FBI checking computers

The accused was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. He grew up in Lebanon, Ohio.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Computers recently seized from a Frederick, Md., library may hold clues about the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people, the FBI said in an affidavit Thursday.

Bruce E. Ivins, the Army scientist who investigators say carried out the attacks, used the computers for about 90 minutes on July 24 to read e-mail and review a Web site dedicated to the anthrax investigation, Special Agent Marlo Arredondo wrote in the seven-page document.

Agents removed the computers last Thursday from the C. Burr Artz Library in downtown Frederick and will search them for any sign of relevant communications including writings identifying a plan to kill witnesses, or perhaps suicide letters, the document states.

Ivins went to the library on the same day he was released from a two-week psychiatric hospital stay that followed his counselor’s petition for a protective order.

The affidavit asserted that Ivins had said during a group therapy session with the counselor July 9 that he was a suspect in the anthrax investigation and planned to get a Glock firearm from his son to kill co-workers and others he felt had wronged him.

The affidavit also states that Ivins said during the group session that he had been walking around Frederick late at night hoping someone would try to hurt him so that he could stab them with a sharp writing pen.

Separately Thursday, Sen. Patrick Leahy said he wants to know Ivins’ motivation for mailing him a letter that contained deadly anthrax spores. Leahy, D-Vt., told a news conference in Williston, Vt., that he got off lucky.

Advanced DNA testing led federal investigators to suspect Ivins in the killings. The scientist’s odd behavior, suspicious e-mails and unusual work hours convinced them they had the right man.

The government declared the 2001 attacks solved Wednesday, pointing the blame at Ivins, who committed suicide last week as prosecutors prepared to bring charges.

The Justice Department said it was confident it could have convicted the scientist, who spent his career developing anthrax vaccines and cures at the bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick, Md.

Ivins grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati.

Authorities cited advanced DNA testing that showed Ivins, 62, had in his laboratory anthrax spores identical to those that killed five and shocked a nation still reeling from the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Prosecutors described Ivins’ unexplained late nights in the laboratory just before the attacks.

They released an e-mail excerpt that used language similar to that of one of the anthrax letters.

They said he was angry about criticism of his anthrax vaccine and might have released the toxin to drum up support for his drug.