TheAgitator.com
What the….
Thursday, August 7th, 2008From the document dump in the Bruce Ivins anthrax case:
The documents also describe Ivins’s fascination with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and how he engaged in an “edit war” on the group’s Wikipedia page. Ivins, investigators reported, repeatedly posted negative information on the KKG page and was angered when it was removed from the site by other users. In a February 2007 online posting traced to one of his e-mail addresses, Ivins bizarrely claimed that the sorority had, many years earlier, labeled him an “enemy” and had issued a “Fatwah” against him.
Yea, the name he went by was jimmyflathead – here is a post on google answers he made in 2006.
“Subject: Re: Fraternity/Sorority Secret Information
From: jimmyflathead-ga on 27 May 2006 19:30 PDT
Over twenty years ago copies of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Book of Ritual
were made available to the public by an apparently disenchanted
ex-member. The secret material was deciphered, and a copy of “The
Cipher” was provided with the ritual copy. I can’t comment on the
authenticity of the information, but it seemed plausible. For
instance, the chapter officers (president, first and second
vice-presidents, recording secretary, etc.) have Latin names. The
meaning of the pledge pin, password, Red Room and White Room Services,
and many other things were discussed. If someone is interested let me
know here.”
Looks like somebody got dumped/dissed by a KKG girl in college.
Does anybody else wonder how the hell this guy got–surely–top secret clearance to work on biological weapons. A thorough questioning and search would have turned up something of his apparent insanity. Are there any other nut-cases messing around with biological or nuclear material? Good grief!!
I have seen several blogs that have sifted through the “evidence” against Ivins and found it to be extremely shakey.
But most MSM reports that I have seen have reported in detail on the weird sorority obsession – without reporting about the evidentiary problems.
Good job at misdirection there FBI guys!
(And this is a comment about the MSM, not this blog necessarily.)
Also: “I just get tired of seeing lots of TV and moviestars, but scientists get short shrift.”- jimmyflathead /Bruce Ivins on Wikipedia talk page.
Not to speak ill of the dead or anything but don’t you get the distinct impression that Ivins was a charter member of the ‘no pussy’ club?
Danno,
I would say that this may be the safest inference we can possibly make about Ivins.
Remember they are only showing us the stuff they consider strong evidence. They aren’t showing anything that might contradict their official story, but even with showing only their strong evidence has anyone else noticed how flimsy it really is?
Clearances aren’t that hard to get or keep. Just stay off the radar and you’re fine. You can be crazy as bat**** but as long as you aren’t in debt, and haven’t been arrested, and don’t have a lot of foreign friends or relatives, you’ll probably get cleared.
During the clearance process, one of the things you have to do is sign a waiver allowing investigators to speak to your medical and mental health personnel. It sounds like the investigators really dropped the ball on this one, since a few minutes with his therapist would have made clear he wasn’t fit to hold the position (regardless of his guilt or innocence in this crime).
All this assumes that the government isn’t engaging in their usual Richard Jewel ™ Character Assassination.
Nothing should be trusted coming out of the FBI.
I’ll second Frank. We’ll likely never know the story here, and stuff that is “leaked” at this point is suspect. Again, think back to Richard Jewell.
Maybe they did issue some kind of juvenile ‘fatwah’ against him. Plenty of fraternities have black lists, ’shit lists’, blackballs, etc. Nothing like a religious fatwah more like bratty kids exerting their self-importance onto others. Sounds like the guy may have been a little “cray cray” though.
I agree with Frank and Michael, just because what we’re seeing can be pretty persuasive, we should be careful about rushing to judge what the guy did or didn’t do just because the FBI dumps documents. Keep in mind the anthrax attacks were six (almost seven) years ago and in all that time the government still didn’t have enough of a case to put this guy on trial…this stuff’s getting leaked to the press and looks damning largely because Ivins isn’t around to defend himself.
Frankly, I think it’s completely typical of the DOJ and federal law enforcement under Bush…fuck up the investigation because your section of the government is run by Bush’s Moron Jesus Brigade, then when the subject of the investigation isn’t around to defend themselves leak every piece of innuendo you can to the press to try and cover for the fact that you were too incompetent to make your case.
Maybe Ivins was guilty. Or maybe he was just some dude who had nothing to do with it that the government tagged because he had a messed up personal life. We’ll never know, but we shouldn’t render a verdict just because the FBI leaked a one-sided account of what they think happened.
UCrawford, I seriously doubt Bush had anything to do with it. The FBI can do this sort of thing completely on their own. After all, the Richard Jewel fiasco happened back in 96, long before GWB came into office.
Roy,
I’m not saying that Bush was directly responsible…just that he’s had a pronounced tendency to populate the Department of Justice with people whose focus is more on enforcing morality than the law, and as a result who have tended to botch investigations that require competence at law enforcement.
But your point is valid, this was going on well before Bush took over. The DOJ is basically a pawn of whoever happens to be sitting in the White House. I tagged Bush with the responsibility on Ivins, though, because he likes to tout his credentials as the anti-terror president and the section of the government he’s in charge of weren’t capable of capably investigating and prosecuting one of the biggest terrorism cases.
I would say it’s more likely than not that he was the guy. Based on a “preponderance of evidence” standard I’d say Guilty. But based on a “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard I’d have to acquit the guy. Most of their work focused on his access to that unique strain of Anthrax that was used, and that’s probably the more solid evidence. The KKG-near-mailbox connection is kind of weak, although I’m sure it would allow them to bring up a lot of evidence that makes him look crazy.