DaleRussell's Blog

Standing in front of the Pentagon on September 12th, 2001, I watched as rescue teams removed bodies from the bowels of the symbol of America’s military power.

A producer back in Atlanta asked me what the mood was.

I could barely put it into words.  The overwhelming feeling was one of shock. Followed closely by abject sadness. Numbed, everyone on the scene walked about as if at a funeral.

 

A funeral for an entire nation.

 

Later that week, my photographer Tony D’Astoli and I entered the Hart Senate Office building to interview Senator Zell Miller.

 

 

As, often was the case with Tony and me, we got lost.  The two of us could get lost in the Fox 5 parking lot.  We ended up on a back service elevator, and made our way up to Senator Miller’s office.

Then October 15th, aides in Senator Tom Daschle’s office opened an anthrax laced letter.

Somewhere in the news, federal agents disclose that the letter made its way to the Senator’s office via a service elevator.

 

The same elevator Tony and I traveled on a month earlier.

 

At the time, no one knew how many letters were mailed and when.

 

My doctor put me on Cipro and the anthrax attack suddenly took on a more personal note for me.

 

I followed the case closely.  If it’s possible, I believe I was madder at the Anthrax murderer than I was the Al Qaeda nihilists.  Once, it seemed clear the Anthrax was home grown; I couldn’t believe that an American would paralyze the nation with fear at a time, when we were trying to recover from our loss.

 

Someone had committed murder during our own funeral.

 

I hated that person. Deeply.  Having covered cowards, who mail or plant death in letters and knapsacks, like Roy Moody, the southeast mail bomber and Eric Rudolph the Olympic park bomber, I felt I knew this man.

 

Deeply paranoid and narcissistic. He would be a smart man, who blended in with the workforce around him.  Yet, to people who knew him best, there would be an element of fear every time he entered a room.    

 

Now, the FBI says that man is Bruce Ivins. Earlier they hinted it might be another scientist, Steven Hatfield.

 

Hatfield was cleared.  The Richard Jewell of the Anthrax investigation. Ivins is dead by a self inflicted overdose.

 

There will be no trial. No facing your accuser. No closure.  America is left to wonder. Did the FBI finally get its man?

 

So, the FBI did the best think I think it could do in this situation.  It released mountains of evidence.   As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, once wrote: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

 

I’ve read the affidavits. A circumstantial case. Some parts strong – other parts purely speculative.

 

Only 10-12 people in the world had access to Anthrax that killed 5 and sickened 17. Ivins was one of them.

 

I recommend you read the documents for yourself, then decide.

 

The case is so convincing at times, I can’t help but wonder, why wasn’t Ivins in the FBI crosshairs earlier?   And why did the FBI focus so intently and for so long on Steven Hatfield?

 

But, remembering back to the shock and sadness of September 12th and the fear of the weeks of Anthrax injuries and deaths piling up across the country, I can’t help but think:   If Bruce Ivins is the anthrax killer; it makes me livid that he was able to determine on his own time, in his own way, how the story would end.