The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America's Rush to War Hardcover – June 7, 2011

As the author makes clear, it’s the totality of evidence that implicates Bruce Ivins, not merely the genetic fingerprint. One of many such passages, verbatim from the book:``Prosecutors would have drawn upon both scientific and traditional evidence in trying to prove Ivins guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is not to be confused with “beyond a shadow of a doubt.” Indeed, judges instruct jurors that the government is not required to prove guilt beyond all doubt—or to a mathematical or scientific certainty.’’

What a fascinating book! To me it was the compelling story of Bruce Ivins, high school science geek, doctor, and probable sociopath who many believe perpetrated the anthrax letter mailings which resulted in the deaths of at least five people. I finished the book believing that this one so-called crazy and certainly obsessive man befuddled the FBI, the politicos, various world-wide scientists, and his co-workers and friends and family, all for the sake of job security. Now, however, that seems almost too weird to be true.Job security?Then I went to just one page on Wikipedia ... and that led me to a couple of other pages ... and there are dozens more ... and now I feel caught up in another "grassy knoll" conspiracy. Among other things, I learned that one of Ivins' therapists, Jean Duley, the one in fear for her life and who most vehemently insisted on a restraining order just prior to Ivins' probable suicide, has an arrest history involving alcohol and physical abuse, and according to so-and-so is not to be believed.... etc. and etc., and on and on. (Ivins' "probable suicide"? There was NO medical treatment as he lay dying in a hospital for more than two days, and no autopsy. Why? I wonder why?)It's one thing to read about interesting historical events, but when I do I need for it to be accurate, readable, and meaningful among other things. I am prepared to believe Willman's account here, and he writes so convincingly that it appears he has covered all the bases. But. There are many learned people who believe there is more to the story and I don't think we will ever have a scenario that everyone will endorse.Personally, the question I have had since the first pages of the book is the huge coincidence that Bruce Ivins was planning something sinister with anthrax in the days before the September 11 World Trade Center tragedies. How could this be? How could there be such a coincidence? Why did Ivins spend all of those sneaky hours alone in his lab, ready to go a few days after the WTC attacks? Was he just waiting for them? How did he know they were forthcoming? Job security? Too bizarre.In the end, this was for me a fascinating and thorough study of a man who was troubled from the very beginning, and his parents are not to be blamed. He was entrusted to work alone and unsupervised for many years with a deadly substance. His psychological issues were surprisingly addressed by him and only him (via therapy); no one else affected by his quirky behaviors ever, in all the years, reported him to any authority. And then he mailed the letters laced with anthrax and innocent people died.Shame on those who knew him and let him just be "Bruce being Bruce". Shame on the Krazy Kops of the FBI. Shame on the politicos and the war-mongers who are always safe at home. And shame on all the nay-sayers who have yet to come up with a book as compelling as this one, leaving it to be the only publication to try to tell the whole story; where are your books?

Well researched and well written book. I finished this book frustrated by the protections Ivins' suicide will always afford him and his family: was he simply weird? An eccentric with extra-curricular activities that makes it easy to construct a narrative that supports the theory that he is the anthrax attacker? Or is he truly an evil person responsible for perpetrating these crimes? We'll never know.What the Mirage Man does is lay bare a cast of unsympathetic characters that garner very little sympathy or respect: Ivins, Ivins' parents / siblings, the Army, and the FBI. If the FBI's incompetence and politicking is only half true in this account it makes it very hard to disambiguate the good guys from the bad guys.

Many lessons to be learned from this book.First, you have an unfettered and irresponsible press spreading unverifiable lies and innuendo ruining a man's life. The sanctimonious Kristof for example hiding behind the 1st Amendment and protecting his "sources". It turns out that one of Kristof's undisclosed sources was a woman who had no real knowledge of or training in manufacturing anthrax spores. She was very loud, very opinionated and very willing to feed "material" to Kristof. The problem is that because none of Kristof's readers knew who she was, readers were not able to evaluate her qualifications and/or credibility or even her possible motive to smear Hatfill. Three other anonymous news sources were the federal attorney for the District of Columbia, the head of his criminal division and another DC Federal Court employee who was a "spokesman" for the DC district DOJ. These three people were not only lawyers with ethical responsibilities but DOJ officials, who some day might have had to prosecute Hatfill. The Kristof reporting reminds me of another NYT reporter, Judith Martin, who was spoon fed erroneous WMD info by Scooter Libbey. She like Kristof was allowed to publish material without any apparent vetting by the NYT. I am all for press freedom but there has to be a limit.Second, the impact of Mueller's personality quirk's in bolloxing up the investigation. One of his problems apparently is the inability to consider other possible suspects once he's fixated on one person as the suspect. Ludicrously, the only real evidence the FBI had that Hatfill was involved in the letters was the fact that a bloodhound named Klarabelle identified Hatfill as "something". The reason I use this term "something" is that bloodhounds are not able to "smell" anthrax spores, so what Klarabelle was identifying on Hatfill is questionable. Mueller also forgot (or more likely was never told) that, during the same bloodhound search, Klarabelle "identified" another person of interest at Ft. Detrick. No one investigated this other person. Even more incredibly, in an unrelated case Klarabelle had erroneously identified a man as a rapist. Fortunately, the man she identified was exonerated by DNA.There were major problems with the case against Hatfill from the beginning. Hatfill was a virologist and knew virtually nothing about bacteria or how to safely weaponize anthrax spores, so it would have been physically impossible for him to have manufactured these letters without killing himself. Even if he had the expertise, he he no access to the equipment or anthrax to make the letters.Mueller's other personality defect was an insistance in micromanaging the case. He required daily reports on the "progress" in finding evidence against Hatfield. Hours were spent in preparing for and briefing this guy. The obvious message from the top down was "you'd better find evidence against Hatfill so we can close the case, and FAST." Needless to say, thousands of hours of time was spent pursuing this man when other more realistic suspects were ignored. We are fortunate that the true culprit had accomplished his mission in the mailing of the 4 letters and did not feel the need to kill any more people while the FBI was chasing Hatfill.Third, the Army apparently never considered that they should perform psychological evaluations of people handling deadly pathogens. Ivins had severe and well-documented mental problems from childhood on, even threatening to murder someone (a fact which his psychotherapist reported to the local police). I have friends in the CIA and the FBI and they tell me they go through rigorous psychological testing and background checking before they are hired. Ivins never would have made it into either the CIA or the FBI.In short, this book is not only a great crime thriller, but one which raises very serious questions about the unrestrained power of the press and the role of Mueller's personality quirks in destroying a man's life and delaying the identification of the real killer.