Published Date: 2010-04-24 09:00:03
Subject: PRO> Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (05)
Archive Number: 20100424.1326

ANTHRAX, HUMAN, 2001 - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (05)
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Date: 23 Apr 2010
Source: The New York Times [edited]
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/us/23anthrax.html>


Colleague disputes case against anthrax suspect
-----------------------------------------------
A former Army microbiologist who worked for years with Bruce E Ivins, whom
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has blamed for the anthrax letter
attacks that killed 5 people in 2001, told a National Academy of Sciences
panel on Thursday [22 Apr 2010] that he believed it was impossible that the
deadly spores had been produced undetected in Dr Ivins's laboratory, as the
FBI asserts.

Asked by reporters after his testimony whether he believed that there was
any chance that Dr Ivins, who committed suicide in 2008, had carried out
the attacks, the microbiologist, Henry S Heine, replied, "Absolutely not."

Dr Heine told the 16-member panel, which is reviewing the FBI's scientific
work on the investigation, that producing the quantity of spores in the
letters would have taken at least a year of intensive work using the
equipment at the army lab. Such an effort would not have escaped
colleagues' notice, he added later, and lab technicians who worked closely
with Dr Ivins have told him they saw no such work.

He told the panel that biological containment measures where Dr Ivins
worked were inadequate to prevent the spores from floating out of the
laboratory into animal cages and offices. "You'd have had dead animals or
dead people," he said. The public remarks from Dr Heine, 2 months after the
Justice Department officially closed the case, represent a major public
challenge to its conclusion in one of the largest, most politically
delicate and scientifically complex cases in FBI history. The FBI declined
to comment on Dr Heine's remarks on Thursday. In its written summation of
the case in February [2010], the bureau said Dr Ivins's lab technicians
grew anthrax spores that the technicians incorrectly believed were added to
Dr Ivins's main supply flask. But the summary said the spores were never
added to the flask, suggesting that surplus spores might have been diverted
by Dr Ivins for the letters.

Some scientists and members of Congress protested in February when the
Justice Department closed the case, saying it should have waited for the
academy panel's conclusions. The FBI asked the panel last year to review
the bureau's scientific work on the case, though not its conclusion on the
perpetrator's identity.

Members of the panel, whose chairwoman is Alice P Gast, a chemical engineer
and president of Lehigh University, declined to comment on Dr Heine's
testimony or his remarks to reporters. The panel is expected to complete
its report this fall. Since shortly after Dr Ivins took a lethal dose of
Tylenol [paracetamol/acetaminophen] in July 2008 and the Justice Department
first named him as the anthrax mailer, some former colleagues have rejected
the FBI's conclusion and said they thought he was innocent. They have
acknowledged, as Dr Heine did on Thursday, that they wanted to clear the
name of their friend and defend their laboratory, the United States Army
Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Dr Heine said he had
been treated as a suspect himself at one point and understood the pressure
Dr Ivins was under. Asked why he was speaking out now, Dr Heine noted that
Army officials had prohibited comment on the case, silencing him until he
left the government laboratory in late February. He now works for Ordway
Research Institute in Albany.

Dr Heine said he did not dispute that there was a genetic link between the
spores in the letters and the anthrax in Dr Ivins' flask -- a link that led
the FBI to conclude that Dr Ivins had grown the spores from a sample taken
from the flask. But samples from the flask were widely shared, Dr Heine
said. Accusing Dr Ivins of the attacks, he said, was like tracing a murder
to the clerk at the sporting goods shop who sold the bullets. "Whoever did
this is still running around out there," Dr Heine said. "I truly believe that."

[byline: Scott Shane]

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[A radio interview with Hank Heine was broadcast on Bob Miller's "Morning
Express" show on WFMD (AM930) on 23 Feb 2010:
<http://wfmd.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=bobcast.xml>.
In it he comments more fully on the limited facilities in working order in
the BSL 3 laboratory for culturing the necessary volume of spores to load
the letters. A 2nd broadcast (same link) on Wed 21 Apr 2010 goes further.

Also, a ProPublica interview by Gary Matsumoto of Henry Heine after he gave
his evidence to the NAS panel includes specific details of the necessary
fermentation not given in the NYT report above:
<http://www.propublica.org/article/colleague-says-anthrax-numbers-add-up-to-unsolved-case>.

One by one Bruce Ivin's colleagues are coming forward with public
statements similar to this by Hank Heine: For example, Norman Covert, a
local representative on the USAMRIID Animal Care and Use Committee, 4 Mar
2010: <http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=3637> and on 12
Mar 2010: <http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=3651>. "The
Tentacle" is a Frederick County news and commentary website. - Mod.MHJ]

See Also

Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (04) 20100324.0933
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (03) 20100305.0727
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (02): FBI case closed 20100219.0575
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA 20100125.0281
2009
---
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (03): NAS review 20090507.1707
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (02): evidence 20090227.0817
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA: review 20090104.0033
2008
---
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (12): comment 20080928.3074
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (11): review 20080924.3019
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (10): evidence 20080828.2696
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (09): evidence 20080819.2591
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (08): evidence, drugs 20080818.2566
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (07): letters, evidence 20080812.2492
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (06): letters, evidence 20080811.2488
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (05): letters, evidence 20080807.2428
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (04): letters, evidence 20080806.2412
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (03) 20080805.2406
Anthrax, human, 2001 - USA (02): letters, evidence 20080805.2392
Anthrax, human - USA 2001: letters, new suspect 20080803.2371
And more

.................sb/mhj/ejp/sh



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