Federal investigators, in laying out their case against the Dr. Bruce Ivins, offered quotes from emails Ivins sent to a friend or friends as proof of the state of Dr. Ivins's mind during the year and a half preceding the anthrax attacks. First, let's look at the emails offered for the weeks before the anthrax attacks, but after September 11.

The FBI tells us these words, written on September 15, 2001, should cause suspicion:

I am incredibly sad and angry at what happened, now that it has sunk in. Sad for all the victims, their families, their friends. And angry. Very angry. Angry at those who did this, who support them, who coddle them, and who excuse them."

How many Americans, on September 15, 2001, shared those exact same feelings? Read it again, if you have to, and think back to that week, and how many people you talked to about the 9/11 attacks. How many of them didn't feel exactly the way Bruce Ivins felt on that day? That's one piece of evidence being used against Dr. Ivins. Here's another email, dated September 26, 2001:

"Of the people in my 'group,' everyone but me is in the depression/sadness/flight mode for stress. I'm really the only scary one in the group. Others are talking about how sad they are or scared they are, but my reaction to the WTC/Pentagon events is far different. Of course, I don't talk about how I really feel with them -- it would just make them worse. Seeing how differently I reacted than they did to the recent events makes me really think about myself a lot. I just heard tonight that Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas. You [REDACTED]."

This is only a guess, but I'm guessing that the other members of the therapy "group" were not biodefense researchers or otherwise engaged in actually fighting the War on Terror, as was Dr. Ivins. For example, when he says, "Of course, I don't talk about how I really feel with them -- it would just make them worse." To me, this means that the inside knowledge the scientist had about the terror threat facing America would likely frighten the other members of the group, and it was out of concern for their feelings that he kept his thoughts to himself. How is this suspicious, and doesn't this contradict the portrait the FBI is trying to paint of a cold-blooded, sociopathic killer? And why did they redact the rest of what he was saying?

Then there's the quote, "I just heard tonight that Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas." How does this make him suspicious? These things were being said and speculated about on cable news day and night in the weeks following the September 11 attacks. Why on earth would it be "suspicious" for a biodefense researcher to have concerns about Osama bin Laden having chemical weapons two weeks after 9/11?

Here's another quote from the September 26 email:

"Osama Bin Laden has just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans"

The FBI says this is suspicious because it is, "language similar to the text of the anthrax letters postmarked two weeks later warning "DEATH TO AMERICA," "DEATH TO ISRAEL."

I am willing to personally testify before any Congressional committee that the first time I saw the picture you see above, I said, out loud, "They weren't very original, were they?" And I have witnesses. "Death to Jews and Americans" is so standard a radical Islamist rallying cry that automobiles probably sport bumper stickers that say it in many parts of the Middle East. Does the quote from Dr. Ivins really seem that suspicious?

When asked Wednesday if the government's handwriting analysts could tie Ivins to the anthrax letters, the FBI said this:

"We examined handwriting samples but then there was no comparison made or a specific identification of the handwriting. It appears that when the analysts would look at it, that there was an attempt to disguise the handwriting. So it was unable to make a comparison."

An attempt to disguise the handwriting? Do you think? They claim that Dr. Ivins was so sinister and clever, that he actually tried to "disguise the handwriting" when mailing letters filled with anthrax. As clever as that would be of him, that's exactly the reason we have world-class, state-of-the-art handwriting analysts and equipment to analyze handwriting. And our government's own analysts and equipment couldn't tie Dr. Ivins to the anthrax attacks.

Many of the emails the FBI claims point to the guilt of Dr. Ivins deal with the state of the scientist's mental health. On April 3, 2000, Dr. Ivins wrote:

"Occasionally I get this tingling that goes down both my arms. At the same time I get a bit dizzy and get this unidentifiable 'metallic' taste in my mouth. (I'm not trying to be funny, [REDACTED]. It actually scares me a bit.) Other times it's like I'm not only sitting at my desk doing work, I'm also a few feet away watching me do it. There's nothing like living in both the first person singular AND the third person singular!"

Dr. Ivins was taking an undisclosed number of prescription medications at that time. Tingling and a metallic taste are well known to be common side effects of many prescription drugs. A feeling of watching yourself from afar would seem to be mild symptoms of what is known as a Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is estimated that 6% - 10% of Americans suffer from this disorder. Are we to assume that 1 out of every ten people we meet is capable of mass murder because they have feelings like the ones privately expressed by Dr. Ivins?

On June 27, 2000, Ivins wrote:

"Even with the Celexa and the counseling, the depression episodes still come and go. That's unpleasant enough. What is REALLY scary is the paranoia ... Remember when I told you about the 'metallic' taste in my mouth that I got periodically? It's when I get these 'paranoid' episodes. Of course I regret them thoroughly when they are over, but when I'm going through them, it's as if I'm on a passenger on a ride ... Ominously, a lot of the feelings of isolation -- and desolation -- that I went through before college are returning. I don't want to relive those years again ... I've been seeing the counselor once a week."

A week before Dr. Ivins wrote that, the government reported that U. S. consumers spent $7 billion dollars annually on psychiatric drugs. Apparently, Dr. Ivins wasn't alone in having feelings of "isolation -- and desolation". Here's a man who recognizes that he has mental health problems and is trying and trying to get the right treament, and the FBI would tell us this should be considered suspicion for mass murder. The International Society for Mental Health and like organizations should decry this characterization of persons with mental health symptoms. They might if you ask them to.

Finally, I'd like to point to an email that claims to show foreknowledge of the anthrax attacks, written on September 7, 2001, four days before White House staff was given the drug Cipro (just in case there was an anthrax attack):

"I was taken off the Special Immunization Program because of what happened last spring, and I've just gotten back on it, getting my anthrax and Yellow fever shots. We are currently finishing up the last of the AVA, and when that is gone, there's nothing to replace it with..."

All workers at that laboratory were required to be immunized against a number of diseases including anthrax. The Special Immunization Program that Dr. Ivins referred to was stopped "because of what happened last spring...", which was that a worker at Bioport died some time after receiving the anthrax vaccine. Other email evidence that the FBI is using to convict Dr. Ivins without a trial include quotes where Dr. Ivins worries about the future of the vaccine project in light of the controversy in the aforementioned death of the Bioport worker. The FBI suggests he had a strong motive to keep Bioport alive.