A Case’s Last Bizarre Turn
When the FBI was scrambling to unravel the 2001 anthrax attacks, one of the first scientists they turned to for help was Bruce E. Ivins, a veteran researcher at the U.S. Army bioweapons lab in Fort Detrick, Md. But last week, the protracted anthrax probe took its most bizarre turn yet: Ivins was found unconscious in his bathroom and later died of an apparent self-inflicted drug overdose—just as agents were about to charge him with sending the tainted letters that killed five people. Ivins, a devout churchgoer who played the keyboard at Sunday services, recently had been committed to a psychiatric hospital, and had allegedly made death threats against a social worker. In her protective order, the social worker, Jean Duley, wrote that Ivins has a history of "homicidal threats, actions, plans." She added: "FBI involved, currently under investigation & will be charged w/ 5 capital murders."
For years, the Department of Justice pursued another researcher, Steven Hatfill, but he was finally exonerated in June when he received a legal settlement of $5.8 million after accusing the government of violating his privacy. Following Ivins's death, Justice issued only a terse statement noting recent "significant developments" in the case. According to a source who was briefed on the matter, but who requested anonymity while the evidence remains sealed, the FBI began zeroing in on Ivins some time ago thanks to an "earth-shattering scientific breakthrough" which enabled agents to identify the precise origin of the anthrax spores used in the attacks. Another former U.S. official, who also requested anonymity, confirmed the chain of events. Ivins's own behavior fueled suspicions: according to the Los Angeles Times, he acknowledged misleading investigators by failing to report anthrax contaminations in his work area shortly after the letters were mailed.
If he was guilty, his motive remains a mystery. According to one of NEWSWEEK's sources, investigators theorize that Ivins may have mailed the letters as a "wake-up call" for the country about the dangers of a bio-attack. Paul Kemp, a lawyer who had been appointed to represent Ivins, said the "relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo … led to [Ivins's] untimely death" and that Ivins was prepared to defend his "innocence" at trial.
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Michael Isikoff has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek since 2004. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential politics and other national issues. His book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn, was an instant New York Times best-seller when it was published in September, 2006. The book was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "fascinating reading" and "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" in the run up to the war in Iraq. Since January 2009, Isikoff has been an MSNBC contributor, making regular appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball w/ Chris Matthews.
Ever since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. His blog "DeClassified: Investigative Reporting in Real Time," which appears regularly on Newsweek's Web site and is written with MarkHosenball, has become a must-read for senior U.S. intelligence officials. Isikoff and Hosenball won the 2005 award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best investigative reporting online.
Isikoff's June 2002 Newsweek cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. For that coverage, Isikoff obtained exclusive internal White House, Justice Department and State Department memos showing how decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to abuses in the interrogation of terror suspects. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, the highest award in magazine journalism, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
Isikoff's exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained him national attention in 1998, including profiles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and a guest appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." His coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2001, Isikoff was named on a list of "most influential journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff is the author of "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," a book that chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story and was hailed by a critic for The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times news service as "the absolutely essential narrative of the scandal with revelations that no one would have thought possible." The book, also a New York Times bestseller, was named Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. There he covered the Justice Department and the Persian Gulf War, reported on international drug operations in Latin America and worked on the Post's financial news desk. Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.
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