RINF.COM: EL ALTERNATIVA DE LAS NOTICIAS QUE SE ROMPE
Sábado 2 de agosto de 2008
RINF.COM: EL ALTERNATIVA DE LAS NOTICIAS QUE SE ROMPE
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Las respuestas en caso del ántrax pudieron haber muerto con suicidio
Sábado 2 de agosto de 2008 Discuta este informe en los foros de RINF > AP | Ha sido casi siete años, pero la gente en Oxford, conec., todavía recuerda a trabajadores en los juegos del hazmat, fregando los pews de la iglesia Lutheran de Immanuel para las esporas no vistas del ántrax. Recuerdan alinearse para ser probado para la toxina, y estar asustados abrir su correo. Recuerdan 94 años Ottilie Lundgren - una viuda iglesia-que va, secretaria legal largo-jubilada y víctima más inverosímil de los bioterrorist. “Algo similar que usted nunca realmente consigue encima,” Thomas Condon, amigo de Lundgren, dijeron viernes. “Permanece siempre en su memoria.” Para el resto de nosotros, los años en medio entonces y ahora han hecho fácil olvidarse del pavor y del terror que agarraron la nación durante los ataques del ántrax-por-correo, y perder la pista de la investigación frustrada ese largo fallado a los soluciona. El viernes, todas esas memorias vinieron inundando detrás. Después de años de la futilidad, los investigadores dijeron que se habían estado preparando para cargar a un científico del gobierno, Bruce E. Ivins, con tramar el diagrama, antes de que él confiara suicidio esta semana. Las respuestas finales pueden manar han muerto con él. Cuando los ataques del ántrax comenzaron, el humo todavía se levantaba del hoyo socarrado del centro de comercio mundial. LOS E.E.U.U. los combatientes de jet se movieron en la posición, alistan para destraillar sus bombas en el régimen desafiante de Afganistán. Cualquier momento ahora, los americanos se dijeron que, los terroristas pudieran manar acto otra vez. Nadie podría decir dónde o cuándo o, lo más siniestramente posible, cómo. No obstante, cuando un fotógrafo de la Florida, Bob Stevens, muerto de ántrax inhalado el oct. 5, 2001, capturó relativamente poco aviso y revolvió más dolor que miedo. Entonces uno compañeros de trabajo de Stevens los' fue diagnosticado. Y otros. Los días más adelante, diagnosticaron a una ayudante en las oficinas de Nueva York de las noticias del NBC. Los investigadores lo remontaron al polvo contenido en una letra misteriosa. Fue matasellado sept. 18 y, en qué se convirtieron en un detalle familiar, enviado de una caja en el centro de la ciudad ordenado de Princeton, New Jersey. Pronto después, una letra similar, también pre-estampada y sin de cualquier remite, llegado las oficinas de Capitol Hill del líder Tom Daschle de la mayoría del senado. Dentro de, un trabajador encontró el mismo polvo y un mensaje que se enfriaba. “Usted va a morir,” él leyó. Even before the first report of anthrax, post-9/11 worries had sent a book on germ warfare up to the No. 2 spot on Amazon.com’s list of best-sellers. Now the hypothetical bioterror threat was becoming real. “I could probably drop a package of Sweet n’ Low and evacuate this building,” a Florida county official, Ken Pineau, said at the time. At some Army-Navy stores, clerks imposed limits on how many gas masks a single customer could buy. At pharmacies, sales of ciprofloxacin — the antibiotic used to combat anthrax — multiplied by 10. “In Cipro we trust,” a solemn Tom Brokaw told his “NBC Nightly News” audience. By November 2001, five people were dead — Ottilie Lundgren the last among them — and 17 others were sickened. Workers in bubble suits decontaminated federal office buildings in Washington after anthrax letters were discovered there. The attacks shut some postal substations for years. Who would do this? The letter to Daschle hailed Allah, and speculation focused on Arab terrorists. The first victim, it was noted, lived in Lantana, Fla. near an airfield where 9/11 terrorist Mohamed Atta rented planes. Perhaps that was the key. But there was no evidence to back that up, and hoaxes did not clarify the situation. Letters containing white powder were sent to scores of Planned Parenthood clinics, fueling conjecture that the plot was the work of far-right zealots. But investigators who analyzed the anthrax dismissed both ideas. The toxin was a sophisticated form, carefully manufactured by someone who was highly skilled. By the early months of 2002, investigators were zeroing in on 20 to 30 scientists they said had both the knowledge and opportunity to send the anthrax letters. The only name that surfaced: Steven J. Hatfill, a biowarfare expert who had worked at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md. Federal officials repeatedly identified him as a “person of interest.” By August of that year, it was clear Hatfill was the prime suspect. FBI agents wearing protective gloves searched his apartment and a storage locker. They found no trace of anthrax. “I want to look my fellow Americans directly in the eye and declare to them, ‘I am not the anthrax killer,” Hatfill said. “I know nothing about the anthrax attacks. I had absolutely nothing to do with this horrible crime.” But the investigation continued to focus on him. In June 2003, investigators drained 1.45 million gallons of water from a pond eight miles from Fort Detrick. The drastic step came after divers found a plastic box with two holes cut into it that some investigators theorized could have been used to safely fill envelopes with deadly anthrax spores. The pond produced a gun, a bicycle and fishing lures — but no further evidence. Later that summer, Hatfill sued the Attorney General John Ashcroft and other federal officials, accusing them of turning him into a scapegoat. The investigation ebbed and flowed, with little outward sign of progress. In 2006, the FBI changed the leadership of the team investigating the attacks. It’s not clear when their attention turned to Ivins. The microbiologist had briefly been the subject of some controversy in late 2001, when Army internal reports showed he decontaminated an area of Fort Detrick lab’s for anthrax without reporting it to his superiors. Ivins apologized and was not disciplined. In fact, he was praised. In 2003, he shared the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, the highest honor given to civilians Defense Department employees, for his work on a vaccine for anthrax. Years later, investigators turned their attention from Hatfill to him. They interviewed the latter man’s family and colleagues, developing a picture of a man both brilliant and emotionally unstable. Maryland court documents show he recently received psychiatric treatment and was ordered to stay away from a woman he was accused of stalking and threatening to kill. Friends said he knew the FBI was on his tail and that he felt hounded. Investigators raided his home twice. Agents in cars with tinted windows conducted regular surveillance. In late June, the Justice Department settled its suit with Hatfill, agreeing to pay him $5.8 million — and, at least in the public perception, exoneration. About two weeks later, police were called to Fort Detrick to speak with Ivins. He was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation because of concern he was a danger to himself or others. He was eventually released. This past Tuesday, he committed suicide at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. His lawyer blamed the death on the government’s “relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo.” The scientist’s death brought back memories of the terror visited by the anthrax attacks, but leaves many questions unanswered. “I think the FBI owes us a complete accounting of their investigation and ought to be able to tell us at some point, how we’re going to bring this to closure,” Daschle told The Associated Press. “It’s been seven years, there’s a lot of unanswered questions,” he said, “and I think the American people deserve to know more than they do today.” ___ Associated Press Writer John Christoffersen in New Haven, Conn., contributed to this story. Discuss this report in the RINF forums > Have Your Say: Answers in anthrax case may have died with suicide This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm and is filed under War & Terrorism News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. 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