovered in tests made at Fort Detrick. By 2008, the same facility is being claimed as the source of the anthrax.
• January 2002: profiting from fresh memories of the anthrax mailings, Bush claims Iraqi plans to develop anthrax, during his "Axis of Evil" State of the Union speech.
• Greenwald quotes a 2008 Slate article by Richard Cohen: "I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official, and I immediately acted on it."

Greenwald adds—

That applies to much of the Beltway class, including many well-connected journalists, who were quietly popping cipro back then because, like Cohen, they heard from Government sources that they should. Leave aside the ethical questions about the fact that these journalists kept those warnings to themselves. Wouldn't the most basic journalistic instincts lead them now -- in light of the claims by our Government that the attacks came from a Government scientist -- to wonder why and how their Government sources were warning about an anthrax attack?

Besides his questions about ABC's and Cohen's sources, Greenwald in another piece poses questions about additional actors:

• Why were White House aides given cipro weeks before the anthrax attacks, and why "on the night of the Sept. 11 attacks, [did] the White House Medical Office dispense... Cipro to staff accompanying Vice President Dick Cheney as he was secreted off to the safety of Camp David"? [Washington Post, 10/23/2001]
• Why, if Cheney was given cipro on the night of the 9/11 attacks, was he allegedly "convinced that he had been subjected to a lethal dose of anthrax" on October 18, and that this fear is what led him to seek refuge in "undisclosed locations" and thereafter support an array of hard-line tactics against suspected terrorists? [Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, 2008];
• If -- as was publicly disclosed as early as 2004 -- Bruce Ivins' behavior in 2001 and 2002 ... was so suspicious, why was he allowed to remain with access to the nation's most dangerous toxins for many years after, and why wasn't he a top suspect much earlier? [USA Today, 10/13/2004];
• What was John McCain referencing when he went on national television in October, 2001 and claimed "there is some indication... some of this anthrax may -- and I emphasize may -- have come from Iraq"? [Late Show with David Letterman, 10/18/2001];
• What was Joe Lieberman's basis for stating...in the midst of advocating a U.S. attack on Iraq, that the anthrax was so complex and potent that "there's either a significant amount of money behind this, or this is state-sponsored, or this is stuff that was stolen from the former Soviet program"? [Meet the Press, 10/21/2001];

The latter would be Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Who promised–when his Senate seat was threatened in 2006–to hold hearings on the administration's Katrina non-response. Thanks to his Republican backers, the threat was over in 2007–when he proclaimed, "looking back, and assigning blame would be a waste of Congress' time," and, "We don't want to play 'gotcha' anymore."

It's never been a matter of "play" to the victims. As hurricane season begins, Athenae asks Americans to–

Think of elderly woman down the street, who wheels her little metal cart to the grocery store each Monday afternoon, who calls a cab to take her to the doctor and pays the driver from a little clutch purse, and doesn't own a car. Think of how you never see her children or any younger relatives at all; think of how you've often wondered if she has any. Think of how she would get in a car and drive 10 hours to safety, all by herself.

An eloquent piece that should be read in its entirety.