No fewer than 15,000 pages of FBI records on the man accused as the lone perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax mailings will remain off-limits to the public until the case is formally closed, the McClatchy News Service reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 25).
The FBI has located a "significant number" of undisclosed records deemed relevant in its investigation of Bruce Ivins, formerly a veteran microbiologist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., FBI records management chief David Hardy wrote in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by McClatchy.
The FOIA law generally loosens restrictions on information about deceased people -- Ivins committed suicide in July as federal prosecutors prepared charges against him -- but investigators were not ready to disclose the documents due to "investigative leads" that remained open in the case, Hardy wrote in a letter to the news agency.
Hardy referred to the need to guard confidential sources, law enforcement procedures, privacy concerns and fair trial rights of suspects as reasons the FBI has withheld the documents. The bureau has received eight requests to date for documents on Ivins.
When the Justice Department closes the investigation, the FBI will release the records on a "rolling basis as soon as practicable," Hardy wrote.
"There's virtually no chance of getting FBI records in this case until they decide to close" the case, said Lucy Dalglish, head of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "This is a situation where it's probably going to be years before we figure out what they've got" (Marisa Taylor, McClatchy News Service/Miami Herald, Sept. 30).