UNITED STATES:A TOP US government scientist who helped the FBI analyse samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the justice department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Timeshas learned.
Bruce E Ivins (62), who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefence research laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland, had been informed of his impending prosecution, according to people familiar with Mr Ivins, his suspicious death and with the FBI investigation.
Mr Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case, had played a central role in research to improve anthrax vaccines by preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.
Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Mr Ivins had also helped the FBI to analyse the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a US senator's office in Washington.
Mr Ivins died on Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after having ingested a massive dose of prescription drugs, said a friend and colleague who declined to be identified - out of concern, he said, that he would be harassed by the FBI.
The death - without any mention of suicide - was announced to Mr Ivins's colleagues at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) through a staff-wide e-mail.
"People here are pretty shook up about it," said Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for USAMRIID, who said she was not at liberty to discuss details surrounding the death.
The anthrax mailings killed five people, crippled the national mail service, shut down a Senate office building and spread fear of terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
The extraordinary turn of events followed the government's payment in June of a settlement valued at $5.82 million (€3.74 million) to a former government scientist, Steven Hatfill, who was long targeted as the FBI's chief suspect despite a lack of any evidence that he had ever possessed anthrax.
The payout to Mr Hatfill, a highly unusual development that all but exonerated him of the mailings, was an essential step to clear the way for prosecuting Mr Ivins, according to lawyers familiar with the case.
Federal investigators moved away from Mr Hatfill and ultimately concluded that Mr Ivins was the culprit after FBI director Robert Mueller changed leadership of the investigation in late 2006.
The FBI's new top investigators - Vincent Lisi and Edward Montooth - instructed agents to re-examine leads or potential suspects that may have received insufficient attention. Moreover, significant progress was made in analysing genetic properties of the anthrax powder recovered from letters that were addressed to two US senators.
The renewed efforts led the FBI back to USAMRIID, where agents had first questioned scientists in December 2001, a few weeks after the fatal mailings.
By spring of this year, FBI agents were still contacting present and former colleagues of Mr Ivins. At USAMRIID and elsewhere, scientists acquainted with Mr Ivins were asked to sign confidentiality agreements to prevent leaks of new investigative details.
Mr Ivins, employed as a civilian at Fort Detrick, had earlier attracted the attention of army officials because of anthrax contaminations that he had failed to report for five months. In sworn oral and written statements to an army investigator, Mr Ivins said he had erred by keeping the episode 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.
The army chose not to discipline Mr Ivins over his failure to report the contamination. Officials said that doing so might discourage other employees from voluntarily reporting accidental spills of "hot" agents. But Mr Ivins's recollections should have raised serious questions about his veracity and his intentions, according to some of those familiar with the investigation.
Soon after the government's settlement with Mr Hatfill was announced on June 27th, Mr Ivins began showing signs of serious strain. One of his long-time colleagues said Mr Ivins, who was being treated for depression, indicated to a therapist that he was considering suicide. Soon thereafter, family members and local police officers escorted him away from USAMRIID, where his access to sensitive areas was curtailed, the colleague said.
Mr Ivins was committed to a facility in Frederick for treatment of his depression. He was released on July 24th.
The scientist faced forced retirement, planned for September, said his long-time colleague, who described him as emotionally fractured by the federal scrutiny.
"He didn't have any more money to spend on legal fees. He was much more emotionally labile, in terms of sensitivity to things, than most scientists . . . He was very thin-skinned."
A spokeswoman for the FBI, Debra Weierman, said on Thursday that the bureau would not comment on the death of Mr Ivins. Last week, however, FBI director Robert Mueller told CNN that, "in some sense, there have been breakthroughs" in the case.
"I'll tell you we made great progress in the investigation, Mr Mueller added. "And it's in no way dormant."
Mr Ivins, the son of a Princeton-educated pharmacist, was born and raised in Lebanon, Ohio, and received undergraduate and graduate degrees, including a PhD in microbiology, from the University of Cincinnati.
The eldest of his two brothers, Thomas Ivins, said that he was not surprised by the events that have unfolded.
"He buckled under the pressure from the federal government," Thomas said, adding that FBI agents came to Ohio last year to question him about his brother.
"I was questioned by the feds, and I sung like a canary," he said, referring to his efforts to describe his brother's personality and tendencies. "He had in his mind that he was omnipotent."
Mr Ivins's widow declined to be interviewed. The couple raised twins, who are now 24 years old.
The family's home is located 320km (198 miles) - a 3½-hour drive - from a post box in Princeton, New Jersey, where anthrax spores were found by investigators. All of the recovered anthrax letters were postmarked in that vicinity.
- (LA Times-Washington Post service)