Posted on 06/28/2002 8:18:59 AM PDT by freeperfromnj
BUG BUSTERS: FBI agents sift through a storage trailer in Ocala, Fla., in search of clues to the deadly anthrax mailings. The site belongs to a bioresearcher who's a "person of interest" in the probe.
FBI agents hunting for last year's anthrax-sending psycho searched a Florida storage trailer belonging to a bioresearch scientist who three years ago commissioned a study into ways the deadly bacteria can be delivered by mail.
Federal sources said the scientist, Dr. Steven Hatfill of Hagerstown, Md., is a "person of interest" in their probe into the deadly wave of mailings that killed five people last fall.
They caution, however, that Hatfill is one of about 30 individuals the bureau is closely scrutinizing because of their specialized knowledge and because they may have had access to the deadly biological toxin.
On Wednesday, agents searched a storage facility in Ocala used by Hatfill to store personal belongings after his parents sold a nearby farm.
Ocala is about 230 miles northwest of Boca Raton, where Robert Stevens, the photo editor of a tabloid newspaper, was killed by a letter containing anthrax.
In another coincidence, Hatfill once asked a bioterrorism expert to do a study into how anthrax could be spread by mail while he worked as a researcher for defense contractor Science Applications International.
A report in The Sun of Baltimore said the study revealed how 21/2 grams of bacillus globigii, a simulated form of anthrax, could be mailed in a standard business envelope.
Ben Hadad, a spokesman for the San Diego-based company that Hatfill worked for, said the researcher and another employee commissioned the report in February 1999 as part of the company's official business. Hadad said there was nothing unusual about the commission, but would not release the report.
Hatfill is one of about 200 people the FBI has investigated in the wake of last year's mailing. Investigators still have no firm suspect.
Yet another coincidence, however, has led them to probe Hatfill, who has voluntarily allowed his Maryland apartment and Florida trailer to be searched.
The coincidence relates to his medical alma mater, the University of Zimbabwe Medical School.
The school is located in the Greendale neighborhood of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.
The anthrax letters sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy bore the false return address "Greendale School" Franklin Park, N.J.
Hatfill could not be reached for comment yesterday, but has protested his innocence in the past.
"I've been in this field for a number of years, working until 3 o'clock in the morning, trying to counter this type of weapon of mass destruction, and, sir, my career is over at this time," Hatfill said. .
His words were spoken in a manner similar to the language style used in the Trenton anthrax letters.
“We have put anthrax in the food” -- “We have this anthrax”.
“Hello. This is Abdul” -- “Allah is great.” -- hinting to at an Islamic connection to the attack
Also interesting is his use of the Throckmorton Middle School in his example and the way the author of the letters uses a school as a return address. Another point of interest is his description of the four different levels of attack.
There are perhaps 20-30 biowar scientists in the defense community who have access to this stuff. What is the chance of even one of these scientists being a homicidal (and suicidal!) maniac who just happened to be cranking up a private anthrax terror campaign at the very time the United States suffered it's greatest ever suprise attack? Of course, for Rosenberg, the mere fact of being associated with the US military-industrial complex and holding conservative views makes you a likely terrorist.
Thanks for the ping.
As I brought out on another thread (post #91), Rosenberg has apparently been fishing for somebody to hang this on within the defense establishment.
Rosenberg claimed early on to know who did it (or have strong evidence as to who did it), but this seems not to be true. Her earliest reports do not seem to point to Hatfill at all, but to one or possibly two other scientists.
My guess is that she decided that it had to be somebody in the U.S. biodefense community committing an act of domestic terrorism in order to draw attention to the threat of bioattack. (Why does she believe this scenario? Because she finds the motivation credible personally.) She then started dropping hints as to potential candidates, waiting to see which accusations stuck. Her idea may have been that, stipulating her basic scenario, this method of releasing public clues would reveal the identity of the perpetrator; I think that she did not know a name at the beginning of this.
I also still do not believe that there is any evidence for Rosenberg's scenario. If an insider is involved, it is as a mole acting in conjunction with (or as a seller to) the 9/11 terrorists.
The coincidences connecting Hatfill to the anthrax mailings appear to be pretty flimsy -- much flimsier than the anthrax connections of the 9/11 terrorists. And he consented to the FBI search himself.
Note that for any kind of military attack on our country, you could almost certainly find, after the fact, somebody in the defense establishment who has studied that kind of attack. So the fact that somebody can be found who has studied anthrax mail attacks is no surprise, and is probably of no significance. (Every time the stock market goes up or down, you can find somebody who has predicted that move -- by random chance, just because so many predictions are made. That person then becomes a media star for a while, until it becomes clear that the original appearance of success was a statistical anomaly. It's probably the same story here.)
Hatfill already is number two or three. I gave more details on this in another post.
One possibility is simply that the FBI has trampled on his reputation as a way to get Daschle and Barbara Rosenberg off the FBI's back.
After looking over the currently available info, I still believe the FBI knows the source full well: Iraq. Since admitting this would mean immediate war, they are waiting for the right time to come clean.
Hatfill is number three!
Recall that she began with the disaffected scientist who worked at Battelle Institute and was eventually tracked down in Milwaukee.
She followed that up with the jealous Egyptian working at Fort Detrick, who got passed by for promotion.
Thus, Mr. Hatfill was "number three" -- on her list, anyway.
The testimony of Barbara Hatch Rosenberg has thus been utterly discredited. But I don't think the press, or Tom Daschle, realizes this yet...
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