Posted on 07/02/2009 11:33:39 AM PDT by Justice Department
The public has 20 days to comment on the makeup of an independent committee being assembled to study the science the FBI used in its investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings.
The 14 provisional members of the National Academy of Sciences study committee include medical doctors, chemists, microbiologists and a U.S. District Court judge.
The academy will consider public comments on the proposed committee membership before finalizing the roster.
The FBI requested the study last year, after critics questioned the validity of the science it used in matching the anthrax used in the 2001 mailings with that in a flask controlled by Bruce Ivins, a Fort Detrick microbiologist.
Ivins committed suicide on July 26, 2008.
According to the academy, the review will examine the techniques the FBI used for their scientific reliability and use in forensic validation.
It will also examine whether the FBI reached appropriate conclusions based on its use of those techniques.
The study will specifically not examine how persuasive the scientific evidence might be in regards to an investigation or any prosecution or litigation. It will also not make any determination about the guilt or innocence of any person in regard to the anthrax mailings.
The study will take 18 months and will cost approximately $880,000.
Ping.
The NAS won't address the question of WHO did it, but before any Congressional Committee (or the public) can intelligently discuss the case against Dr. Ivins, we need to eliminate the arguments from the conspiracy theorists who claim that it was impossible for Dr. Ivins to have done it - because he didn't have the equipment to "weaponize" the spores.
I'm looking forward to reading the NAS review when it comes out in 18 months or so.
And I also hope there will be Congressional Hearings to review the criminal case against Dr. Ivins after the FBI and DOJ close the case and make the case documents available to outsiders. I expect the case to be formally closed in the next month or two.
The problem is: I don't know how much I should share. I wasn't told that they were "secrets," and I assume I was given the information because I was expected to put them on my web site. On the other hand, some may not really qualify as "rumors." For example,
Back in July of this year, several people told me that the FBI was notifying victims, victims' families and everyone who had cooperated with the Amerithrax investigation that the case was going to be officially closed on Friday, July 24. Like everyone else, I waited for it to happen. But, at the last moment, the Department Of Justice decided that there were still things that needed to be done, and they kept the case open. You may remember that, a couple days later, the media reported that the DOJ had been "on the verge" of closing the case before backing off.
The first part of that process appears to be happening again. The FBI is notifying people, but they can't give an exact date because the DOJ will again be making the decision about when to make the official announcement. So, people are being told the closing of the case is expected to take place "at the end of January." The FBI will try to call everyone again after the exact date is given to the FBI, which may be at 4 p.m. on the day before an 8 a.m. announcement.
That's not exactly a rumor because most of it was told to me by one of the people who was notified by the FBI. But, it's not exactly a "fact" either, because it's only a plan that may or may not happen on schedule. Theoretically and hopefully, having learned a lesson with the July attempt to close the case, the FBI and DOJ are being more careful this time to avoid raising everyone's expectations only to have them dashed at the last moment.
Other rumors, which are truly rumors, indicate that there are some very good reasons to believe that this time the Amerithrax case will actually be officially closed as scheduled.
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