According to The New York Times, the settlement requires the Feds to pay the family of tabloid photo editor Robert Stevens $2.3 million. (Another and better version of the story appears in online editions of The Washington Post.)
It has never been established why Stevens or the American Media Inc., the tabloid firm in question, were a murderer's targets. There remains considerable doubt that Bruce Ivins was the perpetrator, as the government has alleged. Meanwhile, the shadow of American Media Inc.'s publishing activities as connected to this case's fatal motive remains bafflingly unaddressed. The firm's tabloids were scourge of many high-profile celebrities, politicians, and (if you can take these stories seriously) creatures from outer space. If you've seen the National Enquirer, Star, or Men's Fitness, you've visited American Media's lurid world, one that could easily provoke one or more of its victims to seek revenge for real or imagined slights.
The government mismanaged, by accident or design, its probe into the anthrax attacks. However, the Feds had not counted on a very determined Stevens family. Their willingness to pursue justice kept the government case on its heels. Eventually, the court proceedings revealed dreadful security at the nation's top biological warfare facility. The case became a real thorn in the government's side, especially as it focused on programs national security officials understandably preferred kept in the Information Society's most remote, darkest corners.
The anthrax attacks remain a disturbing, unfinished episode from the fateful year of 2001. It is likely we will never know the story's complete truth. We are aware of a few facts. Will the real culprits ever be identified?
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