Criminally Catholic

Well, now we know. NPR has just reported why Bruce Ivins mailed the anthrax letters in 2001. He was Catholic, and his family was pro-life.

As NPR puts it: “Bruce Ivins may have targeted Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy with anthrax-laced letters in 2001 because he saw them as bad Catholics owing to their votes in favor of abortion rights, officials close to the investigation say.”

Of course, that doesn’t explain why he also sent letters to ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News, together with the generally conservative New York Post , and the utterly apolitical gossip tabloid, the National Enquirer . But, no matter. There is circumstantial evidence that Ivins might once have read a negative essay about Catholic politicians who support abortion. And he and his wife did send their kids to a Catholic school. And his wife is active in a Maryland chapter of a right-to-life organization. What more evidence do you want? According to the unnamed FBI sources unsuspiciously quoted by NPR, “Being Catholic” is now on its face a plausible explanation for a crime.