A culprit at last ... maybe

Today, the government unveiled its evidence in the case against Dr. Ivins, a scientist at Ft. Detrick. The government says that Dr. Ivins, acting alone, was responsible for the anthrax attacks in 2001. Jeffrey Taylor, a Federal prosecutor in the case, said "We are confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for the attacks." Of course, the officials in the government were previously confident that Dr. Steven Hatfill was responsible for the attacks, and the government had to pay $4.6 million to settle that case. This time, it's easy to blame Dr. Ivins, who committed suicide after months of intense scrutiny by the FBI, since there's nobody to fight back.

The government's case is highly circumstantial. For example, one of their arguments is that Dr. Ivins failed to give a good answer as to why he was working long hours in the fall of 2001. Quick - do you remember what you were working on the night of September 16, 2001? All of the other evidence presented by the government is equally circumstantial, and while it's theory may be correct, the FBI's track record in this area is not particularly stellar. There is Richard Jewell, the FBI's failures in their crime labs, and their recent attempts to prevent research into their inaccurate DNA statistics. None of these engender confidence in the FBI.

So hopefully, the government is correct, and they identified the right man. But I think that instead, they are just choosing the easy way out.