In 2001, anthrax was mailed to multiple Left-wing politicians and media personalities in an assassination attempt. This attack was immediately linked, by the media and government elite, to Saddam Hussein, and used as one of the primary public justifications for declaring war on Iraq.
After a successful countersuit in which the previous ‘suspect’ in the investigation won millions of dollars in damages against the government for wrongful accusation, the culmination of the 8-year investigation into the source of this attack determined that the anthrax letters originated from a U.S. Army biodefense laboratory in Fort Detrick, MD. At the same time this was disclosed, the FBI declared that the case was solved - they had been preparing an indictment against Dr. Bruce Ivins, a scientist working at Fort Detrick. Conveniently, before the indictment was able to be served, Dr. Ivins “committed suicide.” The case is now considered closed, although many of Ivins’ colleagues have noted that the evidence against him was not nearly conclusive enough to lead to indictment, and that he lacked the motive and quite possibly the skill-set to have accomplished the crime.
