Judge admonishes government lawyers in anthrax lawsuit case

AP ^ | 10/7/04 | HOPE YEN

[TrebleRebel]

Judge admonishes government lawyers in anthrax lawsuit case

[TrebleRebel]

Judge Admonishes Lawyers in Anthrax Case

22 minutes ago White House - AP Cabinet & State

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A judge admonished government lawyers Thursday after being told officials investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks still are talking to the media about a bioterrorism expert who has not been charged in the case.

Dr. Stephen Hatfill has filed a defamation lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) and other government authorities who publicly named him as a "person of interest" in the attacks. He said his reputation has been ruined and is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, Hatfill attorney Thomas Connolly said investigators continue to leak his client's name.

"I am troubled," Walton said, his voice escalating in anger. "It undermines what this country is about: that people are treated fairly."

"If they didn't have the information to indict him, it's wrong to drag his name through the mud. And if the innuendo and whisper campaign is continuing, that's what they're doing," he said. "That's not a government I want to be a part of. It's wrong, and you need to do something about it."

Justice Department (news - web sites) attorney Elizabeth Shapiro responded that top Justice officials have told FBI (news - web sites) investigators to control leaks.

Hatfill's lawsuit claims officials named him to deflect attention from their inability to find whoever was responsible for the October 2001 attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17 others. He still is the only publicly named "person of interest" in the case.

Hatfill worked as a researcher at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. The facility housed the strain of anthrax found in the envelopes sent to the victims, though Hatfill maintains he never worked with the bacterium.

The FBI had Hatfill under 24-hour surveillance for months following the attacks and in one incident, agents in a vehicle trailing Hatfill ran over his foot on a Washington street. Government lawyers have said Ashcroft named Hatfill as a "person of interest" to dampen speculation that he was a suspect.

Justice Department officials have repeatedly sought delays in making FBI investigators available for depositions in preparation for trial on the lawsuit, citing the potential risk of disclosing sensitive information in an ongoing investigation.

Shapiro emphasized that government officials aren't opposed to providing written responses to Hatfill's attorneys.

Walton in March granted the government a six-month stay in the case, but expressed impatience Thursday after Shapiro requested another six months.

Walton told both sides to reach an agreement in two weeks, or face a court order. He also ordered government lawyers to file a written response to Hatfill's allegations — made more than a year ago — within 30 days.

Under a proposal submitted to Walton this week by Hatfill, government investigators would be shielded from depositions for an additional six months. However, Justice officials would be asked to sign waivers of any confidentiality agreements with reporters, so that Hatfill may depose them for information about the leaks.

Shapiro countered that the proposal was too broad and overly coercive, and Walton said he wanted both sides to seek a compromise and report back to him on Oct. 21.

[TrebleRebel]

ping

[Thud]

The process used to weaponize the anthrax used against us in the fall of 2001 was not known to the U.S. government.

It was not remotely comparable to any weaponization process known to the U.S. government.

The U.S. government is familiar with the anthrax weaponization processes developed by the United States, the former Soviet Union (courtesy of a defector - the project manager), the United Kingdom and other friendly countries.

The only countries known to have anthrax weaponization processes whose techniques are not known to us were China, North Korea and Iraq. We have some knowledge of China's and especially North Korea's - just not complete knowledge as we did of the USSR's.

The anthrax weaponization process for the Fall 2001 anthrax was quite sophisticated - much more so than the crude North Korean knockoff of an older Soviet process.

The U.S. government, with all its resources, has not been able to duplicate the process used to weaponize the anthrax used against us.

Developing a wholly new anthrax weaponization process requires an industrial scale research & development effort. While producing weaponized anthrax can be done by small groups of technically competent people using some already known weaponization processes(notably those used by the former Soviet Union), developing a brand new weaponization process like the 2001 variety requires a massive R&D effort.

Only a government can SECRETLY develop a wholly new anthrax weaponization process. The effort required is so vast that it cannot be done secretly without government power to keep it a secret.

So it wasn't Hatfill. The FBI's "lone gunman" theory is a complete fabrication.

The single most likely government to have secretly developed the weaponization process used on us is Iraq under Saddam Hussein's regime. It was known to have such a weaponization program. Whether it had the requisite technical sophistication to do so is the major question. North Korea could not have done it. China could have. Iraq might have.

There is significant circumstantial evidence pointing to Iraq. A Florida pharmacist reported treating one of the 9/11 hijackers for lesions which in hindsight he feels were caused by cutaneous anthrax. And the man who brought the victim to him was Mohammed Atta, who seems to have met with an agent of Iraqi intelligence in Prague before 9/11.

So we have a confluence of means, motive and opportunity on Iraq as the source of the anthrax used on us.

[AMDG&BVMH]

"on Iraq as the source of the anthrax used on us."

that has been my opinion; but if so, why has the administration not said anything about it?

it would solve two things at once: the attacks; and the no-WMD charge

just wondering

[Southack]

Actually, Syria's anthrax program is decades ahead of where Iraq got under Hussein.

Syria itself is not so unclever as to directly attack the U.S., however.

But Syria is infected with Palestinians...the same Palestinians who are fighting us in Iraq today.

So the easiest explanation for the anthrax attacks would revolve around rogue Palestinians getting their hands upon a small amount of Syria's stockpiles of Anthrax, then giving that anthrax to their cohorts in the U.S....probably related to the 9/11 attacks themselves.

The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!

[Thud]

That doesn't explain the Florida pharmacist's encounter with Atta and his friend with the suspicious lesion. Additionally your theory differs from the FBI's only in technical feasibility - means. It does not address the traditional issues of motive and opportunity.

Every indicator points at Iraq.

[TrebleRebel]

Don't forget the Jennifer Lopez letters containing anthrax sent to AMI. The FBI never talk about these. Why would the anthrax terrorists choose to use Jennifer Lopez's name in love letters to her to send the anthrax?

Just a few weeks before the letters were sent Mohammed Attta was communicating with a terrorist in Hamburg - he used code to tell him the date of the 9/11 attack. He was pretending to be emailing his girlfriend - called "Jenny".

see http://anthrax2001.blogspot.com

[jpl]

Don't forget the Jennifer Lopez letters containing anthrax sent to AMI. The FBI never talk about these. Why would the anthrax terrorists choose to use Jennifer Lopez's name in love letters to her to send the anthrax?

A curtain of near total silence has come down on almost everyone and everything associated with this article here, most notably on Judy Orihuela, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Miami field office.

Judy Orihuela is one woman I wouldn't mind talking to some day.

[TrebleRebel]

You can read more about Gloria Irish here:
http://www.nap.edu/openbook/030908881X/html/

She did spend several days with the hijackers, driving them around. She doesn't believe she ever mentioned where her husband worked.

[Southack]

"That doesn't explain the Florida pharmacist's encounter with Atta and his friend with the suspicious lesion."

Then you didn't understand the implications of what I said.

The Palestinians are supplying suicide bombers for Zarqawi in Iraq. Palestinians have been in Lebanon interacting with Syrian forces there for decades. Palestinians formed Black September in the 1970's to hijack aircraft.

In short, you've got Palestinians actively fighting Americans today in Iraq, acting as technical experts for hijackings and suicide bombings, as well as involved with Syrians in Lebanon...with Syria being the leading technical power in the field of chemical and biological weapons in the Middle East (outside of Israel, naturally).

What you had in Iraq was a rogue dictator with plenty of oil money. He was paying the families of Palestinian suicide bombers big bounties in Israel. He was funding chemical and biological research, as well as making outright acquisions of questionable "dual use" technology (in addition to destabilizing the region and being in violation of the 1991 Surrender Agreement and numerous UN resolutions).

So what the available evidence points back to is tangental Iraqi involvement, notable Palestinian involvement, and Syrians who share some responsibility for failing to lock down all of their anthrax stockpiles.

In short, both 9/11 and the anthrax attacks were bigger than any one terrorist group; several players were involved at various levels.

[Southack]

"Don't forget the Jennifer Lopez letters containing anthrax sent to AMI. The FBI never talk about these."

That's because the anthrax that hit the AMI building in Florida (infecting 2, killing 1) didn't come through the mail.

There is no Florida anthrax letter. No one has it. No one can show it to you. It doesn't exist.

Anything rumored to the contrary is worthless agitprop.

The Florida AMI building was hit with cross-contamination. The cash or checks or envelopes used to pay the 9/11 terrorists' rent were contaminated by the actual anthrax attack letters.

That rent was paid to the wife of the owner of the AMI building, Gloria Irish. She rented an apartment to two of the 9/11 hijackers.

Anthrax easily spreads via cross-contamination of paper, after all.

The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!

[Thud]

I think you'd be a fine FBI agent.

[Thud]

And I always thought they hit the Enquirer due to orders to whack the American media, looked in the phone book and found an address for American Media International.

[Southack]

As a child, did you ever play the game called "Which one of these isn't like the others"?

Well, examine *all* of the anthrax attacks and notice which one isn't like all of the others. There is only one anthrax attack in Florida, it happened first, and there is no anthrax letter from that attack.

Note that those things are different for *all* of the other attacks.

So what's the one thing different in relation to the Anthrax attacks and Florida (hint: where did the 9/11 attackers have an apartment)?!

The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!

[cgk]

There is no Florida anthrax letter. No one has it. No one can show it to you. It doesn't exist.

---

We also haven't seen the REAL anthrax letters - ALL of them. Where is Leahy's letter, and which of the Brokaw/Post letters is the real thing, and where is the other real letter, not a photocopy?

[Thud]

The pharmacist.

[TrebleRebel]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6201303/ MSNBC.com Three years later, still no relief for anthrax ‘person of interest’ Judge rebukes government for lengthy process By Jim Popkin and Pete Williams NBC News Updated: 6:31 p.m. ET Oct. 7, 2004 WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors heard an earful Thursday from the federal judge handling a lawsuit against the government brought by Steven Hatfill, the man publicly identified by Attorney General John Ashcroft as a “person of interest” in the anthrax case. Hatfill claims the U.S. Justice Department violated his privacy by leaking his name to reporters and harassed him to the point that he can't get a job. But Thursday the government asked for a delay of at least six more months before any depositions of federal officials can begin in his civil case, saying Hatfill's lawsuit would interfere with its sprawling anthrax investigation. In court, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton said he'd consider the request but indicated he thinks the government has stalled already. Hatfill has "the right to vindicate himself, so he doesn't have this taint hanging over his head," Walton said. In an extraordinary rebuke, Judge Walton, a Republican appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, took the Justice Department to task for failing to indict or clear Hatfill after nearly three years of investigation. Thundering from the bench, Walton told a federal prosecutor: "If you don't have enough information to indict this man, you can't keep dragging him through the mud." He added, “That's not the type of country I want to be part of. It's wrong!" Hatfill was not present in court Thursday. His lawyer, Thomas Connolly, argued that FBI leaks to the media have smeared his client's reputation. A federal prosecutor, Elizabeth Shapiro, said that top Justice Department officials have been trying to stop the whisper campaign against Hatfill. "Leaks have occurred. We don't know who made those leaks," Shapiro said. Three years have passed since the first anthrax letters were sent through the mail, first to news organizations, including NBC News, then to the U.S. Senate. FBI agents say it's one of their most complex investigations ever. A spokeswoman for the FBI revealed new figures to NBC News showing the scope of the probe. She says FBI agents have now conducted more than 6,000 interviews, served almost 5,000 subpoenas and searched four dozen separate locations. In a potentially key new development, the FBI say its agents have now determined that 16 U.S. laboratories actually had the strain of anthrax used in the attacks and the bureau has identified more than 1,000 employees of those labs who had access to it, all of them since questioned. The most recent analysis, NBC News has learned, has further narrowed the number of potential source labs to four, though officials decline to specify which facilities are on that list. The FBI remains optimistic that scientific analysis of the spores will help lead to the anthrax mailer, but some experts aren't so sure. In one sign that there's still a long way to go, the FBI has not yet ruled out the possibility that the anthrax was made overseas. Jim Popkin is NBC's senior investigative producer. Pete Williams is NBC's justice correspondent. © 2004 MSNBC Interactive var url=location.href;var i=url.indexOf('print/1/');if(i<0){i=url.indexOf('&print=1');}if(i>=0){url=url.substring(0,i);document.write(' URL: '+url+' ');if(window.print){window.print()}else{alert('To print his page press Ctrl-P on your keyboard \nor choose print from your browser or device after clicking OK');}} URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6201303/

[jpl]

In one sign that there's still a long way to go, the FBI has not yet ruled out the possibility that the anthrax was made overseas.

Whoa, am I the only one here who thinks this a serious bombshell being dropped in this article? I thought the FBI was absolutely CERTAIN that the anthrax came from Ft. Detrick and had completely ruled out any possibility of it coming from overseas! This is the first time in almost three years I've heard this kind of admission from the powers-that-be; this is just incredible.

Some other strange things in this piece as well: he says Judge Walton was considering a request for another six-month delay, but I thought earlier on it was reported that he had outright rejected that request.

Also, Hatfill himself wasn't in court? This strikes me as more than a little unusual. I wonder what in the world he was doing since he doesn't have a job?

[Shermy]

The most recent analysis, NBC News has learned, has further narrowed the number of potential source labs to four, though officials decline to specify which facilities are on that list.

I had a bad tomato last night. I learned the tomato historically originated in four Central American countries. Therefore it must come from one of them. I blame Guatemala.

[Khan Noonian Singh]

Consider -

Hatfill is getting ready to force the fbi to put it up or to shut it up. It will be at a moment when he calculates that he has the upper-hand.

He will ask for official clarification whether he is free to travell away from the USA. If he times it right, the fbi will be unable to say no because then he will say - << ok, charge me >> - which the fbi are unwilling to do.

Hatfill will then go somewhere - Costa Rica, Mexico - somewhere where he can get some peace, may-be a job without being stopped by official innuendo. He also immunises himself against risk of prosecution and related harassment due to the hurdle blocks of extradition requirements.