Federal investigators should not close the book on the 2001 anthrax mailings until the public has more answers, even though the lead suspect is dead.
Authorities now claim government scientist Bruce Ivins was the person who mailed letters tainted by anthrax a few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks to some members of Congress and some media people in New York and Florida. Five people died, and 17 others became ill as a result of the anthrax exposure.
Ivins committed suicide last week as federal authorities were preparing to indict him in the attacks. His lawyer has said he was innocent.
Now some officials want to wrap up the case.
Not so fast.
While officials might not have to prove Ivins' guilt in a court of law, they do need to present a more convincing case to the American public that Ivins really was the person - and the only one - behind these terrorist attacks.
What's the proof?
Some question whether Ivins would have had the ability to get the anthrax in the powdered form used in the mailings without being noticed.
It's also reasonable to ask why he was allowed to work with anthrax if there were psychiatric reports describing him as a potential killer. Is that the type of person we want working with a biological weapon, even if his job was to find antidotes?
All of these things deserve answers.
It's critical that the government presents a persuasive argument that Ivins was the only person behind the anthrax attacks.
This is even more critical since the government's initial suspect in the mailings later was shown to have been innocent. That person, Steven J. Hatfill, recently received $5.8 million from the government to settle his invasion of privacy lawsuit after he had been named a person of interest in the mailings in 2002.
Perhaps Ivins really was responsible. But unless the government releases a lot more information, serious questions will linger about whether this crime truly was solved.
