Anthrax Suspect Had Ties to French Communist: FBI

The documents disclosed that authorities searched Ivins' home on Nov. 2, 2007, taking 22 swabs of vacuum filters and radiators and seizing dozens of items. Among them were video cassettes, family photos, information about guns and a copy of The Plague by Albert Camus. -- AP, 06/08/08

It's a shitty world full of jerks -- just ask Albert Camus -- and alleged anthrax killers like Bruce Ivins make it even more miserable. (Yes, I'll come right out and say it: I'm against alleged anthrax killers.) You've got to take joy wherever you can find it. Like an FBI agent, discovering that a suspect owns a book called The Plague.

"Schiff! Martin! Get these radiator swabs to CBSU! Warrenberg, I want a cryptanalysis report on these videocassettes and family photos and I want it yesterday! Wait, what the hell is this...? Boyle, what have you got on Albert Camus?"

"I'm pulling it up now... French anarcho-syndicalist... atheist... born Algeria..."

"Algeria!? Boyle, you may have just cracked this whole thing wide open!"

I remember thinking it was kind of "bad" that the Patriot Act gave the government unlimited access to Americans' library records, but not their gun permits, but now I understand. It's about prevention. If only we had known Bruce Ivins was reading existentialism before he struck.

He was obviously planning something pretty bad. Why else would a vaccinologist own a book that was superficially about disease?

Of course, The Plague is about a plague like The Magic Mountain is about a magical mountain. (Wait, what is The Magic Mountain about?) The plague in The Plague is what you might call "a symbol," which makes imagining some FBI agent writing a report on it so exciting.

"His bedroom, meals in a cheap restaurant, some rather mysterious coming and goings - these were the sum of Cottard's days..."

Request s. warrants all cheap restaurants in vicin Ivins home/US Army Medical Research Institute... sgst interview waitstaff re: comings/goings...

"What's more, the plague suits me quite well and I see no reason why I should bother about trying to stop it."

Possible $ motive? Chk bnk recrds.

"I can see," Tarrou said, "that you're not going to join our effort."

Twiddling his hat uneasily, Cottard gazed at Tarros with shifty eyes.
"I hope you won't bear me a grudge."
"Certainly not. But" - Tarrou smiled - "do try at least not to propagate the microbe deliberately."

PRPGATE MICRB DELIBERATE!!!

SMKIG GUN!

WLL HOLD UP N CRT???

I also wonder what Bruce Ivins thought of The Plague. If he figured out that the plague was just life. (Spoiler Alert: The plague is just life.) I wonder if that made him mad. He seems like a guy with a temper. I wonder what he expected it to be about?

And that's the truly surreal thing about Bruce Ivins and the FBI and their book club: Not only is the FBI misreading Bruce Ivins misreading The Plague, but there's a character in The Plague who's misreading The Trial.

He thinks it's a murder mystery.

"I've been reading a detective story. It's about a poor devil who's arrested one fine morning, all of a sudden. People had been taking an interest in him and he knew nothing about it. They were talking about him in offices, entering his name on card indexes. Now do you think that's fair? Do you think people have a right to treat a man like that?"

Your FBI collected, as evidence, a book in which a character is reading a book in which a character is on trial, but it's not clear why.

Wait. Unless that's not what The Trial is about at all.

--

Good thing Ivins didn't have The Stranger. They would have charged him with shooting an Arab.

Comments

[Marlyn]

What I still want to know is WHY did the FBI pursue Hatfill in the first place? I've read that 100 people may have had access to the vial, so why Hatfill? Was it something he said?

[PADDYWHACK]

We should convict his driver of something really bad,come to think of it Camus' driver may still be alive.

[wordvarc]

.

Regarding "ties."

Remember the idea of "six degrees of separation?"

It's been demonstrated by using e-mails or texting. On average, any one person in the world can be tied to any other person in the world via six or seven relationships.

.

[RedDogBear]

This was funny although right now I'm having a hard time laughing. However, Mr. Kelly, I think there is an interesting issue here. One of the big, gaping holes in the FBI's case is motive. The Anthrax killer focused exclusively on democrats and people in the "liberal" media and they wrote the notes to implicate islamic terrorists. It seems clear that whoever did this had a political agenda. I haven't heard one thing that indicates Ivins was a right winger trying to incite hatred toward muslims. While one book proves nothing, the FBI's whole case is circumstantial and here is one piece of circumstantial evidence that points quite clearly away from a right wing nut case. How many right wingers are fans of Camus?

[sethrp]

Now that you ask, a fluff piece about Dubya's reading list a few years back did include Camus' The Stranger as having been a recent read of our current Republican Executive. The guy supposedly plows through books like his lawyers through civil liberties - and he professed to really enjoy the Camus book, though we can safely assume it wasn't in the original French. I don't remember if it was a pop-up version.

[Marlyn]

"One of the big, gaping holes in the FBI's case is motive."

The motive I see is MONEY. Ivins was working on developing a vaccine against anthrax. He took advantage of the fear caused by 9/11 to make it look like the anthrax attack was part of Al Qaeda's plan. Why? To show the government that they needed the vaccine he was working on. Ivins held patents on the process and stood to make a lot of money if the government were to adopt his vaccine.

Was he "focused exclusively on democrats and people in the 'liberal' media"?
Yes, he was. And he was "Pro Life". How's that for ironic.

[Worden]

Guess I better not write letters of opinion on national topics to my congressmen or media shows who cover the issues, and I better not go to a therapist to obtain help coping with anything that might be bothering me about the crazy world we live in. A reporter who interviewed 6 scientists in the field said the biggest hole in the government's case is the Anthrax sent was "weapons grade" and Dr. Ivins didn't have the means or the ingredients with which to produce it. They said his lab was basically incapable of producing "weapons grade" and additionally the genetic coding alluded to in the anthrax found in the lab also simply validated he was one among many scientists and several labs which also had possession of that particular strain. When he talked about his "fantasies" with therapists, he was simply talking about fantasies; we all have them. Having a fantasy and acting on it are two different things. And geez, where did this therapist come from - a practicing alcoholic counseling recovering alcoholics; apparently, this woman had more paranoid delusions that Dr. Ivin did. But his paranoia was based on fact - he was being hounded and harassed. Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean people aren't actually after you - they were, oh boy were they. Yea, he was so dangerous, he committed suicide, which is called a "cowardly" act. I just hope and pray the real anthrax mailer isn't so delusional for recognition, , he mails some

[chomsky12]

Iraq had no WMDs, America does! What do we do now?

[zjr909]

I guess Ivins must be guilty - because we've reached a point in our nation's history where cover-ups are superfluous. It's almost to the stage now that someone could come right out and say "Yeah, we set him up then murdered him. Now we're asking Congress to grant us immunity because, at the time we did it, we thought it was legal. Ok?" And I'd bet you money that Congress would do it, too. There is absolutely not one iota of shame left inside the Beltway. Everything has a price tag on it, and all the price tags read "Reelection Campaign Fund." Only two things can save this nation now: outlawing lobbyists and outlawing TV campaign ads. Yeah, that's likely to happen! So it would appear the USA will soon emerge from its cocoon of democracy as a giant red-white-and-blue but slightly anemic Mothra.

[Yvan]

Why is there even a lab somewhere, that we are paying for, that can weaponize things that can escape and kill everyone on this planet ? How insane do you have to be to invent such things ?

Lets reduce this to what it is -- If the United States Government were a person, and if that person lived next door to you, then you would abandon everything you owned and would run away down the street screaming -- because you would find yourself living next door to an admitted thief, liar, mass murderer, despoiler of the Earth, a profligate waster of precious non-renewable resources, and a direct threat to the safety of everyone on this planet and even the future of human kind.

[Coattails]

Ok, hold on here. The bacteria called Bacillus Anthracis is commonly seen in animals, and is actually not very lethal in its natural form, it is easily treated with antibiotics, but has been lethal.

The Anthrax used in the 2001 attacks was homegrown, we know that. How do we know that you may ask? Well, it is a biologically modified weapons grade form of that natural bacteria. It has been discovered before, and its recipe, is in the hands of the US military.

The strain used was known as "Skull Anthrax," and it is in some US military labs in our nation, and also in the CDC. This Ivans guy would have likely had access to it, or at the very least the formula for it. When biological agents are made into a weapons grade form like this by a psychotic or renegade scientist, we can only wonder what is next, weapon's grade smallpox? ebola? I don't think this is something to be taken lightly.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

Every day it becomes more clear that behind Al Aqaida, and the terrorists, behind 9/11 and Iraq, behind Saddam and Osama's car driver, it's not the CIA or the military-industrial complex, it shouldn't be a real surprise, it's those French communists!!

[yappnmutt]

i guess the usa is now completely justified to bomb iran now. absurd. the usa is just absurd. its too bad ivins didn't hang around long enough to collect the same reward hatfill got for his hassles.

[NTO08]

I don't see the purpose in joking about this when people died...I do not think Ivins is responsible, since it is way too convenient to accuse a man once he is dead and unable to defend himself...NPR had Ivins' lawyer on Morning Edition today...you should be able to find audio later today of his comments...what I found especially odd is the lawyer claimed that accusations of Ivins being in New Jersey (during an alleged anthrax attack) could not be proved, yet this is the Government's insane argument: "there was no evidence proving Ivins WASN'T in New Jersey at the time..." God, January 20, 2009 can't come soon enough!

[keclxivq]

Now all you good folks know in your hearts that no law enforcement or Intelligence agency would lie to the American people. Iraq did have nukes, maybe? We know for sure Iraq had chemical weapons because we provided them with those chemicals (through the company Donald Rumsfeld worked with in the 80s) to use against Iran. While at the same time it is not true that Ronald Reagan was selling weapons and parts to Iran which is now known as Iran-Contra-gate. You all know Reagan was the best of the best of the best, sir!!!! He would never break any laws that he had sworn to uphold, would he? I mean he was the "Man"
It amazes me that the two men that would have blocked "The Patriot Act" (because they knew it was not at all patriotic) ended up with this poison in their offices. And in the FBI's belief was all because of their stance on abortion.That it happened right after 9/11 and right before "the patriot act" vote is surely a big fat coincidence, right?
Now can someone remind me what friggin country I'm living in? Seems someone either moved me or took over the United States while I was asleep.

[mimsnpips]

Your second seems to me seems to be correct.

[Pupadup4oBama]

And isn't it funny how this is all happening just before the elections.

[LightningJoe]

I probably have "ties" to some French communist or other, too, if you scroogle far enough.

Let's see, what other incriminating "evidence" do I have on my shelves? How about those Nat-Geo's, with images of the Saudi Royal Family? Looks Bad, Must Burn (LBMB). Ooh, look at this -- art materials, with which I could make a sign reading "Die For Allah And Virgins." Oh no, my bank statement says I have (wait for it...) MONEY -- with which I could buy any number of implements to kill people with.

Even some mysterious white powder. I thought this bag was full of bread flour, but now I'm not so sure. Better burn the house down before I shoot myself.

LBMB!

Lucky for the FBI, I guess, that some of the victim's families found their "evidence" almost convincing.

[jacknab]

And where does this leave me? I have Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution. A couple of books on Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, not to mention Bush on the Couch and Bushwacked by Molly Ivans, and The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, and most of Bob Woodward's books. I better put off buying that new book by Suskind.
I wonder if my missing keys is the result of a secret FBI search of my home? I'm so screwed and I didnot even realize it until now.

[judithk]

Why isn't anyone talking about Daschle and Leahy. They were both going to hold up the Patriot Act when they received the anthrax letter.

[PennP]

Why isn't anyone talking about Zack?

[Durango]

I thought Albert Camus The Plague was about war and its effects on people and society.

Granted I read it a LONG time ago.

[LeftVetPatriot]

I just shredded my annotated high school copy of The Stranger.
Orwell and Huxley next.