I just wasn't aware they contained any conspiracy theories. I probably just didn't read them carefully enough and missed them.

Perhaps our definition of "conspiracy" differs.

My reading of your various posts on the matter is that you believe Ivins is not the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks and that the government is essentially framing him to avoid embarrassment. Further, the media are facilitating said cover-up by serving as willing lackeys.

That's not your position?

Sure

Thanks. I was already familiar with those. I just wasn't aware they contained any conspiracy theories. I probably just didn't read them carefully enough and missed them.

What do you suggest - that we just go ahead and assume, then, that they got it right (this time)?

(Snicker)

Just as a casual observation, it seems to me they have a better shot at getting it right than you or I do, Glenn, even exclusive of the list that James furnished.

But then again, as for me, I'm not trying to toss everything I can at the Bush administration praying that something/anything will actually stick.

Would you mind identifying one or two of those conspiracy theories? I'd love to see them.

Sure:

• Salon Radio: Rep. Rush Holt on anthrax

• The FBI's emerging, leaking case against Ivins

• Additional key facts re: the anthrax investigation

• Journalists, their lying sources, and the anthrax investigation

• Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News

There’s been quite a bit of conspiracy theorizing on this, especially on the Lefty blogs, notably Glenn Greenwald’s.

Jim - Would you mind identifying one or two of those conspiracy theories? I'd love to see them.

Also, you think that nobody is qualified even with listening to experts to make an intelligent assessment of the FBI's case? What do you suggest - that we just go ahead and assume, then, that they got it right (this time)? And how could a criminal trial ever have been possible if only top-level scientists could possibly assess the validity of the Government's accusation?

Anthrax scientist Bruce Ivins stood to benefit from a panic

The suspect in deadly mailings, who killed himself this week as the FBI closed in, could have collected patent royalties on an anthrax vaccine.

The body of the story says:

As a co-inventor of a new anthrax vaccine, Ivins was among those in line to collect patent royalties if the product had come to market, according to an executive familiar with the matter.

The product had languished on laboratory shelves until the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax mailings, after which federal officials raced to stockpile vaccines and antidotes against potential biological terrorism.

A San Francisco-area biotechnology company, VaxGen, won a federal contract worth $877.5 million to provide batches of the new vaccine. The contract was the first awarded under legislation promoted by President Bush, called Project BioShield.

One executive who was familiar with the matter said that, as a condition of its purchasing the vaccine from the Army, VaxGen had agreed to share sales-related proceeds with the inventors.

There’s been quite a bit of conspiracy theorizing on this, especially on the Lefty blogs, notably Glenn Greenwald’s. My guess is that these documents — or, perhaps, any evidence — won’t dispel that talk. Given how little lay readers, myself certainly included, understand the science and forensics involved here, the topic virtually defies intelligent public discussion.

Which perhaps explains why Greenwald spends so much time with it...