About four months ago, FOX News (yes, I know) floated an oddly low-profile story about the nearly-forgotten anthrax bioterrorism attacks of late 2001:

The FBI has narrowed its focus to "about four" suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, FOX News has learned.



Among the pool of suspects are three scientists — a former deputy commander, a leading anthrax scientist and a microbiologist — linked to the research facility, known as USAMRIID. The FBI has collected writing samples from the three scientists in an effort to match them to the writer of anthrax-laced letters that were mailed to two U.S. senators and at least two news outlets in the fall of 2001, a law enforcement source confirmed. [snip] ... in an e-mail obtained by FOX News, scientists at Fort Detrick openly discussed how the anthrax powder they were asked to analyze after the attacks was nearly identical to that made by one of their colleagues. "Then he said he had to look at a lot of samples that the FBI had prepared ... to duplicate the letter material," the e-mail reads. "Then the bombshell. He said that the best duplication of the material was the stuff made by [name redacted]. He said that it was almost exactly the same ... his knees got shaky and he sputtered, 'But I told the General we didn't make spore powder!'"

When I wrote about the story, I concluded with the thought that this "new development" wasn't really news, that it was only slightly more specific than what we already knew (see the background included in my post).

Well, in light of yesterday's revelation, it looks like FOX might have had something:

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze 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 Times has learned. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 28* years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation. * LA Times correction.

The story is anything but simple. For years, the investigation focused on Stephen Hatfill as a "person of interest". However:

The extraordinary turn of events followed the government's payment in June of a settlement valued at $5.82 million to a former government scientist, Steven J. 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 Hatfill, a highly unusual development that all but exonerated him in the mailings, was an essential step to clear the way for prosecuting Ivins, according to lawyers familiar with the matter.

As the LA Times reports it, Ivins was just what the FBI was looking for.

Ivins, employed as a civilian at Ft. Detrick, earlier had attracted the attention of Army officials because of anthrax contaminations that Ivins failed to report 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.

We have no idea what Ivins' motives were. He is alternately described in the press as everything from "a family man" to "a revenge killer". He is described as a dedicated scientist.

And he isn't really described at all by the FBI. We just don't know anything:

The Justice Department said Friday it had made "substantial progress" in the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks, but officials declined to comment on a report in The [Los Angeles] Times that the department was about to bring the first criminal charges for the attacks against a Maryland man who died this week.

We deserve better. As Glenn Greenwald said in his excellent (and extensive) analysis, not only was the FBI's investigation dangerously sidetracked from the start, but the media's involvement in the distraction has been extensive, when the culprit quite possibly has been under our noses, employed by the federal government, the whole time:

From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks... Much more important than the general attempt to link the anthrax to Islamic terrorists, there was a specific intent -- indispensably aided by ABC News -- to link the anthrax attacks to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. In my view, and I've written about this several times and in great detail to no avail, the role played by ABC News in this episode is the single greatest, unresolved media scandal of this decade. News of Ivins' suicide, which means (presumably) that the anthrax attacks originated from Ft. Detrick, adds critical new facts and heightens how scandalous ABC News' conduct continues to be in this matter.

Finally, let's turn to the broader national security implications.

Dr. Alan Pearson, Ph.D is the Director of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He is an expert on bioweapons and biodefense, and has expressed concern about the biosecurity risks involved in research with select agents, particularly bioweapons agents. He expressed his concerns about laboratory oversight before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in October 2007, mentioning in particular that "[N]or should we ignore the possibility that a US biologist may become disgruntled or turn rogue while working in one of these labs."

His statement on Ivins' death and the FBI investigation is exactly on the mark:

"The FBI must not let the death of Bruce Ivins deter it from completing a full and thorough investigation of the attacks," said Pearson. "The chance to prove Ivins' guilt before a court of law has been lost, but the need for a thorough investigation and a full accounting to the American people remains." CNN reported today that the FBI will soon close the case "because a threat no longer exists." Pearson says that the number one question still to determine is whether Ivins was responsible for the attacks and, if so, whether he acted alone and with complete secrecy. "If Ivins was indeed responsible for the attacks, did he have any assistance? Did anyone else at the Army lab or elsewhere have any knowledge of his activities prior to, during, or shortly after the anthrax attacks?" questioned Pearson. "The FBI must see this investigation through to completion." Pearson added that if it is established that Ivins or anyone else working at the government's biodefense lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland produced the anthrax used in the attacks or diverted anthrax powder from the lab's stocks, the implications would be significant. "It appears increasingly likely that the only significant bioterrorism attack in history may have originated from right within the biodefense program of our own country," said Pearson. "The implications for our understanding of the bioterrorism threat and for our entire biodefense strategy and enterprise are potentially profound."

Doubtless, Friday's revelations will generate a plethora of conspiracy theories, but who needs conspiracy theories?

In other words, an ominous picture is starting to reveal itself, and it has nothing to do with a nefarious government plot. It has to do with the much broader implications of the event, that a massive biosecurity breach occurred, and a scientist with access to extremely dangerous materials "went rogue".

"Potentially profound" is an understatement.