Eight years after the worst bioterrorism attack in U.S. history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is closing the case. The FBI has released hundreds of pages of documents to demonstrate that Dr. Bruce Ivins, a former biologist at Army’s bio-defense lab, is the sole culprit behind the attack. According to the FBI, Ivins was attempting to save a failing anthrax vaccine program. The FBI believes he is the culprit because the anthrax originated in his lab, Ivins was one of the few scientists who had access and know how to deliver the spores, he logged extra hours before the attack, and he was absent without a credible alibi when the anthrax letters were dropped off in a Princeton mailbox. Ivins committed suicide in June 2008, so a case against him could never go to trial.
The FBI has closed the case without having an eyewitness testimony, a confession, or a single fingerprint. “Arbitrarily closing the case on a Friday afternoon should not mean the end of this investigation,” said Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), whose district contained the mailbox from which the anthrax letters were sent. “The evidence the FBI produced would not, I think, stand up in court.”
The 2001 Anthrax Attacks killed five people and led to the government shelling out billions of dollars in bio-defense.
Read more at the Washington Post or the NY Times.