Aug. 6: Now It's Congress' Turn

By Sylvia Gurinsky

There will never be an official trial of Bruce E. Ivins, the government scientist who killed himself last week, over the 2001 anthrax mailings, which killed five.

The FBI's case may simmer down - at least for the time being - but the questions don't:

-Why did the FBI's investigation take the course it did, leading first, and erroneously, to Steven Hatfield before targeting Ivins? Not all of the dots are connecting in that case.

-Was the then-secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (newly created), Tom Ridge, pressured by the Bush Administration to lean toward Al-Quaida as the culprit?

-Is there any way to determine, if Ivins was the culprit, what might have compelled the choice of targets? The Hartford Courant may have given at least a partial answer to that question today:

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-anthrax0806.artaug06,0,5888202.story

But that doesn't explain the anthrax that was sent to a variety of media outlets, including the National Enquirer tabloid.

The next step belongs to Congress, which should hold hearings and air out as much as possible. In this case, national security demands that Americans do know what's been going on the last seven years.