FBI closes 911 anthrax letters investigation

[David Guyatt]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...ation.html

FBI closes 9/11 anthrax investigation

The FBI has decided that the US government researcher Dr Bruce Ivins acted alone in posting deadly letters containing anthrax and is closing its long-running investigation.

Published: 8:12AM GMT 20 Feb 2010

The anthrax letters were sent to US politicians and news organisations in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
A source close to the investigation told the Associated Press said the FBI was finally satisfied it had identified that Dr Irvins acted alone.

The anthrax case was one of the most vexing and costly investigations in US history until officials announced in 2008
that the lone suspect was Dr Bruce Ivins, who killed himself as authorities prepared to indict him.
After reviewing its initial findings the FBI is said to be satisfied it was right and is closing the case for good.
Laced with anthrax, the letters were sent with childish handwriting and chilling scientific expertise.
The spores killed five people: two postal workers in Washington, a New York City hospital worker, a Florida photo editor and a 94-year-old Connecticut woman who had no known contact with any of the poisoned letters. Seventeen other people fell ill.
For years, the FBI chased leads.
In 2008, they announced that the mystery had been solved, but the suspect was dead. Authorities said that in the days before the mailings, Dr Ivins had logged unusual hours alone in his laboratory at the Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases. They also say he threw investigators off his trail by supplying false leads as he ostensibly tried to help them find the killer.