The Anthrax Prosecutor: The Daughter of the Defense Attorney for BushCo’s “Germ Boy”

/in /by

Guess who they’ve got prosecuting the anthrax case? Amy Jeffress, daughter of Bill Jeffress, the guy who was last seen trying to keep Scooter Libby, known within the Administration as "Mr. Germ," out of the pokey. Yeah. That gives me confidence in the investigation.

First, from an account of today’s meeting with Judge Lamberth (h/t JimWhite and bmaz):

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the release of hundreds of pages of documents, including more than a dozen search warrants issued as the government closed in on Ivins in an investigation into events that killed five, sickened dozens and rattled the nation a few weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The long-sealed material was expected to be available to the public within hours.

Lamberth ordered the release after consultation with Amy Jeffress, a national security prosecutor at the Department of Justice. [my emphasis]

Next, the wedding announcement showing who Amy Jeffress’ daddy is:

The bride, 34, is known as Amy and is keeping her surname. She is an assistant United States attorney in Washington. She graduated magna cum laude from Williams College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received a master’s degree in political science from the Free University in Berlin and a law degree from Yale University.

The bride is the daughter of Judith and William Jeffress Jr. of Arlington, Va. Her mother is a social worker at the Adoption Service Information Agency in Washington. Her father is a partner in Miller, Cassidy, Larocca & Lewin, a Washington law firm where the bridegroom is an associate. [my emphasis]

And finally, here’s Jeremy Scahill on Libby’s role as "Germ Boy" within the administration.

In mid-2002, as they struggled desperately to sell the war, these key players in "Plamegate" were engaged in full-out offensive aimed at convincing Americans that the country faced an imminent threat of a smallpox attack. To underscore this "threat," Libby began fanatically pressing to have the entire US population preemptively vaccinated against smallpox (which was declared eradicated in 1980).

[snip]

What Hauer and his colleagues at HHS may not have known is that smallpox was a career-long obsession of Libby’s–so much so that his nickname in the administration was "Germ Boy."

[snip]

More than a decade later, Libby was facing renewed frustration with another group of experts challenging his obsession. Hauer says that when he and other public health officials presented their opposition to Libby’s "hysterical" universal smallpox vaccination scheme, the pressure from Cheney’s office increased. In particular, Hauer says that one of Cheney’s top Homeland Security advisers, Carol Kuntz (who worked as Libby’s assistant at the Pentagon during the Gulf War), became "downright offensive" toward Hauer, saying "It was very clear that I was not giving her the answers she wanted or telling her what she wanted to hear."

"We got a lot of pressure from Carol and the vice president’s office," Hauer recalls. "The vice president went to CDC and was briefed on this and we certainly were under the impression that this was a real threat…Whether or not it was there or not, we were being told it was."

Scooter Libby was the point man in the Administration for raising the specter of biological threats–he was behind Cheney’s efforts, just as the anthrax attack took place, to push Bush to adopt a bio-terrorism preparedness plan. Here’s Jane Mayer:

After the September 11 attacks, Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, screened a video of the Dark Winter exercise [showing the effects of a smallpox outbreak] for Cheney, showing that the United States was virtually defenseless against smallpox or any other biological attack. Cheney in particular was so stricken by the potential for attack that he insisted that the rest of the National Security Council undergo a gruesome briefing on it on September 20, 2001. When the White House sensor registered the presence of such poisons less than a month later, many, including Cheney, believed a nightmare was unfolding. "It was a really nerve-jangling time," the former official said.

In time, the Situation Room alarm turned out to be false. But on October 22, the Secret Service reported that it had found what it believed to be additional anthrax traces on an automated letter-opening device used on White House mail. By then, Cheney had convinced the President to support a $1.6 billion bioterrorism-preparedness program. Cheney argued that every citizen in the country should be vaccinated against smallpox.

Everyone’s been talking for a week about how Ivins had this urgent desire to get the country to take bioterrorism more seriously, and that was sufficient motive for him to start sending anthrax to Democratic senators. But Scooter Libby, even more than Ivins, was pushing that issue, during precisely the period when the anthrax attack hit.

Now, frankly, Bill Jeffress was easily Libby’s best lawyer. If Amy is anything like her dad, I’m sure she’s a superb lawyer (and as an Amherst grad, I have to grudgingly admit that her degree from Williams suggests she’s pretty smart, too). And I have no reason to believe that Libby had anything to do with the anthrax attack (though some of his close allies were behind the suggestion that Iraq was responsible).

Isn’t this kind of a huge conflict of interest?

image_print
  2. JimWhite says:

    Wow–that Libby as Germ Boy is totally new to me. Kinda gives fresh meaning to the statement about members of the OVP staff being given Cipro as they were herded off to their undisclosed location on 9/11, doesn’t it? Was this at Libby’s insistence? I thought previous suggestions had been that Hauer suggested that, but Hauer comes out very differently in what is presented here.

    However, I still have a problem with seeing them as all so pants-wettingly afraid. Widespread fear and public panic just worked too well for their agenda and they implemented it too quickly and seamlessly for them to have been so afraid. Of course, I am just now getting to that section of Shock Doctrine in my slow reading, so that goes to my state of mind…

    • emptywheel says:

      Read the whole Scahill piece.

      And remember that Judy and Libby first hooked up over bioterrorism. That was after Judy got fake anthrax sent to her, of course.

          • brendanx says:

            Why would she do it? The publicity/propaganda had already been generated by the real letters. If it was a matter of publicity, why would she need more, when she was already the “Germs” expert? Or was it a nervous criminal trying to inoculate herself, so to speak, from suspicion?

            • emptywheel says:

              Let’s pretend, for the moment, that her fellow Aspen trees were behind the crime (I can’t help but note that Bernard Lewis, the Princeton prof, is a big player in the neocon fantasies).

              If so, I think you send to Judy because her role in the LARGER disinformation campaign is dramatizing this stuff. No one else–not the postal workers who died, not Tom Brokaw–will tell the story of opening something that might be anthrax. But Judy can do it with perfect pitch, since she can do both drama and the science behind it.

              • brendanx says:

                can’t help but note that Bernard Lewis, the Princeton prof, is a big player in the neocon fantasies

                That gave me a frisson. That’s very, very good.

              • klynn says:

                Let’s pretend, for the moment, that her fellow Aspen trees were behind the crime (I can’t help but note that Bernard Lewis, the Princeton prof, is a big player in the neocon fantasies).

                (my bold)

                So we are going will the Pando allegory…

                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree)

                Funny you should state that about Lewis and mention Princeton. I was about to comment that we can put Judy at a Princeton mailbox a great deal easier than we can Ivins.

                But Judy can do it with perfect pitch, since she can do both drama and the science behind it.

              • brendanx says:

                If so, I think you send to Judy because her role in the LARGER disinformation campaign is dramatizing this stuff. No one else–not the postal workers who died, not Tom Brokaw–will tell the story of opening something that might be anthrax. But Judy can do it with perfect pitch, since she can do both drama and the science behind it.

                But that’s why I’m puzzled. She’s already the expert (as of Oct. 2, 2001, at least). She doesn’t need to get a letter to propel the disinformation campaign and get interviews. It seems like overkill, or inoculation. Then again, as her ignorance of the White House visitor logs indicates, she’s not a genius.

                Why Brokaw, by the way? Did he spurn them in some way?

              • Artep says:

                More musings: Scooter Libby’s prose

                You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover–Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work–and life.

                Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program

                Is he making a series of predictions, or is he just laying out their plans?

      • Nell says:

        Judy and Libby first hooked up over bioterrorism. That was after Judy got fake anthrax sent to her, of course.

        What’s the source on Miller’s receiving the fake anthrax letter in October 2001?

  3. brendanx says:

    Scooter Libby, known within the Administration as “Mr. Germ,”

    Is it a joshing reference to the admiration he professed for Mrs. Germ’s book, and, presumably, other attentions he lavished on her?

  6. cbl2 says:

    Emptywheel,

    assuring to see you have confidence in Jeffress

    has Irving always been a germaphobe . . .or just one of Cheney’s ho’s workin’ the BioPort corner ?

    random fyi’s – although you probably know – BioPort’s lab is in Lansing. further, the late Admiral Crowe sat on their board (I mention him because supposedly it was he who gave the greenlight to give Anthrax spores to Saddam to use against the Iranians)oh and Carlyle Group has a 15% stake in BioPort

  7. brendanx says:

    U.S. troops in Iraq were used as guinea pigs for a vaccine. Meryl Nass is quoted in this description of the issue.

    Meryl Nass, M.D., Director of the Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project (MBVP), said “America’s military service members deserve to be fully informed about the deaths, chronic illness and disabilities that many soldiers have experienced following anthrax vaccination. The FDA-approved anthrax vaccine package insert acknowledges only six deaths and two dozen autoimmune diseases associated with the vaccine, but the FDA has not directed the manufacturer to update the insert in nearly five years. More than 1200 anthrax vaccine-injured soldiers have been treated at the congressionally mandated Vaccine Healthcare Centers, which DOD has attempted to close. They are suffering with crippling, life-altering illnesses that are being swept under the rug. We know the anthrax vaccine is reactive and we suspect it is especially risky for those with hereditary and other risk factors that DOD refuses to investigate or acknowledge.”

    Soldiers who refuse to be vaccinated may face a court martial.

  8. orionATL says:

    lordy,

    an entire administration chock-full-of nut cases.

    the g.w. bush presidency has got to have set a record for putting crack-pots of all kinds – religious, legal, medical, military, economic, scientific, …. – in high positions.

  10. wigwam says:

    In this regard, we need to mention Judy Miller’s best seller, Germ, and the media’s scare stories about Dr. Rihab Taha, Iraq’s evil female scientist known as “Doctor Germ.”

    The laughs never stop.

  14. perris says:

    I would like to reminid everyone as think progress reminded me, seven years ago today the president should have set into motion the mechanisms at his disposal and used the succesful template already prepared to avert the attack he was briefed;

    Flashback: Seven years ago today, Bush received ‘Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.’ memo.

    before that briefing this president was an inpotent lame duck, wallowing in clintons succesful presidency and the knowledge that everyone knew the supreme court placed him in office not the election

    seven years ago began hise rise in influence and the fall of our republic, seven years ago

  15. brendanx says:

    A question I had from yesterday: Did they ever try to plant anthrax evidence in Iraq to match up with the U.S. case?

    • emptywheel says:

      That’s part of why I brought up Hindawi. More importantly, the mobile bioweapons labs were supposed to do that–at least set up hte “lab” in which this could have been done.

      It’s worth pointing out that Steven Hatfill worked on building a model mobile bioweapons lab, so they could figure out how it would work. Also worth pointing out that David Kelly’s expertise was the germ warfare stuff–he was debunking the MBLs when he was suicided.

      • JimWhite says:

        Also worth pointing out that David Kelly’s expertise was the germ warfare stuff–he was debunking the MBLs when he was suicided.

        And Spertzel then showed up to blame Iraqi intelligence for Kelly’s death. That was several months after the “liberation” of Iraq and the fall of the government.

      • DWBartoo says:

        …”when he was suicided.”

        Seems to be a bit of that going around.

        Oddly, one way or another, all have a ‘connection’ to Bu$h Co.

        Excellent term, ’suicided’, Dr. Accountability, it’s so … ‘now’.

  16. perris says:

    I also seem to remember a plot was uncovered to plant wmd’s to “discover”

    is my memory mistaken?

  17. brendanx says:

    I hadn’t realized that “Germs” came out so recently, and in such a timely manner: Oct. 2, 2001.

    William Safire called it “the most important book of the year.”

    • MarkH says:

      I hadn’t realized that “Germs” came out so recently, and in such a timely manner: Oct. 2, 2001.

      William Safire called it “the most important book of the year.”

      Consider what we’re now thinking about the connection between her and Libby and GERMS and then look at her other book(s). How do they indicate a tie-in to the administration and it’s many different activities?

      Didn’t she co-author one about the first Gulf war with Laurie Mylroie?

  18. Kirk James Murphy, M.D. says:

    OTish here….

    I’m more and more curious about the forensic psychiatrist Jean Duley [alias Jean Wittman] is reported to have cited as the basis for her allegation re Ivins purported history of homicidality.

    Question 1:

    Some forensic psychiatrists appear to be independent: their findings don’t seem (over time) to favor prosecution or defense.

    Some forensic psychiatrists are what my colleagues genteely describe as “whores”: their findings skew either towards defense or plaintiffs, and they tend to be hired by memeber of one Bar, but not the other.

    Does Dr. Irwin fall in any of the three patterns listed above?

    Question 2:

    What is the history — if any — of Dr. Irwin’s work with/for law enforcement / Federal agencies (esp drug propaganda shops “research” research agences like NIDA)?

    Question 3:

    IIRC, some Beltway area shrinks/mental health professionals are approved by spook world / law enforcement world to see patients with Federal security clearances.

    Is there a way of finding out if Dr. Irwin has had such approval?

    Question 4:

    If Dr. Irwin were to have had such approval, how might that have influenced his skepticism/credulity re law enforcement allegatons about Ivins’ alleged history?

    • mui1 says:

      Kirk, I am not sure that Dr. Irwin was a forensic psychiatrist are you? But I don’t get the connection between him and Duley, besides “treating” the same patient. But apparently Duley felt confident enough to label Ivins a “sociopath” based on what she said Irwin said. (Isn’t that an outdated term for a clinical worker? How about personality disorder? Duley according to WaPo was licensed only to drug abuse counselling ) And we haven’t heard from Irwin yet have we? I guess Ivins may have encountered Irwin when he did rehab.
      I was confused by the use of the term “forensic psychiatrists” in the articles about Ivins. I asked a psychiatrist who works at a state institute for the criminally insane, what constitutes a “forensic psychiatrist”, since he/she goes to court re: patients (most are already not guilty by reasons of insanity, or serving sentences already but considered too sick to be in jail) , but doesn’t consider himself/herself a “forensic psychiatrist.” He/she said that a forensic psychiatrist has different training. Legal training? Something like that . . . Couldn’t get more out of him/her.

        • mui1 says:

          Questions asked by the court of a forensic psychologist are generally not questions regarding psychology but are legal questions and the response must be in language the court understands.

          Voluntariness. Usually in a clinical setting a psychologist is dealing with a voluntary client. A forensic psychologist evaluates clients by order of a judge or at the behest of an attorney.

          The forensic psychologist views the client or defendant from a different point of view than does a traditional clinical psychologist. Seeing the situation from the client’s point of view or “empathizing” is not the forensic psychologist’s task.

          Interesting, but I can still see a lot of x-over.

      • Kirk James Murphy, M.D. says:

        mui1, I’m so happy to hear from you here

        Though I’ve no personal knowledge of Dr. Irwin, he’s described as specializing in forensic psychiatry in a few sources:

        healthgrades

        vitals

        He appears to have completed his residency long before specialized forensic fellowships were standardized; those practing forenisc psychiatry as a specialty before such fellowships became common still can and do practice that specialty.

        I’d surmise that court records would reveal the extent to which Dr. Irwin commonly practices forensic psych.

        Thanks for you kind question!

    • Citizen92 says:

      And Jason Torchinsky.

      Another person subpoenaed by the grand jury, according to several sources, was Jason Torchinsky, who, like Spavosky, was also a Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

      Torchinsky is not under investigation for any wrongdoing himself, but rather subpoenaed as a witness in the probe, sources said. Previously, however, Torchinsky had refused to voluntarily answer questions from investigators working for the Justice Department’s Inspector General about the politicization of the Civil Rights Divison. Reached at his home on Tuesday night, Torchinsky declined to comment for this article.

      For the unitiated, Torchinsky is a political dirty trickster of the first order. He works for Virginia State Senator Jill Holtzman-Vogel. Jill was General Counsel of the RNC back in 2000-2003. Jill is married to Ken Vogel, who himself is a GOP operative. Holtzman also runs a law firm in suburban VA which is really a political ops shop.

      Torchinsky is an important piece of this case because Holtzman-Vogel was responsible for setting up and running the sham nonprofit “American Center For Voting Rights” in 2004 – the one headed by Mark F. “Thor” Hearne, II that was to pivotal in pushing the agenda of so-called “voter fraud” cases.

      Torchinsky’s involvement with the nonprofit voter fraud myth squad as well as his service in the Civil Rights division – an office that has control over this issue is, shall we say, worrysome.

      • cbl2 says:

        what would we all give to know the current behind the scenes machinations and dynamics at DOJ ?!?!? –

        just sayin’ I’m feeling like some latter day Jim Garrison in that I’m tempted to leave notes to my kids on the questions we want answered – knowing damn good and well not to expect them in this lifetime – Alice Fisher’s, um, ‘accomplishments’ would be at the very top

    • BayStateLibrul says:

      >

      So why doesn’t Schlozman and Van Spakovsky ignore the subpoena like
      Mukasey with the Waxman dance?

      • MarkH says:

        So why doesn’t Schlozman and Van Spakovsky ignore the subpoena like
        Mukasey with the Waxman dance?

        Speaking of various things and Mukasey, I recall reading about Miller & Mylroie’s book about the ‘93 WTC bombing and the following trials and that the judge in that(those) case(cases) was Mukasey.

        A significant connection at the roots or just coincidence?

  21. brendanx says:

    emptywheel:

    Did I ever brag to you of my brief encounter with Miller? Next time I will just run the other way. Yikes.

  23. Xenos says:

    Funny – I graduated within a year of Jeffress at Williams, but could not place her in my memory. Went to check the alumni directory and she is nowhere to be found… Did she lie on her Yale Law application? Is this the dawning of Ephgate?!

  24. klynn says:

    Judy Miller’s 2001 book (written with 2 colleagues) “Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War,” Libby is described during his time at the Pentagon as “a trim, boyish lawyer” irritated by intelligence reports about Iraqi WMDs containing the words “probably” and “possibly.” Miller writes that Libby “told colleagues that intelligence analysts had an unfortunate habit: If they did not see a report on something, they assumed it did not exist.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..10779.html

  25. Boston1775 says:

    Well thanks for clearing that up EW at 35:)
    Should I go back to your book for more on this? Are there connections hidden in there? Or read his thing? Or Judy’s?
    Just… where do I start?

  26. brendanx says:

    I like this from Miller’s Hindawi article:

    In addition, he said, Iraq was never able to make dried anthrax, a medium that would have made the lethal spores far more durable and easier to disseminate. He thought he had devised a way to turn liquid anthrax into the even more lethal powder, he said, but he did not do it. ”I kept the method secret,” he said. ”History would have cursed me.” Several United Nations inspectors questioned his assertion that Iraq had not made a powdered form of anthrax. They said that in 1989 Iraq imported two drying ovens that could have made powdered anthrax and that at least one other senior scientist in the program appeared to know the required techniques.

    As Dr. Popov has indicated, you just need an oven, or to make things fancier, a convection oven, I guess. Miller is making out the technique to be less replicable than it is.

    • cbl2 says:

      he would have seen it as a ‘twofer’ as “initial reporting indicates the vaccine came too late for some 300-600 Americans, already infected by the spores found on yellow ribbon magnets . . .subsequently discovered to have been manufactured in Iran – I’m Alex Witt, Chris Jansing is up next with The Wall of Honor” …”

      apparently, this is one of my dark days

    • greenwarrior says:

      Shooter was willing to kill 300 to 600 people to satisfy his paranoia.

      or for fun and profit for the makers of the smallpox vaccine.

  29. Albatross says:

    Here’s an interesting tidbit on Democratic campaign politics from The Times of London:

    Whoever is to blame for America’s mortgage meltdown, it occurred under Republican rule and seems tailor-made to benefit the Democrats this year. Shouldn’t all these faltering rednecks, the front line of victims of Wall Street excess, be beating a path to Obama’s door?…

    …Obama aides are still searching for the right tone of voice for a black intellectual candidate to use when addressing a dim-witted redneck. They even called Bageant for help.

    Well, I see this as a positive step – that the Democrats really ARE trying to figure out a way to reach the working class. Hopefully they’ll settle on plain-speaking common sense as a tactic.

    • Twain says:

      Bageant is just the one to help them, too. He has a real handle on the poor and working poor. Good move.

    • perris says:

      Well, I see this as a positive step – that the Democrats really ARE trying to figure out a way to reach the working class

      while probably true it’s still a bizarre statement, the democratic party IS for the middle class, the repukelicans are for the wealthy and business

      how sad that we have to market to our base because they are either bigots or “reagan democrats” when we have always been their real champions

  30. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Dr. Irwin is described as a ”forensic psychiatrist”, one interpretation of which is a profiler. Does Dr. Irwin work for the FBI, another alphabet soup government agency or hospital, a tied think tank [sic], a local or national practice? That is, does he work at Quantico or Langley or private practice?

    Did he counsel Dr. Ivins, and had he a conflict of interest, or did he construct a history and profile of him from his government dossier? What other work has he done or published?

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        Granted; I assume they all have training in criminal psychology. But it would still be helpful to have answers to my questions in @54.

        From the limited background available online, and assuming the Dr. Irwin in Gaithersburg is the one involved here, he may be one of many [former] Army psychiatrists who work on patients who have security clearances and who do nasty things “on our behalf”, which along with all the other sins that flesh is heir too, may predispose them to need counseling. The “forensic” bit may just mean that unlike many MD’s, he’s willing regularly to testify in court, in the precise medico-legal language required.

        All of which assumes that Duley is correct, that Dr. Irwin had a relationship of some kind with the late Dr. Irvin.

        • mui1 says:

          Um well, Maybe kirk would be more of an authority here, but as to conflict of interest, a psychiatrist once told me that a psychiatrist who works for an insurance company, supervising how many visits a patient can get, is No Longer a Doctor.

  31. FrankProbst says:

    Here’s my big question for everyone. What’s more likely?

    A) A lone alcoholic homicidal maniac was able to infiltrate a secure US military facility and single-handedly design a highly-weaponized form of anthrax that even the Russians couldn’t develop, and he was able to do it all under the noses of a bunch of highly-trained bioweapons researchers who never realized what he was doing and had absolutely no idea that he was bat-shit crazy.

    B) The highly-weaponized form of anthrax that has now been traced back to a US bioweapons research facility was, in fact, designed by a team of scientists who were working on a clandestine (and illegal) bioweapons research program.

    Take your time with this. I know it may be hard to fathom that this Administration was doing anything even remotely illegal.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      I share the incredulity. There’s some dispute as to how “weaponized” or highly and uniquely processed this anthrax was. If it was not as uniquely processed as described by some, then the universe of manipulators is presumably larger. That seven years later, its source hasn’t been narrowed further suggests perhaps the critics are right — or our government has more bio-weapons programs than it’s willing to admit to.

  32. johnculpepper says:

    It is interesting that according to a poster on Glenn Greenwald’s blog, the Batelle corporation, which has a contract jointly with U of Texas (?) to work on an anthrax vaccine, is located in Princeton (near Trenton). Though weren’t some middle eastern terrorist suspects from Trenton arrested around that time?

    Also interesting that fall guy (if he is one) Ivins is a democrat. Interesting too that he took the same medicine as David Kelly (who was Bahai).

    Also interesting how much better defense Batman and Robin (as Patrick and Hatfill, as the two friends of Ollie North were known) had, as opposed to Ivins. (Like Scotter Libby and Judy Miller, they had written novels about anthrax.)

    Hatfill emerges from it all as a wealthy man. Ivins and Kelly emerge dead.
    Just saying.

  33. earlofhuntingdon says:

    A David S. Irwin, MD, has a psychiatric practice in Gaithersburg, MD, near Frederick. He graduated from Case Western Reserver Medical School 42 years ago. In 1966, the Vietnam War would have been approaching its height.

    Dr. Irwin’s residencies were at Letterman Army Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      That should read “Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine”, in Cleveland, OH, a highly-regarded school that has its own teaching hospital and which also works in association with the internationally rated Cleveland Clinic, the hospital of choice for Middle Eastern potentates with dicky hearts and sclerotic livers.

    • PetePierce says:

      Irwins a general shrink. It hasn’t been made clear at all what connection he had to Ivins.

      Further, the bottom line is that as late as July 10 despite the fact that DOJ and the Bioterrorism supervisors at Detrich Maryland knew that Ivins had an alcohol problem, Ivins had full access to that Anthrax lab as recently as July 10. So whoemever the mental health people who were consulting and treating Dr. Ivins were, they dropped the ball considerably and people can speculate about this Jean Carolyn Duly character and any number of shrinks.

      I have a puppy who knows given the clinical history we do have available that (and it may be poor unfortunate) given the pressure FBI was putting on him whether he is guilty of anything or not, given the documented Vodka history, Dr. Ivins shouldn’t have been working in that lab with access to killer microbes as recently as July 10, 2008 and if a shrink was treating Dr. Ivins they sure as well need some continuing CME on how to take care of patients themselves.

      • mui1 says:

        On the other hand, in a WaPo article (don’t have link, maybe Kirk Murphy does. It mentions Duley’s “biker past”.), colleagues indicate Ivins was a teetotaler and started to crack during the FBI investigation. Anyone who’s read Shock Doctrine, knows how easy it is to destroy a human being. The collagues seemed sympathetic to his plight. Perhaps a lot was going on over at Detrich and given what happened to Hatfil . . . It seems to easy to place blame with so little information this early.

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        David S. Irwin’s residencies at US Army hospitals suggest he was or still is in the Army, so he would know the national security drill and how to follow orders. His listings claim specialties in “Psychiatry & Neurology”, with sub-specialties in “Forensic Psychiatry, Psychiatry”.

        The claimed connection between Irwin and Ivins seems to come from Duley. She seems intentionally vague on whether she learned that from Ivins, from Irwin or the FBI or some combination. The local Frederick newspaper lists Duley’s lawyer as Mary McGuirck Drawbaugh, also of Frederick.

  34. JimWhite says:

    After some very quick skimming, I see spikes of afterhours activities by Ivins around the times of the mailings but dropping off just afterwards.

    It also appears that they did recover guns and body armor during searches of the residence while he was committed.

    They appear to have email corrspondence where he looked unstable prior to 9/11.

    They have a new theory on a Greendale School through a conservative Catholic organization he got a magazine from and to which he made donations.

    The theory on attacking Daschle and Leahy is that they were “pro-abortion Catholics” and Ivins’ wife was president of the local right to life group.

      • JimWhite says:

        This document. (You’ll understand if I don’t take time to fix the linebreaks…)

        Connection to “41h Grade, &eendale School”
        The investigation into the fictitious return address on envelopes used for the second
        round of anthrax mailings, “4th GRADE,” “GREENDALE SCHOOL,” has established a’possible
        link to the American Family Association (AFA) headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi. In
        October 1999, MA, a Christian organization, published an article entitled “AFA takes Wisconsin
        to court. ” The article describes a lawsuit filed in federal court, by the AFA Center for Law and
        Policy (CLP), on behalf of the parents of students at Greendale Baptist Academy. The article
        focuses on an incident that occurred on December 16, 1998, in which case workers of the
        Wisconsin Department of Human Services went to the Greendale Baptist Academy in order to
        interview a fourth-grade student. The case workers, acting on an anonymous tip that Greendale
        Baptist Academy administered corporal punishment as part of its discipline policy, did not
        disclose to the staff why they wanted to interview the student. The case workers interviewed the
        student in the absence of the student’s parents and informed the school staff that the parents were
        not to be contacted. The AFA CLP filed suit against the Wisconsin Department of Human
        Services, citing a violation of the parents’ Fourth Amendment rights.
        donations were
        made to the M A in the name of “Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Ivins” on eleven separate occasions
        beginning on December 3 1, 1993. After an approximate two year break in donations, the next
        donation occurred on November 1 1, 1999, one month after the initial article referencing
        Greendale Baptist Academy was published in the AFA Journal. It was also discovered that the
        subscription to the AFA Journal, in thename of “Mr. & Mrs. Bru ce- Iavins,”
        Frederick, Maryland 21 702, was active until March 2005.

    • FrankProbst says:

      The theory on attacking Daschle and Leahy is that they were “pro-abortion Catholics” and Ivins’ wife was president of the local right to life group.

      So now our home-grown anti-abortion terrorists have not only murdered obstetricians and blown up the Olympics, but they’ve also been responsible for the worst bioweapons attack on US soil in our nation’s history? That’s a pretty impressive track record!

      • mui1 says:

        I have doubts on that one too. Bradblog reports Ivins was a registered Democrats and some of the letters he allegedly wrote, if read in full, seem quite “librul.” Also, anyone who’s done a lot of phonebanking knows it’s not uncommon for spouses to be completely different on the issues. Although more often I’ve heard, “I need to talk to my husband first.”

  35. PetePierce says:

    Nice work Marcy. This is why I rely on EW and FDL and their commenters to keep me straight.

    Meanwhile in matters not Anthrax ole Mukasey has subpoenaed the Schlozz and other former DOJsters on civil rights. It may not take booze, tylenol, or anthrax to take them down.

    DOJ Begins to Subpoena a Select Few of their former lawyers–but not the main bad guys

    The extraordinary step by the Justice Department of subpoenaing attorneys once from within its own ranks was taken because several of them refused to voluntarily give interviews to the Department Inspector General, which has been conducting its own probe of the politicization of the Civil Rights Division, the same sources said.

    The grand jury has been investigating allegations that a former senior Bush administration appointee in the Civil Rights Division, Bradley Schlozman, gave false or misleading testimony on a variety of topics to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    Notice they aren’t using the grand jury for rape of US and Iraqi women abroad, Rove’s hijacking with Regent University morons of DOJ, Bush’s forgery via the OVP, Libby’s continued obstruction and sundry other matters. Mukasey continues to try to run out the clock and leave the shit for Obama DOJ.

  36. randiego says:

    65:

    Very interesting!! Quite the background she has. Amazing that she would be corrupt at such a stage in her career.

    I believe Xenos said he/she couldn’t place her at Williams, and she’s not in the Alumni listing.

    To be fair, even with the assumption of a conflict of interest, we’re still a long way from your description of corrupt.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      I take it from Xenos @ 64 that s/he apparently looked under “Dorothy” (and Toto, too) and found Jeffress in the Williams’ directory.

      • randiego says:

        thanks – I had an issue with jumping to the conclusion of “corrupt” – I don’t think we’re there yet.

        • earlofhuntingdon says:

          Granted, I think it’s pretty early to be flinging “corrupt” around, even if Williams regularly beats Amherst at contests involving athletic prowess.

          Ms. Jeffress, however, has a distinct handicap. Anyone working on “national security prosecutions” in the Ashcroft-Gonzales-Mukasey Department of Justice starts with negative credibility, regardless of her grades at Williams, Berlin or Yale. Hell, Yoo teaches at Berkeley and Bybee’s a federal appellate court judge.

        • bmaz says:

          She was a narcotics group AUSA for most of her career; should be rather curious to determine how exactly she came suddenly to be some counter-terrorism pro. Hey, I’ve done drug cases for twenty years, maybe I am a counter-terrorism pro too! Oh, and by the way, her father works with and for the ultimate right wing fixer, James Baker at Baker Botts. And double oh, so does her husband, this guy:

          10. Christopher R. Casey Cooper, 39. Cooper was born into one of the most prominent black families in Mobile, Alabama. His father co-owned an insurance and funeral-home business. Caseys aunt is Peggy Cooper Cafritz, a doyenne of Washington society and head of the DC school board.

          Cooper shares the reserve that comes from wealth. He graduated from Yale and went to Stanford law school, where he was president of its law review.

          He came to Washington to clerk for thenchief judge on the US Circuit Court of Appeals, Abner Mikva, then worked for deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick, whom he had met while a summer associate at Gorelicks law firm. At Justice he worked on a task force investigating church burnings in his home state. He returned to Miller Cassidy, now Baker Botts, in 1997 as an associate, working closely with star white-collar lawyer William Jeffress while dating Jeffresss daughter, assistant US Attorney Amy Jeffress. They are now married.

          Cooper has represented the royal family of Saudi Arabia in suits stemming from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. He currently represents Michael Scanlon, a lobbyist alleged to have attempted improper influence of members of Congress.

          Bill Jeffress, one of the attorneys for indicted White House aide Scooter Libby, is one of the best-known criminal-defense attorneys in Washington. His partner and son-in-law is said to be more than capable of filling his shoes one day.

    • Styve says:

      She’s an Asst. US Attorney during the Rove years and I would be very surprised if her role is anything but to cover-up the FBI’s wrongdoing.

  39. Neil says:

    DOJ is about to have a press conference on the Amerithrax…on msnbc, maybe cspan. You think the press is prepped with some good questions? Will we see Dorothy?

  40. johnculpepper says:

    Batelle ventures; http://www.battelleventures.com/

    I will say that it looks bad for Ivins — on the basis of a cursory look at the document dump.

    A letter to the editor from Ivins that I saw reproduced online somewhere a few days ago referring to his admiring the Quakers for not obeying the laws they don’t agree (slavery) did bring to mind arguments used by Catholic anti-abortion activists. Still, to send anthrax to Senators (and their staffs) because of differences about abortion seems truly the work of a madman. Perhaps more witnesses will come forward in the near future with information that helps make all this make better sense. I wonder if Hatfill will comment on it.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      I would assume that much or all of what the DOJ releases now would not favor Dr. Ivins. The DOJ has a rather strong incentive to create that impression. But since Dr. Ivins can no longer answer back, I think he and his family deserve the benefit of any doubt until a more complete record is disclosed and assessed by those without a vested interest in holding Dr. Ivins accountable. This administration has a unique track record for cherry picking evidence and politicizing prosecutions.

      • mui1 says:

        This administration has a unique track record for cherry picking evidence and politicizing prosecutions.

        And that’s an understatement.

  43. sirguymandude says:

    Poor Dr. Bruce E. Ivins is dead and the spin doctors are claiming he is their new unverifiable answer to how the bio toxins that we as America funded and stockpiled were released into the public mainstream via the U.S. mail. This lie is not their first in this case.

    Their first lie on this case blew up in their face and is now costing us 150 thousand a year plus the added 2.5 million the judge ordered we pay to the man who first boar the brunt of the “spin cycle” when first our government attempted to play us all for fools by pointing the finger at whom ever they could other than themselves. Like we (common citizens) could get away with anything that dramatic.

    We have got to start holding these incompetent little demons accountable to the fullest extent of the law. It shouldn’t matter that you’re high on the governmental food chain. We should hold them all accountable and keep them under the spot light until they put the evil person responsible in prison. Or their boss until the culprit can be rounded up.

    Our government has smeared its citizens when it wishes to cover its own evil actions. One such case very similar in content and context is The Olsen File. Coincidently originating at the very same Fort Detrick, in Maryland.

    In this public document we find that old Uncle Sam was getting perverse and twisted even back in Nov. of 1953. In this case the human waste that is our governmental spin doctors helped hide their murder of an esteemed scientist named Dr. Frank Olson.

    They smeared poor franks name for 20 years saying that he committed suicide after helping the Washington witch doctors make their first batches of military grade LSD.

    Olson’s son reopened the investigation and was able to prove conclusively that Uncle Sam is just chock full individual people who warrant Gods most vicious judgment yet escape any worldly condemnation for their inability to simply be good and do good. That one cost us a $750.000 hush fund that may grow very soon as the case still lingers today

    Certainly some one is responsible for these bad little boys and girls, surly someone’s momma would tan their hide if they knew the evil in their hearts and actions. How come we can’t hold our dirty old uncle responsible for his heathen ways?

    Is it that we as a people are too stupid or to lazy to hold him accountable? Or have we traveled so far into fascism that they are already above our grasp? Olson’s son won the publics support under a grand jury’s investigation. In time we learned that poor Dr. Olson had not committed suicide but rather he had been murdered by them. Smashed in the back of his head with a hammer may God bless the exhumation.

    In fact the names provided for the investigation as well came up murdered. Of course the spin doctors in their evil lair tried to call them both separate boating incidents’. Even though one had some how collected bullet holes while he swam with the fishes.

    America, please don’t continue to fall for the same socialist gimmicks. Let’s all buy our own history books so we can see through their BS. Then when their found in the wrong we could “hang em high” enough for the White House to be able to see over breakfast.

    Hopefully by the 3rd or 4th coarse correction, they might get the point behind a government of, for, and by the people.

    Yeah it will take away from our Saturday brunch and Tuesday evening programs, but trust me our real form of government would be worth it to our children.

    Besides mommas that raise good little scientist and doctors, would rather be spared the shame of another supposed suicide at the hands of The Beast.

  44. Neil says:

    Taylor is under a great deal of pressure in front of the press today. Reporters are asking good questions. No one is asking about peer review of novel scientific method to ID anthrax and make a certain determination as a matter of absolute truth that the anthrax came from the vial Ivins controlled and only Ivins controlled. No physical evidence putting Ivins at the mailbox in Princeton, NJ. Just the observation about his obsession with the sorority and the opportunity – not schedule to work for a period matching up to when the envelopes were mailed. No sign of Dorothy.

  45. Neil says:

    FBI Director Mueller participated in the briefing of the families of victims for two hours today. G-man Persichini won’t comment on the reaction of the families.

    Press keeps asking, how do you know Ivins acted alone? Taylor repeats “the totality of the evidence.” In other words, it had to be him. At one point, Taylor actually said Ivins was acting guilty, throwing out a book about pathogens when he knew he was under surveillance. Is Taylor as inept as he appears to be or was this just a horribly ineffective investigation which has left him with a bad case and they want to dump it?

    When did you learn Ivins was suicidal? Taylor claims FBI, on 24×7 surveillance, kept Ivins from harming other people but not himself… with no explanation that they were concerned he might try to harm other people.

    Then Pow! the press conference ended abruptly.

    The DOJ is saying to the public, “We’re convinced, if you are not, that’s your problem. Figure it out yourself. Here, read this. We’re finished.”

    To open the press conference up, Taylor used the language of process, being in the process of wrapping this up, and then after the process is complete, it will have been wrapped up. They are trying to sell this because they have nothing else. No Sale.

    I want to hear from scientists about the scientific method they pioneered to uniquely ID Ivins anthrax.

  46. Basharov says:

    So the Shooter was willing to kill 300 to 600 people to satisfy his paranoia.

    Pocket change, when you consider the million or so people he’s been willing to kill in Iraq.

  48. YYSyd says:

    I’m kind of suspicious about Cheney’s reported paranoia about anthrax. What better way to disassociate than to show fear? Given Cheney stories are always second hand, couldn’t even the best reporters and investigators just be played?