Steven Hatfill

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Steven Hatfill bigraphy, stories - Biologists

Steven Hatfill : biography

October 24, 1953 –

Steven Jay Hatfill (born October 24, 1953) is an American physician, virologist and bio-weapons expert who underwent what was considered by many to be a trial by media with great toll on his personal and professional life. After eight months of pressure from the media and amateur detectives, the US Department of Justice identified the former government scientist as a "person of interest" in its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks. FBI searches of his apartment in July and August 2002 were well-attended by journalists, many of whom had been pointing at Dr. Hatfill for months. Dr. Hatfill later sued the government for ruining his reputation, a case which the government settled for US$5.8 million. He also filed lawsuits against several periodicals that had pointed to him as a figure warranting further investigation. Dr. Hatfill’s lawsuit against The New York Times was dismissed on the grounds that he was a "public figure" and malice had not been proven. Dr. Hatfill’s lawsuit against Vanity Fair and Readers’ Digest was settled out of court, and the details were not disclosed. FBI and DOJ officials later attempted to blame another government scientist, Bruce Edwards Ivins.

The anthrax attacks

In January 1999 Hatfill transferred to a "consulting job" at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which has a "sprawling campus" in nearby McLean, Virginia. The corporation did work for a multitude of federal agencies. Many projects were classified.

By this time there had been a number of hoax anthrax mailings in the United States. Hatfill and his collaborator, SAIC vice president Joseph Soukup, commissioned William C. Patrick, retired head of the old US bioweapons program (who had also been a mentor of Hatfill) to write a report on the possibilities of terrorist anthrax mailing attacks. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg (director of the Federation of American Scientists’ biochem weapons working group in 2002) said that the report was commissioned "under a CIA contract to SAIC". However, SAIC said Hatfill and Soukup commissioned it internally — there was no outside client.

The resulting report, dated February 1999, was subsequently seen by some as a "blueprint" for the 2001 anthrax attacks. Amongst other things, it suggested the maximum amount of anthrax powder – 2.5 grams – that could be put in an envelope without making a suspicious bulge. The quantity in the envelope sent to Senator Patrick Leahy in October 2001 was .871 grams. After the attacks, the report drew the attention of the media and others, and led to their investigation of Patrick and Hatfill.William J Broad, "Terror Anthrax Linked to Type Made by U.S.", New York Times, 3 Dec. 2001; Barbara Hatch Rosenberg (director of the Federation of American Scientists’ biochem weapons working group), "" (copy); Guy Gugliotta and Dan Eggen, "", Washington Post, June 28, 2002 (UCLA copy); Brian Ross, "", ABC News online, 27 June 2002; Marilyn W Thompson, "", Washington Post, 14 Sept. 2003, p.W06.)

Rosenberg theory

In October 2001, as soon as it became known that the Ames strain of anthrax had been used in the attacks, Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg and others began suggesting that the attack might be the work of a "rogue CIA agent," and they provided the name of the "most likely" person to the FBI. On November 21, 2001, Dr. Rosenberg made similar statements to the Biological and Toxic Weapons convention in Geneva.http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/297/5585/1264 In December 2001, she published "A Compilation of Evidence and Comments on the Source of the Mailed Anthrax" via the web site of The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) suggesting the attacks were "perpetrated with the unwitting assistance of a sophisticated government program."http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/compilationofanthraxevidence.html