Sparrowhawk
08-25-02, 07:04 PM
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1589998.jpgBioweapons expert Steven J. Hatfill addressed the media in Alexandria, Va., last Sunday
<b>Bioweapons researcher Steven J. Hatfill, has claimed to be a former member of the U.S. Special Forces. The U.S. military says that is not the case. He told some former friends that he had been a fighter pilot shot down in Vietnam; U.S. military records obtained by NEWSWEEK show he was in the Army and did not rise above the rank of private.</b>
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Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, the American bioweapons researcher who has come under scrutiny by the FBI in connection with the anthrax attacks that left five people dead last fall, went public yesterday to proclaim his innocence. But in declining to elaborate on his prepared statement, he may have raised more questions than answers about his experience with the deadly bacterium.
STANDING ON THE steps of his lawyer’s Alexandria, Va., office in the sweltering midday sun, Hatfill, 48, proclaimed himself a “loyal American” who “had nothing to do in any way, shape or form with the mailing of these anthrax letters.” “It is extremely wrong for anyone to contend or suggest that I have,” he said. Bitterly criticizing a group of fellow scientists who for months have urged the authorities and the media to take a closer look at him, Hatfill accused the authorities and some in the media of trying to make him the “fall guy” for the anthrax attacks. “I will not be railroaded,” he said.
In his prepared statement, which he read to reporters, Hatfill said he understood that his expertise in biological and chemical warfare defenses made him a natural subject of interest to investigators looking into the anthrax attacks. He said he had no objection, for example, when he was asked last fall to take a polygraph—as other scientists in similar positions were asked to do—when FBI investigators visited his office and questioned him. After his polygraph test, he said, he was told that his answers had been judged as satisfactory and he was not considered a suspect in the anthrax attacks.
He also said in his statement that his area of scientific expertise, particularly at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infections Diseases (USAMRIID), one of the premier bioweapons facilities in the world, concerned viruses such as Ebola and Marburg. His research, he said, did not involve work with bacterium such as anthrax.
“I have never, ever worked with anthrax in my life,” he said, a claim repeated by his civil attorney, Victor M. Glasberg, who was retained, Glasberg said, to help the 48-year-old scientist repair his battered public image. A spokesman for USAMRIID has confirmed that Hatfill worked in the virology section of the facility and his research did not involve anthrax. But the spokesman has also said Hatfill could have worked near someone who had access to anthrax. Former employees of USAMRIID have described remarkably lax security procedures at the facility; during the early 1990s, several pathogens went missing and remain unaccounted for, according to an inventory.
There is also <b>Hatfill’s own resume to contend with when considering his expertise in the area of anthrax. In 1999, he maintained that he had “respiratory and medical clearance to conduct research on Biosafety Level 3 pathogens [including] Plague and Anthrax.”</b> He also asserted that he had “working knowledge of the former U.S. and former BW [bioweapons] programs, wet and dry BW agents, large-scale production of bacterial, rickettsial, and viral BW pathogens and toxins....” Hatfill also noted on his resume that he was the “principal architect” for a pilot project to deal with a comprehensive response to a large-scale attack involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, including biological agents. Such a response would also include a “rational approach to decontamination following threats with Bacillus anthrasis [anthrax] and other BW agents.” It was apparently for this pilot project that Hatfill and another researcher commissioned a report from a noted American bioweapons researcher, William Patrick. Although Hatfill apparently did not request such information, Patrick’s final report included specific details considering a mailed anthrax attack.
During his appearance Sunday, Hatfill took no questions and his attorney largely deflected inquiries about his client’s resume as irrelevant to whether Dr. Hatfill should be a suspect in the anthrax attacks. Lawyer Glasberg also dismissed as “bogus” a report from NEWSWEEK’s “The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer” [Aug. 12, 2002] that FBI bloodhounds seeking out the scent associated with the sender of last year’s anthrax letters “went crazy” when they came into contact with the apartment building occupied by Hatfill.
“I especially object to having my character assassinated by reference to events from my past,” Hatfill said in his statement. “No more than any of you, I do not claim to have lived a perfect life. Like yourselves, there are things I would probably do or say differently than I did 10 or 20 or more years ago.”
NEWSWEEK also reported in its Aug.12 issue that there are questions about the veracity of Hatfill’s resume and claims he has made to others about his past. For example, he claimed on the 1999 resume to have a Ph.D from Rhodes University in South Africa. But Rhodes, while confirming he was registered to study at the school, says he was never awarded an advanced degree.
Hatfill also has claimed to be a former member of the U.S. Special Forces. The U.S. military says that is not the case. He told some former friends that he had been a fighter pilot shot down in Vietnam; U.S. military records obtained by NEWSWEEK show he was in the Army and did not rise above the rank of private.
He has further claimed to have been elected as a “Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, England (1995); The RSM told Newsweek they have no record of a Dr. Hatfill. He claimed membership in the Oxford Association of University Teachers but it too told NEWSWEEK it has no record of his membership.
NEWSWEEK also previously reported that <b>FBI investigators had found a draft of a novel by Hatfill on his computer hard drive. The novel, government sources told NEWSWEEK, dealt with a bioweapons attack on the United States. On Sunday, ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington reported that it had obtained part of the manuscript: “This novel envisions a biological attack on Congress,” a WJLA reporter said. “It’s an attack so deadly not only do members of Congress and congressional aides become ill, but hundreds of Washington residents become ill and many die as a result.”</b>
Despite thousands of manhours of investigation, the identity of the anthrax killer remains elusive, frustrated law enforcement sources tell NEWSWEEK. FBI sources refuse to call Hatfill a “suspect” but say he is, like about two dozen others on a rolling list, a “person of interest” because of his background. Investigators acknowledge they are under significant political pressure—two of the intended victims, after all, were Senators Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle—as well as media scrutiny. But they are always mindful of a painful lesson named Richard Jewell, the Atlanta security guard wrongly said to have been behind the 1996 Olympics bombing. Hatfill’s attorney liberally invoked Jewell’s name on Sunday afternoon, but that may not be enough to quiet the speculation about his scientist client.
© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
<b>Bioweapons researcher Steven J. Hatfill, has claimed to be a former member of the U.S. Special Forces. The U.S. military says that is not the case. He told some former friends that he had been a fighter pilot shot down in Vietnam; U.S. military records obtained by NEWSWEEK show he was in the Army and did not rise above the rank of private.</b>
<hr>
Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, the American bioweapons researcher who has come under scrutiny by the FBI in connection with the anthrax attacks that left five people dead last fall, went public yesterday to proclaim his innocence. But in declining to elaborate on his prepared statement, he may have raised more questions than answers about his experience with the deadly bacterium.
STANDING ON THE steps of his lawyer’s Alexandria, Va., office in the sweltering midday sun, Hatfill, 48, proclaimed himself a “loyal American” who “had nothing to do in any way, shape or form with the mailing of these anthrax letters.” “It is extremely wrong for anyone to contend or suggest that I have,” he said. Bitterly criticizing a group of fellow scientists who for months have urged the authorities and the media to take a closer look at him, Hatfill accused the authorities and some in the media of trying to make him the “fall guy” for the anthrax attacks. “I will not be railroaded,” he said.
In his prepared statement, which he read to reporters, Hatfill said he understood that his expertise in biological and chemical warfare defenses made him a natural subject of interest to investigators looking into the anthrax attacks. He said he had no objection, for example, when he was asked last fall to take a polygraph—as other scientists in similar positions were asked to do—when FBI investigators visited his office and questioned him. After his polygraph test, he said, he was told that his answers had been judged as satisfactory and he was not considered a suspect in the anthrax attacks.
He also said in his statement that his area of scientific expertise, particularly at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infections Diseases (USAMRIID), one of the premier bioweapons facilities in the world, concerned viruses such as Ebola and Marburg. His research, he said, did not involve work with bacterium such as anthrax.
“I have never, ever worked with anthrax in my life,” he said, a claim repeated by his civil attorney, Victor M. Glasberg, who was retained, Glasberg said, to help the 48-year-old scientist repair his battered public image. A spokesman for USAMRIID has confirmed that Hatfill worked in the virology section of the facility and his research did not involve anthrax. But the spokesman has also said Hatfill could have worked near someone who had access to anthrax. Former employees of USAMRIID have described remarkably lax security procedures at the facility; during the early 1990s, several pathogens went missing and remain unaccounted for, according to an inventory.
There is also <b>Hatfill’s own resume to contend with when considering his expertise in the area of anthrax. In 1999, he maintained that he had “respiratory and medical clearance to conduct research on Biosafety Level 3 pathogens [including] Plague and Anthrax.”</b> He also asserted that he had “working knowledge of the former U.S. and former BW [bioweapons] programs, wet and dry BW agents, large-scale production of bacterial, rickettsial, and viral BW pathogens and toxins....” Hatfill also noted on his resume that he was the “principal architect” for a pilot project to deal with a comprehensive response to a large-scale attack involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, including biological agents. Such a response would also include a “rational approach to decontamination following threats with Bacillus anthrasis [anthrax] and other BW agents.” It was apparently for this pilot project that Hatfill and another researcher commissioned a report from a noted American bioweapons researcher, William Patrick. Although Hatfill apparently did not request such information, Patrick’s final report included specific details considering a mailed anthrax attack.
During his appearance Sunday, Hatfill took no questions and his attorney largely deflected inquiries about his client’s resume as irrelevant to whether Dr. Hatfill should be a suspect in the anthrax attacks. Lawyer Glasberg also dismissed as “bogus” a report from NEWSWEEK’s “The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer” [Aug. 12, 2002] that FBI bloodhounds seeking out the scent associated with the sender of last year’s anthrax letters “went crazy” when they came into contact with the apartment building occupied by Hatfill.
“I especially object to having my character assassinated by reference to events from my past,” Hatfill said in his statement. “No more than any of you, I do not claim to have lived a perfect life. Like yourselves, there are things I would probably do or say differently than I did 10 or 20 or more years ago.”
NEWSWEEK also reported in its Aug.12 issue that there are questions about the veracity of Hatfill’s resume and claims he has made to others about his past. For example, he claimed on the 1999 resume to have a Ph.D from Rhodes University in South Africa. But Rhodes, while confirming he was registered to study at the school, says he was never awarded an advanced degree.
Hatfill also has claimed to be a former member of the U.S. Special Forces. The U.S. military says that is not the case. He told some former friends that he had been a fighter pilot shot down in Vietnam; U.S. military records obtained by NEWSWEEK show he was in the Army and did not rise above the rank of private.
He has further claimed to have been elected as a “Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, England (1995); The RSM told Newsweek they have no record of a Dr. Hatfill. He claimed membership in the Oxford Association of University Teachers but it too told NEWSWEEK it has no record of his membership.
NEWSWEEK also previously reported that <b>FBI investigators had found a draft of a novel by Hatfill on his computer hard drive. The novel, government sources told NEWSWEEK, dealt with a bioweapons attack on the United States. On Sunday, ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington reported that it had obtained part of the manuscript: “This novel envisions a biological attack on Congress,” a WJLA reporter said. “It’s an attack so deadly not only do members of Congress and congressional aides become ill, but hundreds of Washington residents become ill and many die as a result.”</b>
Despite thousands of manhours of investigation, the identity of the anthrax killer remains elusive, frustrated law enforcement sources tell NEWSWEEK. FBI sources refuse to call Hatfill a “suspect” but say he is, like about two dozen others on a rolling list, a “person of interest” because of his background. Investigators acknowledge they are under significant political pressure—two of the intended victims, after all, were Senators Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle—as well as media scrutiny. But they are always mindful of a painful lesson named Richard Jewell, the Atlanta security guard wrongly said to have been behind the 1996 Olympics bombing. Hatfill’s attorney liberally invoked Jewell’s name on Sunday afternoon, but that may not be enough to quiet the speculation about his scientist client.
© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.