I've attempted to leave a more elaborate version of this comment, but it doesn't appear.

There's a much more important angle to the anthrax story: how it was used to promote the war in Iraq, how we now know key parts of that anthrax-Iraq story to be false, and how big media -- depending on "multiple, high-level, un-named" government sources -- pushed the story.

(We haven't heard this before, have we?)

Check out Glenn Greenwald's excellent analysis at Salon. NPR, you need to have him on to discuss it. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html

His conclusion:

"We now know -- we knew even before news of Ivins' suicide last night, and know especially in light of it -- that the anthrax attacks didn't come from Iraq or any foreign government at all. It came from our own Government's scientist, from the top Army bioweapons research laboratory. More significantly, the false reports linking anthrax to Iraq also came from the U.S. Government -- from people with some type of significant links to the same facility responsible for the attacks themselves."

Hockenberry called this guy a "biodefense" researcher.

Ft. Detrich is a BIOWEAPONs lab. The Anthrax that was used in 2001 was US-made weaponized anthrax. It was not a "biodefensive" weapon.

And why isn't anyone remembering those notes? Remember? "Death to America, Death to Israel, Allah is Great"...
Why would such a note be attached to weaponized anthrax from a US-weapons lab?

Wouldn't expect an answer, even from a prestigious public radio program.

By the way, Hockenberry, you said "allegedly" at the top, then said "who, by the way, committed suicide"...
Is that according to all those unnamed sources talking to NPR and the NYT?

Is it not possible that the close scrutiny of the FBI led to Ivin's destabilization? I mean, I find it really hard to believe that somebody who was as unhinged as the media claim could have been such a successful scientist and community member for so many decades.