FBI said to have stalked Ivins' family (AP 8/5/08, MSNBC link)

[Muttocracy]

(apologies if this was posted before - other things got in the way of DU today!)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26044996/

"FBI said to have stalked Ivins' family
Son, daughter, bureau all decline to comment on agents' tactics

updated 7:39 p.m. ET, Tues., Aug. 5, 2008

WASHINGTON - Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.

The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation.

The last thing the FBI needed was another embarrassment. Overreaching damaged the FBI’s reputation in the high-profile investigations: the Centennial Olympic Park bombing probe that falsely accused Richard Jewell; the theft of nuclear secrets and botched prosecution of scientist Wen Ho Lee; and, in this same anthrax probe, the smearing of an innocent man — Ivins’ colleague Steven Hatfill."


Wow. Off to finish reading...

[lligrd]

1. Never Too Much Posted Re Ivins

He is obviously innocent and they are responsible for his death. I am so happy to see that so many are questioning this. Maybe, just maybe, this time they won't get away with it.

[Muttocracy]

4. and I like that the lawyer for family of one of the victims is skeptical too. nt

[FormerOstrich]

2. Of course you never know until you have worn another

persons shoes, but I would have thought the Hatfill settlement would have given a person more strength to resist aggressive tactics. I'm thinking if I would have been in Ivin's position, after the settlement I would have been thinking about how I was going to spend my 10 M (because I would have assume a 2nd my bad would pay more than a first my bad).

I would have been counting those eggs thinking they were definitely going to hatch..instead of caving in.....and I would be the cheerleader to the family explaining it.....

[Muttocracy]

5. this thread might explain more of his mental state

Just saw it, haven't finished yet, but my take so far has been that Hatfill was a tougher case for the FBI to break than Ivins. He fought back, they moved on, pushed this guy to try to get a confession maybe? and got a suicide instead.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3736781

[FormerOstrich]

7. Yes, it's easy for me to sit back

and say I could have handled the pressure, but maybe I could and maybe I couldn't.

I do believe they selected him because they were relatively sure he wouldn't be able to handle the pressure.

[Muttocracy]

8. yeah, I guess after at least one maybe 2 botched suspects, they were choosier this time. nt

[ConsAreLiars]

11. Hatffill is a psychopath.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfill

No conscience, no shame, no concern for anyone else. They don't suicide easily.

[Muttocracy]

12. I imagine all the folks who spend their careers working on anthrax are unusual

in some way or another. Working with stuff that could easily kill you in a lab accident, and which could be used as a weapon? Even to work on a vaccine, these are not your average folks - probably above-average intelligence mixed with some serious overconfidence and ego.

[Supersedeas]

3. our taxpayer dollars at work??

[Muttocracy]

6. yeah, most of the article is actually a listing of botched FBI investigations! nt

[Kaleko]

9. But look at this claim by an ex-FBI deputy director...

after being proven so outrageously false, it's laughable.

Quote from OP article:

The FBI “always moves aggressively to get to the bottom of the facts, but that does not include mistreatment of anybody and I don’t know of any case where that’s happened,” said former FBI deputy director Weldon Kennedy, who was with the bureau for 34 years. “That doesn’t mean that from time to time people don’t make mistakes,” he added.

[Muttocracy]

10. oh, picky, picky, little mistakes, right? (sarcasm)

[EFerrari]

13. This whole article is cya. n/t

[bleever]

14. Yeah; public pressure was mounting because of the prolonged mystery!

"The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation."

Can they come up with weaker shit?

I challenge them!

And expect they can do it, and in fact will be compelled to.

[Imagevision]

15. FBI offered his son $2.5 million and the sports car of his choice to rat him out

America, the hits just keep on coming...

[Muttocracy]

16. morning kick. nt