FBI FILES SHOW POSSIBLE IVINS - WISCONSIN LINK

"4th Grade, Greendale School" Used as Return Address in Deadly Anthrax Mailings

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

and the Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

The United States Department of Justice released close to 200 pages of its files on Bruce E. Ivins, the civilian researcher it feels to be the sole responsible party for a 2001 anthrax attack that killed five and sickened others.

Included in a 25-page affidavit [pdf] that was among the papers released Wednesday, August 6th, 2008, was a possible explanation for the use of "4th Grade, Greendale School" as a partial return address on the envelopes.

According to the affidavit the link to "Greendale School" comes via the American Family Association of Tupelo, Mississippi. This right wing evangelical Christian group headed by Rev. Don Wildmon had long been active in Wisconsin and was promoted here on WVCY radio and television. Ivins was a member.
In 1998 case workers of the Wisconsin Department of Human Services [The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services] went to the Greendale Baptist Academy to interview a student regarding a complaint of corporal punishment practices at the school.
The AFA filed suit against the Department of Human Services for violating the rights of the parents who were not notified of the interview of their 4th grade child. It won what it called a "monumental victory" after the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled in its favor.
It became a bit of a cause celebre, and was written up in the AFA Journal, where the feds figure Ivins found the story. Ivins and his wife gave financial support to the AFA on 11 occasions from December 1993 to 1997. Their donations resumed in November, 1999, one month after the Journal wrote about the Wisconsin case. The Ivins family subscription remained active until March 2005.

Here is a link to all documents released by the Department of Justice in what they call the "Amerithrax" case.

WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT

The Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation reports a fair market value of $332,470 for Ivins's home at 622 Military Road, Frederick [City] Maryland. I've been to Military Road on a couple of occasions, and the Ivins neighborhood reminds me of -- West Allis, of all places. The house is directly across the street from Fort Detrick, where Ivins worked. Fort Detrick, at 1200 acre,s is about the size of Menomonee Valley. It employs 8,900 people and is the largest employer in Frederick County, Maryland.
It is not an old base, having been established after World War II on an old airfield as a biological weapons research center. Nor is it a typical base. It really resembles many Milwaukee factory districts with a number of interconnected buildings that appear much more industrial than military. There are all sorts of tubes and pipes and vents associated with the property. The only tanks you see there would be the type that hold chemicals, not the type that brought Patton his fame.
The base is located just a few blocks from the historic district of Frederick, a Federal-era town with considerable expanses of quite attractive period architecture. However, the city's ambitions were not on a grand scale, and it was not much larger in 1953 than it was in 1853.
That changed with the establishment of Ft. Detrick, and the growth of the community has accelerated in the past 20 years so that Ft. Detrick, once on the edge of town, is now surrounded by suburban sprawl, even beyond its borders on Possumtown Road.
Military Road, only a few blocks long, fronts on the Fort, but the opposite side of the street consists of a row of well-maintained, if modest post-war houses, such as the one where Ivins lived. In that, too, it resembles West Allis where Cape Cods face off against industrial behemoths. Mark Hatfill, who was cleared of suspicion in the anthrax case, also lives on Military Road.
--Michael Horne