Ivins tried to mislead FBI on anthrax

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2008 | by Dan Vergano and Donna Leinwand

WASHINGTON -- The FBI said Monday that Bruce Ivins, the bioscientist who they say launched the 2001 anthrax attacks, helped them figure out how to collect the anthrax samples needed for the investigation.

On Feb. 27, 2002, Ivins submitted a sample that didn't meet those standards. The FBI destroyed his sample without testing it, said Vahid Majidi, assistant director for the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate.

Majidi made his remarks at the most detailed scientific briefing since the Justice Department announced this month that it had solved the nation's worst case of bioterrorism, which killed five people and sickened at least 17 others. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor has called Ivins' flask of anthrax "the murder weapon."

FBI scientists...