http://news.yam.com/afp/international/200808/20080807987141.html
FBI斷定自殺科學家艾文斯單獨犯下炭疽攻擊
法新社╱盧瑞珠 2008-08-07 09:05
（法新社華盛頓六日電）美國當局今天肯定表示，上個月自殺的美國生化武器專家，單獨犯下二零零一年震驚美國的炭疽菌攻擊。
六十二歲的艾文斯在檢察官上個月準備起訴他前，服用過量處方藥自殺。檢察官指控艾文斯發動多次炭疽菌攻擊，造成五人死亡、七人發病。這起發生在「九一一」恐怖攻擊事件後不久的案子，讓人們以為生化恐怖攻擊將接踵而來。
聯邦調查局在長達七年的調查行動中，原先錯誤鎖定另一名科學家為「利害關係人」，官員表示，他們正在總結調查工作並將宣布結案。
檢察官泰勒在記者會指出：「根據所有不利於艾文斯博士的證據。我們肯定他單獨犯案。」
調查人員斷定，知名記者及政治人物二零零一年收到的炭疽信，都來自同一瓶艾文斯持有及培養的母菌孢。
FBI首席調查員波西奇尼表示：「經過仔細的調查，我們斷定艾文斯博士二零零一年利用炭疽信，造成人員死亡、生病並讓全國陷入恐懼。證據顯示，他似乎是單獨犯案。」
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080806/pl_afp/usattacksanthrax_080806221629;_ylt=As2p0Aib7GbOwPdM.kjmYXrYa7gF
FBI confident that dead scientist acted alone in anthrax attacks
Wed Aug 6, 6:16 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US authorities expressed confidence Wednesday that a US bioweapons expert who committed suicide was the lone culprit behind the 2001 anthrax attacks that terrorized the United States.
Bruce Ivins, 62, killed himself with a prescription drug overdose last week as prosecutors were gearing to charge him in the attacks that left five people dead and sickened 17 others, in a case that brought fears of bio-terrorism on the heels of the September 11 attacks.
After a seven-year-long investigation during which authorities wrongly named another scientist as a "person of interest" in the case, officials said they were wrapping up the probe and would declare the case closed.
"Based upon the totality of the evidence we had gathered against him, we are confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks," US attorney Jeffrey Taylor told a press conference.
"We are now beginning the process of concluding this investigation," he said. "We will formally close the case."
Officials said they began focusing on Ivins as a suspect last year after new forensic science allowed them to trace the anthrax back to the scientist.
Investigators concluded that the anthrax that was mailed to prominent journalists and politicians in 2001 could have only come from a single flask of parent spores that only Ivins maintained and had created.
In a strange twist, Ivins, who worked for 18 years at the US biodefense research laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland, had been working on a vaccine against the disease that same year, Taylor said.
But authorities painted a picture of a scientist wrestling with demons.
"Ivins had a history of mental health problems and was facing a difficult time professionally in the summer and fall of 2001 because an anthrax vaccine he was working on was failing," Taylor said.
In one email to a co-worker, Ivins stated that he had "incredible paranoid delusional thoughts at times" and feared he might not be able to control his behavior, Taylor said.
Recently, the federal official said, Ivins had made a threat in his group therapy session to kill people who had "wronged him" after he learned he might be indicted in the case.
But Ivins' attorneys insisted that their client was innocent and that the US Department of Justice had no case.
"The government's press conference was an orchestrated dance of carefully worded statements, heaps of innuendo and a staggering lack of real evidence -- all contorted to create the illusion of guilt by Dr. Ivins," his attorneys, Paul Kemp and Thomas DeGonia, said in a statement.
"The government would have the American people believe that after seven years and more than 15 million dollars of taxpayer money, they have found the individual responsible for the heinous attacks of the fall of 2001. Nothing could be farther from the truth," they said.
"In truth, Bruce Ivins was a devoted husband and father who worked for more than 30 years to defend his nation and its soldiers against the terrible effects of Anthrax."
Since Ivins' suicide on July 29, a mixed picture has emerged of the highly-decorated scientist, who had a moustache and hair neatly parted to the side.
Friends and colleagues have described him as a model citizen who played guitar in his church folk group, an avid gardener and an active volunteer with the Red Cross.
He was also said to be a loving father and husband to his wife of 33 years, Diane, and their 24-year-old twins.
But federal officials believe he was the culprit.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released Wednesday the documents from their massive investigation code-named Amerithrax, including dozens of search warrants, police reports and anonymous letters.
Officials said they were compelled to disclose the evidence even though no one was charged due to the high public interest in the case.
Ivins's death came a month after the Justice Department paid a former "person of interest" in the case, Steven Hatfill, a bioweapons expert who once worked at Fort Detrick, almost six million dollars in a settlement over the FBI's public pursuit of him.
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