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Suspect 'Solved' Anthrax Case

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The Washington Post

Published: September 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - Investigators on Wednesday unsealed the final search warrants executed against the man they say is responsible for the 2001 anthrax-by-mail attacks, disclosing that Bruce Ivins sent an e-mail to himself last year claiming that he had solved the notorious case.

FBI agents examined several e-mail accounts linked to Ivins, a government bioweapons researcher who has been named by prosecutors as the sole culprit in the poison-laced letters, which killed five people.

In one September 2007 message, Ivins wrote: "I finally know who mailed the anthrax letters in the fall of 2001. ... I should have been a private eye!!!"
FBI special agent Marlo Arredondo wrote that the message was sent "to/from himself."

After learning that FBI scientists had traced the bacteria back to his laboratory, Ivins suggested to agents several other scientists who might be responsible for the mailings, documents show.

The e-mail deepens the mystery surrounding Ivins, who died July 29 after an overdose of Tylenol as prosecutors inched closer to charging him with responsibility for the largest bioterrorism attack in U.S. history.

Paul Kemp, a defense lawyer for Ivins, said the government failed to offer a direct link between his client and the anthrax killings.

Also Wednesday, fresh details emerged about Ivins' work in the months before his demise. Ivins spilled bacteria from a veterinary strain of anthrax on his pants March 17 but walked home to wash the garment in a bleach solution before reporting the mishap to his supervisors, according to a U.S. Army report.

The incident resulted in Ivins being assigned to "administrative duties" and his badge being deactivated for all areas of the bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick, Md., the report said.

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