FBI said to have stalked Ivins' family

[MiaCulpa]

Source: Raw Story

Did FBI cross the line in anthrax probe?

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.

In the current case, Ivins complained privately that FBI agents had offered his son, Andy, $2.5 million, plus “the sports car of his choice” late last year if he would turn over evidence implicating his father in the anthrax attacks, according to a former U.S. scientist who described himself as a friend of Ivins.

Ivins also said the FBI confronted Ivins’ daughter, Amanda, with photographs of victims of the anthrax attacks and told her, “This is what your father did,” according to the scientist, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because their conversation was confidential.

<snip>

Ivins had just returned from a four-week stay at a psychiatric hospital in Western Maryland in late May when he wrote the fellow scientist in recovery a calm, six-sentence e-mail. "I hope," it said, "that both of us avoid relapsing into our previous substance abuse." Since his death, Ivins's long-term mental health and the psychological effects of the investigation have become increasingly prominent questions.

The counselor he saw for group therapy and biweekly individual sessions, who would eventually tell a judge that he was a "sociopathic, homicidal killer," had a troubled past. Jean C. Duley, who worked until recent days for Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick, is licensed as an entry-level drug counselor and was, according to one of her mentors, allowed to work with clients only under supervision of a more-seasoned professional.

Shortly before she sought a "peace order" against Ivins, Duley had completed 90 days of home detention after a drunken-driving arrest in December, and she has acknowledged drug use in her past.

In a 1999 interview with The Washington Post, Duley described her background as a motorcycle gang member and a drug user. "Heroin. Cocaine. PCP," said Duley, who then used the name Jean Wittman. "You name it, I did it."

<snip>

Case 'solved' but will 'remain open'

The case of the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people in 2001 and alarmed a nation already traumatized by the Sept. 11 terror attacks has been solved — but will remain open for now to wrap up legal and investigative loose ends, according U.S. officials.

Much more at link.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/FBI_said_to_have_stalked_Ivins_0806.html

---

It's just unfreaking believable how much of this case is based on accounts of a self-admitted serious drug user, and gang member-turned 'therapist.'

-Diane

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Seems the Bush administration is about as desperate to wrap

up this case as they were to attack Iraq. I think a more through investigation is really needed but I doubt it's possible either by congress or a special prosecutor.

[myrna minx]

2. My god. This is incredible. n/t

[raebrek]

3. So does that mean the counselor took the 2.5 million and the car? n/t

[enki23]

4. that woman is not a "therapist'. she's a counselor

anyone at all can call themselves a "counselor." there are no professional standards to uphold, no licensing to get or maintain. no professional commitment necessary whatsoever. that's not intended to denigrate the good work many of them do. it's simply a statement of fact. there are some very good reasons why professional organizations license members to call themselves things like "licensed psychologists" etc.

anyway, the woman sounds like the typical "'former' fuckup turned fuckup counselor." the world is full of those, for better or worse. sometimes the former, far too often the latter.

[Prefer]

7. Take a look at the "restraining order" on Bradblog

at the time she wrote it, she had already been subpoenaed. So they are already threatening her with legal mumbo jumbo.

That's like a hostage writing a bank stick-up note, and at the end putting "they are holding a gun against my back"

[tanyev]

8. In all fairness, she only claimed to be a theripist.

If you can't spell it, you can't be it.

[zeemike]

5. Has any of this ben aired on the MSM?

I don;t know because I only get one chanel on my antenna TV.
But if it is not no one will ever question it when they declare cased closed unless they are looking for truth on the net.

[TexasObserver]

6. The FBI under Bush has become the KGB.

Since Bush took office, he has run the FBI like the KGB, and unfortunately, agents have gone along with it. You'd think they'd be better men than that, but they're not. They take a dump on the constitution and have become the goons we have spent decades fighting in totalitarian countries.

[gmpierce]

9. The "therapy" business

I'm not sure whether it is a national phenomena, but in Colorado, about 15 years ago, I knew someone who was studying to be an "intake counselor".

It took him about three days of studying to pass the exam. This was a person who was not very smart and who had no experience with drugs beyond selling vast quantities of them back in the 1980s. He had absolutely no background in psychology.

He broke up with the woman therapist who was sponsoring him just as he got the certification. When he tried to find employment in the field, he was rejected because he was not part of a 12-step program. A major part of being an "intake counselor" was the ability to fill out the forms that define the subject's problem.

There was an organized group of recovering abusers who had somehow convinced the actual counselors that being in recovery was necessary to be an intake counselor.

No matter what the job title, these people are not therapists.