(updated below - Update II - Update III - Update IV)

Rep. Rush Holt represents the Central New Jersey district where at least one of the anthrax letters was sent. Rep. Holt's Congressional office was one of the few in which traces of anthrax were found. He is also a physicist and has been an outspoken critic of the FBI's investigation into the anthrax attacks. Perhaps most importantly, he is the Chairman of the House's Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, which very well may hold hearings to examine the FBI's investigation and conclusions.

This morning, I spoke with Rep. Holt for roughly 20 minutes. During the discussion, Rep. Holt:

• indicated his support for the creation of an investigative body, with full subpoena power, along the lines of the 9/11 Commission, to investigate all unresolved aspects of the anthrax attacks;
• enumerated the many reasons why a rational person would lack confidence in the the FBI's investigative abilities;
• complained that the FBI has continuously "stonewalled" both him and all other members of Congress, for years, as they tried to exercise oversight over the FBI's investigation into the anthrax case;
• declared that nobody should conclude, without much further proof, that the actual anthrax killer has been identified.

Particularly on matters of intelligence and science, Holt is one of the most informed and intelligent members of Congress. When those attributes are combined with the fact that his district was directly affected in several ways by the anthrax attacks, his views on this case are well worth listening to.

UPDATE: Accountability Now, as one of its very first campaigns following this week's August 8 Money Bomb, intends to launch an ad campaign to publicize the numerous unresolved questions surrounding the anthrax investigation and to increase the pressure for a full-fledged, meaningful Congressional investigation. We have a petition -- here -- demanding that Congress commence such an investigation, and the names of the first 1,000 people who sign the petition will be listed in the full-page ads we place.

UPDATE II: On an unrelated note, I wrote a piece for the ACLU examining the numerous grounds for arguing that the telecom immunity provisions of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 are unconstitutional. That can be read here. Several ACLU affiliates, along with EFF, intend to challenge the constitutionality of those immunity provisions (independent of the ACLU's constitutional challenge to the Act's surveillance provisions) very shortly.

UPDATE III: The transcript for the interview with Rep. Holt is here.

UPDATE IV: Poynter.org, one of the most-read sites in Establishment Media World, has a column today reporting on the growing demands for ABC News and Brian Ross to reveal the sources which fed them the false bentonite story. That can be read here.