The case of the anthrax-laced letters that killed five Americans in 2001 and alarmed a nation already traumatized by the Sept. 11 terror attacks has been solved – but will remain open for now to wrap up legal and investigative loose ends, US officials said. The government was to begin briefing victims and their survivors at FBI headquarters Wednesday – eight days after the top suspect, Army biowarfare scientist Bruce Ivins, killed himself as prosecutors prepared to charge him with murder. Ivins' lawyer maintains the brilliant but troubled scientist would have been proven innocent had he lived. And some of Ivins' friends and former co-workers at the Fort Detrick biological warfare lab in Frederick, Maryland, say they doubt he could or would have unleashed the deadly toxin. But after nearly seven years – much of which was spent pointing the finger at the wrong suspect – the FBI is ready to end the ´Amerithrax? investigation by outlining its evidence against Ivins, according to two US officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. The Justice Department ´has a legal and moral obligation to make official statements first to the victims and their families, then the public,? Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday. ´And that's the order in which we're going to do it.? Officially, the case will stay open for an undetermined but short period of time. That will allow the government to complete several legal and investigatory matters that need to be wrapped up before it can be closed, the officials said. Families of victims were to get the first glimpse inside the case at the morning FBI briefing. The Justice Department, meanwhile, was expected to ask a federal judge to unseal documents revealing how the FBI closed in on Ivins. That evidence should answer many questions in the bizarre investigation.
