Delving into the suspect's state of mind

Long before, however, Ivins had acted oddly; for example, the documents released Wednesday said that he had used two post office boxes over 24 years to "pursue obsessions" -- including an intense interest in the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. One confidential witness said Ivins had admitted breaking into a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house to steal a secret handbook, apparently while he was pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina.

The documents also included a message board post by Ivins on a conspiracy theory website, www.abovetopsecret.com "> www.abovetopsecret.com . Asking for replies at the e-mail address goldenphoenix111@hotmail.com , he wrote that the sorority had labeled him as an enemy decades ago. "I can only abide their 'Fatwah' on me," he said.

The posting was significant, according to a government document, because "in his own words Dr. Ivins defines the depth of his obsession" and knowledge of the sorority. The document noted that letters containing anthrax were deposited in a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., just 60 feet from a building the sorority used.

The documents also revealed the results of searches of Ivins' property, including the contents of a black briefcase -- Glock 34, Glock 27 and Beretta pistols, makeup and "false hair," and a copy of Albert Camus' book "The Plague."

Federal law restricts scientists' access to potentially deadly materials if they have been judged mentally disturbed. Last week, after Ivins was identified as the target of the anthrax investigation, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Associated Press that it was time to reexamine the rules.

Collins said that federal standards should not discourage scientists from working in government labs, but that someone as disturbed as Ivins should not "have access to some of the most lethal substances imaginable."

Also last week, the Army issued new regulations barring access to lethal biological or chemical agents to anyone aggressive or threatening toward others. A Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said that the Defense Department took "precautions below the radar when there is someone who is under investigation and they still retain a security clearance. But yanking the clearance would . . . in all likelihood jeopardize the investigation."

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tom.hamburger@latimes.com

Times staff writer Peter Spiegel contributed to this report.

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