Former F.B.I. Agent Sues, Claiming Retaliation Over Misgivings in Anthrax Case

The New York Times ^ | 08 April 2015 | Scott Shane

[Theoria]

When Bruce E. Ivins, an Army microbiologist, took a fatal overdose of Tylenol in 2008, the government declared that he had been responsible for the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, which killed five people and set off a nationwide panic, and closed the case.

Now, a former senior F.B.I. agent who ran the anthrax investigation for four years says that the bureau gathered “a staggering amount of exculpatory evidence” regarding Dr. Ivins that remains secret. The former agent, Richard L. Lambert, who spent 24 years at the F.B.I., says he believes it is possible that Dr. Ivins was the anthrax mailer, but he does not think prosecutors could have convicted him had he lived to face criminal charges.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee last Thursday, Mr. Lambert accused the bureau of trying “to railroad the prosecution of Ivins” and, after his suicide, creating “an elaborate perception management campaign” to bolster its claim that he was guilty. Mr. Lambert’s lawsuit accuses the bureau and the Justice Department of forcing his dismissal from a job as senior counterintelligence officer at the Energy Department’s lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in retaliation for his dissent on the anthrax case.

The anthrax letters were mailed to United States senators and news organizations in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, causing a huge and costly disruption in the postal system and the federal government. Members of Congress and Supreme Court justices were forced from their offices while technicians in biohazard suits cleaned up the lethal anthrax powder. Decontamination costs nationwide exceeded $1 billion. At least 17 people were sickened, in addition to the five who died.

[Battle Axe]

ping

[piasa]

bump

[piasa]

To: jpl; Shermy; Allan; Mitchell; Peach
Followed today by the latest spin:

FBI Statement on the Status of the Investigation into the 2001 Anthrax
Mailings

Today, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Acting Assistant Director of the FBI’s
Washington Field Office, made the following statement:
The investigation into the deadly 2001 anthrax attack is one of the
largest and most complex investigations ever conducted by law
enforcement. Today, the FBI’s commitment to solving this case is
undiminished. The men and women of the FBI and the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service assigned to the case remain fully committed to
bringing the perpetrator(s) of these murderous attacks to justice.
While no arrests have been made, the dedicated investigators who have
worked tirelessly on this case, day-in and day-out, continue to go the
extra mile in pursuit of every lead. From the Director to the
investigating agents and inspectors, there is confidence the case will
be solved.

Second, while not well known to the public, the scientific advances
gained from this investigation are unprecedented and have greatly
strengthened the government’s ability to prepare for - and prevent -
biological attacks in the future. Since the first anthrax mailing,
investigators have worked hand in hand with the scientific community to
both solve this case and to be best positioned in the event of a future
attack.

Despite the frustrations that come with any complex investigation, no
one in the FBI has, for a moment, stopped thinking about the innocent
victims of these attacks, nor has the effort to solve this case in any
way been slowed.

2 posted on 9/20/2006, 3:38:59 PM by TrebleRebel
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[piasa]

Persichini was also involved in the failed effort to get former FBI agent Levinson back from Iran or whoever originally abducted him in March 2007. Iran had him for about 13 yrs during which no hell was raised over it for fear of upsetting the Iran deal.