Determined to end its troubled anthrax investigation, the Justice Department held a press conference to identify Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the Army's infectious-diseases laboratory in Maryland, as the lone culprit

National Review, Sept 1, 2008

Determined to end its troubled anthrax investigation, the Justice Department held a press conference to identify Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the Army's infectious-diseases laboratory in Maryland, as the lone culprit. Investigators showed, for example, that Ivins withheld from them a flask whose samples matched the genetic fingerprint of the anthrax letters; sent an e-mail after 9/11 claiming bin Laden had "anthrax" and had "just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans"--language strikingly similar to that of the anthrax letters; had no coherent explanation for working late nights right before the letters were mailed; and maintained a mailbox, under an assumed name, in a post office that sold envelopes with a peculiar printing defect--the same kind used to mail the anthrax letters.

Ivins, said to be mentally disturbed, committed suicide upon learning he would be charged. He was never indicted. The allegation will never be tested in a trial. A hundred other scientists had access to the flask. The government has no compelling evidence placing Ivins at the Princeton box--hours from his home--where the letters were mailed. And, most significant, DOJ spent years convinced that a different scientist was the terrorist--and paid him a settlement of nearly $6 million. Case not quite closed.