Anthrax panic, 2001

First anthrax-laced letter is mailed on 18 Sept, 2001
Florida sees first of five deaths, three weeks later
Panicked Americans try to stock up on antibiotic Cipro
Postal depots shut for de-contamination
Senate offices shut for weeks
Hoaxes become an almost daily occurrence
Plans to deal with a biological weapons attack updated
Mail irradiated to kill anthrax spores


August 1, 2008 BBC News
US anthrax ‘suspect’ found dead
A top US scientist suspected of anthrax attacks in 2001 has apparently killed himself just as he was about to be charged
The Los Angeles Times said Bruce Ivins, 62, had taken an overdose of painkillers (a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine). It said he had recently been told of the impending prosecution.
There has been no official comment but unnamed sources said prosecutors were to indict and seek the death penalty.
Five people died when anthrax was posted to the media and politicians.
The incidents took place shortly after the 11 September attacks in 2001.
Security measures in the wake of the anthrax attacks increased the public’s fear of their vulnerability to terrorism.
As well as the five deaths, 17 other people were made ill.

Progress
Dr. Ivins worked for the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland.
In 2003, Dr Ivins was awarded the highest honor for defence department civilian staff for his anthrax vaccine work.
The authorities were investigating whether Dr. Ivins has released the anthrax to test the vaccine he was developing.
Dr. Ivin’s lawyer, Paul Kemp, said: “We assert his innocence in these killings, and would have established that at trail.”

Depression
The FBI focused more on Dr. Ivins after the leadership of the investigation was changed in 2006.
The investigation had been making new progress based on analysis of anthrax-tainted letters posted to senators.
There has been no official comment but unnamed sources said prosecutors were to indict him and seek the death penalty.



Monday, August 4, 2008 Cox News Service
Army microbiologist who committed suicide was to be indicted in anthrax cases
An award winning army anthrax expert killed himself this week, as federal prosecutors prepared to indict him on charges stemming from the lethal anthrax attacks that shook the country seven years ago, officials said Friday.
The scientist Bruce Ivins, helped develop a new generation of anthrax vaccine in his 35 years as a microbiologist for the Army’s bio warfare lab outside Washington, said lab spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden.
His apparent suicide came five days after a Frederick Country issued a temporary restraining order against Ivins, after a social worker who was counseling him complained in court documents that Ivins had stalked, harassed and threatened to kill her.
In her petition for the restraining order, Jean Duley wrote that she had received a subpoena to testify Friday before a federal grand jury assessing evidence against Ivins. In handwritten testimony, Duley said Ivins “has a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats.”
Weeks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, letters laced with anthrax were mailed from a postal box in Princeton, N.J., to newsrooms in Florida and New York, as well as the Capitol Hill offices of two U.S. senators. The attacks panicked much of the nation and triggered one of the largest investigations in recent history.
Code named “Amerithrax,” the investigation has involved 17 FBI special agents and 10 U.S. Postal Service Inspectors. Together they’ve conducted 75 searches and more than 9,100 interviews in what the Justice Department called “relentless pursuit” of the perpetrators.
Ivins had special expertise in the production, purification, storage and use of anthrax spores.
Five years ago, he was one of three USAMIID scientists to receive the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, the highest honor the Pentagon bestows upon civilian staff, for helping to resolve anthrax vaccine production problems.
“Awards are nice”, Ivins said at the time, “but the real satisfaction is knowing the vaccine is back on line.”
Ivins also reportedly helped the FBI analyze recovered from one of the tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator’s office in Washington.
However, he failed to report anthrax contaminations to Army officials for five months. In sworn oral and written statements to an Army investigator, Ivins said that he had erred by keeping the episodes secret from December 2001 to late April 2002. he said he had swabbed and bleached more than 20 areas that he suspected were contaminated by a sloppy lab technician.