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This is not a theory on who sent the anthrax. Rather, it is my interpretation of what has happened in the last week following Bruce Ivins' suicide. I'll present it in the form of a narrative, and I'll exclude the links, because they have been circulating around here and they're pretty much available. Here's the thesis: this is one of the biggest fuck-ups in the history of the FBI.
The FBI has been basically harassing any scientist connected to the Fort Detrick anthrax strain for months, and perhaps years. If you hear the accounts of Hatfill's ordeal, you know that it is a harrowing experience. Hatfill's friend noted, for instance, that the agents would curse at him, flip him the bird, ostentatiously "tail" him, and that's apart from the direct questioning and intimidation tactics they were using, including outrageous leaks to a willing press corps meant to damn him in the eyes of the public. So, if the FBI was following their method with Hatfill, they were making Ivins' life a living hell. We know that they questioned his children, even to the point of bribery and intimidation. We know that this was ongoing and severe, since his son posted "It's finally over" on his Facebook page to say goodbye to his Dad. Hatfill, while severely stressed by these techniques, had the strength to contact an attorney and really press the counterattack in court. Ivins, on the other hand, was much more susceptible to these intimidation tactics.
In early July, he snapped, and had to be temporarily institutionalized. This was the key moment. The government pulled his clearance and cleaned out his lab. Bruce Ivins was a working scientist for 30 years. It was now clear that he would pursue no more scientific inquiry on his research specialization. For those of you outside professional science or academe, I can't stress to you enough how destructuve such a thing is to one's self-image. Your entire identity is bound up in your professional research; it becomes who you are through even graduate school, never mind an illustrious 30 year career. But that was all gone now. The first blow.
The second blow, as we're finding out, was likely the information gathered by the FBI on Mr. Ivins' sexual peccadilloes. Specifically, he had at some time in the past maintained a post office box under an assumed name for the purpose of receiving some rather strange pornography: blindfolded women. I've argued elsewhere that this is no more incriminating than anonymous porn surfing. Some people like stuff a little freaky. So what? While such small pleasures are largely innocent in 999 out of 1000 cases, they are still monstrously humiliating. He considered his wife, his friends at church, his professional colleagues at the conferences he attended, his co-workers, and they would all look at him differently now, now that his secret, no doubt harbored with great care for many years, was splashed across the front pages in a Hatfillesque leak. If complete isolation from your professional work is a crushing blow, this would be an absolutely devastating attack on the Self. Ivins couldn't abide it. He committed suicide.
But this was a shock to the FBI agents engaged in this campaign. They knew they were largely responsible for the result, and they were flummoxed about their next move. Hatfill received $5.2 million for the harassment he'd endured. Imagine what the family of Bruce Ivins would receive! And the humiliation that would cloak the Bureau in ignominy was just through the roof. So somebody fucked up. Somebody in a board room at HQ asked: how much do we have on this guy, really? And somebody else, probably the guy leading the investigation convinced himself and all around: Yes, yes, enough to have gone forward, enough to have charged, yes, yes. It must be. Because otherwise, it's my ass. This is how bureaucracies work. So some honcho sighed deeply, unpersuaded but seeing no way out, and said, "OK, sell him as our guy." But it wasn't enough. Not by a long shot. The case is shit, and now they're scrambling. They leak one thing, and then another. None of it makes any sense. And so here we are.
I don't know how any of this relates to the actual anthrax mailings. It isn't important for figuring out the Ivins Affair. This is a matter of tortious harassment compounded by bureaucratic stupidity. I'd say this theory accounts for all the facts of the Ivins case we know. Wattaya think?
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