Case enveloped in uncertainty

It seemed as if one of the more bizarre incidents of recent years - the sending of lethal anthrax powder, shortly after 9/11, to a few senators and newsmen, which led to the deaths of five people and injured 17 others - might have been on the verge of being resolved.

FBI investigators had focused on one Bruce Ivins, an Army scientist who worked at the Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland, and had access to anthrax and apparently the knowledge to convert it to powder.

Last week Bruce Ivins killed himself. Case closed? Maybe. But because most of the evidence pointing to Ivins seemed to be circumstantial, and because of the importance of the anthrax scare in creating the atmosphere in which it seemed logical to start a war against Iraq, the American people deserve to know everything possible about this case before it is considered resolved.

For starters, the FBI's record hardly inspires confidence. The government was recently ordered to pay $5.8 million to Dr. Stephen Hatfill, a medical doctor who also worked at the Fort Detrick lab. The FBI and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft named him specifically as a "person of interest," he was harassed and badgered and had his life destroyed - and no charges were ever filed.

Was the evidence against Ivins any more solid?

Law enforcement people say the FBI pioneered scientific techniques that allowed it to identify the DNA of the anthrax powder in the envelopes and trace it back to Fort Detrick. They also say Ivins borrowed a piece of equipment that could have converted wet germ cultures used at Fort Detrick to a dry powder.

However, they apparently don't have solid evidence placing Ivins at the P.O. boxes in Princeton, N.J., from which several of the envelopes were sent. Several of Ivins' former colleagues express doubt he could have done it.

This is a significant piece of our history. The anthrax envelopes frightened most Americans. The crude notes sounded as if they were written by jihadists, and advocates of war argued that only Saddam Hussein's Iraq was capable of producing the powder in question, which fed war hysteria.

The FBI has made a good deal of information about the evidence against Ivins public. We hope any further developments and information also will be laid out for all to see and made available to independent investigators for evaluation.