A new look: U.S. twisted facts to pin anthrax attacks on ill scientist
The Justice Department severely distorted the evidence it used to pin all blame for the 2001 anthrax attacks on a mentally ill scientist, a new review of federal documents shows.

In many instances in the federal case against Bruce E. Ivins, the meanings given to facts presented by federal authorities turn out to stray far from reality or to be highly ambiguous. The government bent the usual rules of evidence and logic wildly as it tried to make a case that the attack anthrax could only have come from a flask, numbered RMR-1029, "exclusively" controlled by Ivins.

The U.S. government has released two major reports on the 2001 anthrax attacks: A Justice Department "investigative summary" and a psychiatric evaluation of the purported killer written under the leadership of a longtime FBI psychology consultant. In addition, depositions and excerpts of depositions from a civil suit brought by the widow of the first anthrax fatality have been released under court order. As has previously been reported, the depositions of Ivins's coworkers show that they strongly disagree with the Justice Department theory that Ivins was guilty of single-handedly carrying out the attacks.