It seemed as if one of the more bizarre incidents of recent years -- the sending of lethal anthrax powder, shortly after 9/11, to a few senators and newsmen, which led to the deaths of five people and injured 17 others -- might have been on the verge of being resolved. FBI investigators had focused on one Bruce Ivins, an Army scientist who worked at the Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland, and had access to anthrax and apparently the knowledge to convert it to powder.

Last month Bruce Ivins killed himself. Case closed? Maybe. But because most of the evidence pointing to Mr. Ivins seemed to be circumstantial, and because of the importance of the anthrax scare in creating the atmosphere in which it seemed logical to start a war against Iraq, the American people deserve to know everything possible about this case before it is considered resolved. ...

Law enforcement people say the FBI pioneered scientific techniques that allowed it to identify the DNA of the anthrax powder in the envelopes and trace it back to Ft. Detrick. They also say Mr. Ivins borrowed a piece of equipment that could have converted wet germ cultures used at Ft. Detrick to a dry powder.

However, they apparently don't have solid evidence placing Mr. Ivins at the P.O. boxes in Princeton, N.J., from which several of the envelopes were sent. Several of Mr. Ivins' former colleagues express doubt he could have done it.

This is a significant piece of our history. The anthrax envelopes frightened most Americans. The crude notes sounded as if they were written by jihadists, and advocates of war argued that only Saddam Hussein's Iraq was capable of producing the powder in question, which fed war hysteria.

The FBI has said it is considering making the evidence against Mr. Ivins public. It should release all of it, and make it available to independent investigators for evaluation.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, AUG. 6

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