SocraticGadfly: A pro skeptic on Bruce Ivins and the FBI

September 03, 2008

A pro skeptic on Bruce Ivins and the FBI

(To give you a break from PalinWatch, and on an important subject, to boot.)

First, we still haven’t gotten that “full release of information” from the Eff-Bee-Eye yet, have we?

Survey says: No.

Well, Bob Carroll, creator of Skeptic’s Dictionary, available in continually improving website as well as book form, is doing his best to fill the void.

Here’s his skeptical take on past FBI ineptitude most directly relevant to the Ivins case, or harassment.

First, he notes both polygraphs and criminal profilings so beloved of the Mormons on call (the Hooverites strongly recruit Utah) are pseudoscientific.

Next, let’s not forget lab screwups on DNA, bullet forensics and more.

How long did it take to find Unabomber Ted Kaczynski? Or, how quick to judgment was the FBI on Wen Ho Lee or Richard Jewell? Or Steven Hatfill, for that matter?

Hyperlinks for all of the above, as well as Carroll’s critique of the MSM for not continuing to pull on the thread and get that “full release of information,” are at the link.

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