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A top U.S. Government scientist alleged to be behind the anthrax mailings of 2001 died Tuesday July 29, reportedly just hours before investigators were set to meet with him and his attorney regarding a potential plea bargain. The death, according to Maryland’s chief medical examiner, was the result of an overdose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, and has been ruled a suicide. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, was one of the government’s top researchers specializing in the Ames strain of anthrax bacteria and had served at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) for 35 years. In the wake of the attacks, he was tapped to assist the FBI in “Operation Noble Eagle”–in which he personally tested anthrax spores from the 2001 attacks to help determine their point of origin.

The case as it now stands seems to raise more questions than it answers considering:

• The importance of the anthrax attacks in mobilizing support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq and passage of the Patriot Act.
• Reports that the White House pressured the FBI to link the attacks to “somebody in the Middle East” in the lead up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• The efforts of the mailer to create the appearance that the attacks were perpetrated by Muslim(s).
• ABC News’ stories linking the anthrax to Iraq were based upon false information provided to them by “four well-placed and separate sources”.
• The government’s previous suspect, Steven Hatfill, was awarded $5.82 million after he sued them for falsely accusing him of the attacks.
• Though the FBI had been investigating Ivins for two years, he appears to have retained his clearances and access to the facility until very recently.
• Dry spores, of the type involved in the 2001 attacks are not produced at the Fort Detrick facility, and colleagues doubt Ivins would have had the ability to produce them without being noticed.

Some other details worth considering:

• According to sources close to the case, the FBI case against Ivins relied heavily upon circumstantial evidence, and they had no evidence that could directly link him to the attack.

• Dr. W. Russell Byrne, a physician who worked with Ivins in the bacteriology division of the Fort Detrick research facility for 15 years, said he does not believe Ivins was behind the anthrax attacks. Byrne of Frederick said he believes that Ivins was “hounded” by aggressive FBI agents who raided his home twice. He said Ivins was forcefully removed from his job by local police recently because of fears that he had become a danger to himself or others. The investigation led to Ivins being hospitalized for depression earlier this month, Byrne said.
• Investigators intensively questioned his adopted children, both 24, telling his son that he might be able to collect the $2.5 million reward for solving the case and buy a sports car, and showing his daughter gruesome photographs of victims of the anthrax letters and telling her, “Your father did this,” according to the account Dr. Ivins gave a close friend.
• Paul F. Kemp, Mr. Ivins’ Attorney said, “We assert his innocence in these killings and would have established that at trial.”
• Elisa D. Harris, a member of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, said Ivins’s death leaves many important questions that now may never be answered. She said it is critical to identify where the material was acquired, whether security measures at U.S. facilities lapsed, where the anthrax was processed, and whether more than one person was involved.
• The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: “If Ivins was indeed responsible for the attacks, did he have any assistance? Did anyone else at the Army lab or elsewhere have any knowledge of his activities prior to, during, or shortly after the anthrax attacks?… The FBI must see this investigation through to completion.”

Some interesting and important questions are being asked within the journalism community regarding ABC News’ Bentonite sourcing and professional ethics:

Columbia Journalism Review: ABC News’s Bentonite Story: What Now?

Should ABC News Reveal Anonymous Sources in Anthrax Probe? Bloggers Say Yes

Three Vital Questions for ABC News About its Anthrax Reporting in 2001