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Live Chat: Inside the FBI's Anthrax Investigation
Read the full transcript of our live chat with "Anthrax Files" reporters Mike Wiser (FRONTLINE), Stephen Engleberg (ProPublica), and Greg Gordon (McClatchy).
October 12, 2011
New Evidence Adds Doubt to FBI's Case Against Anthrax Suspect
The FBI still insists it had the right man in Bruce Ivins, an Army biologist who committed suicide in 2008 before being charged with the mailings that killed five people. But an in-depth look by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and McClatchy found new evidence challenging the government's claims that the case against Ivins is ironclad.
October 10, 2011
Did Bruce Ivins Hide Attack Anthrax from the FBI?
FBI and Justice Department investigators say the Army microbiologist submitted a deceptive sample of anthrax to cover up his role as perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks. But records found by FRONTLINE, McClatchy and ProPublica show Ivins made available three other samples of his spores, each of which matched those used in the letters.
October 10, 2011
Was FBI's Science Good Enough to ID Anthrax Killer?
Federal prosecutors say sound science connected U.S. Army scientist Bruce Ivins to the anthrax letter attacks in 2001. But a former FBI official involved in the case now says more research was needed to make the scientific evidence strong enough to be used in court.
October 10, 2011
The Bruce Ivins I Knew
A goofball scientist, practical joker or a man with a "dark side"? How people who knew him remember Dr. Bruce Ivins...
October 10, 2011
Rachel Lieber: The Case Against Dr. Bruce Ivins
Because of his suicide, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Lieber never got a chance to try her case against Dr. Bruce Ivins in front of a jury, but she is confident she could have convicted him for the anthrax attacks. Here she tells FRONTLINE how she would have done it.
October 10, 2011
Edward Montooth: "The Mandate Was to Look at the Case With Fresh Eyes"
In 2006, Montooth was brought in to shake up the FBI's investigation of the anthrax attacks. He says he's "very comfortable" with the evidence that Dr. Bruce Ivins was the perpetrator: "What we see today is exactly what we wanted to avoid. We wanted a trial so that the public could see it and make their own informed decision. With that suicide, ultimately when he died, that took it away."
October 10, 2011
Nancy Haigwood: "I Had a Gut Feeling It Was Bruce"
Dr. Bruce Ivins developed an interest in Haigwood in the 1970s, when the two were graduate students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His interest became more intense when he found out that Haigwood was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. In early 2002, Haigwood contacted the FBI about her suspicions that Ivins might be involved in the anthrax attacks.
October 10, 2011
Claire Fraser-Liggett: "This Is Not an Airtight Case By Any Means"
Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences, Fraser-Liggett was brought into the investigation to try to trace the DNA found in the anthrax attack letters back to its source material. Based on her team's research, the FBI zeroed in on a flask controlled by Dr. Bruce Ivins. But while Fraser-Liggett believes the scientific evidence is "very solid," she is not convinced the government has made its case against Ivins.
October 10, 2011