Gov't Anthrax Case in Doubt

The FBI’s case against Bruce Ivins, the man accused of mailing anthrax-laced letters, is in doubt. The government’s circumstantial case said that Ivins had the means and the opportunity to make the lethal powder at his lab in Maryland, though the investigation never proved he mailed the letters or had any other location where he may have made the powder. Ivins committed suicide in 2008. On July 15, lawyers for the Justice Department acknowledged in court papers that the “hot suite” in Irvin’s lab did not contain the “specialized equipment” that “would be required to prepare the dried spore preparations that were used in the letters.”