Anthrax: some new considerations

Richard Spertzel, head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom from 1994-99, categorically denies that Ivins could possibly be the lone perpetrator of the anthrax killings in today's Wall Street Journal. You should read the whole thing, but here are some highlights:

I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.

Let's start with the anthrax in the letters to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it. Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute.

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The FBI spent between 12 and 18 months trying "to reverse engineer" (make a replica of) the anthrax in the letters sent to Messrs. Daschle and Leahy without success, according to FBI news releases. So why should federal investigators or the news media or the American public believe that a lone scientist would be able to do so?

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com also raises some more doubts. So we have one from a major conservative paper and one from a liberal e-journal.

As my little friend Mickey says when he drops something, "Uh-oooooh!" So what really is going on with this case?