Posted on 02/08/2003 7:10:06 PM PST by Gorilla44
WASHINGTON — The FBI’s recent searches of a forest near Frederick, Md., were inspired partly by a manuscript confiscated from Steven Hatfill, a former U.S. Army biologist who has been the public focus of the bureau’s investigation into the autumn 2001 anthrax attacks, a former U.N. weapons inspector who has sources involved with the investigation told Global Security Newswire last week (see GSN, Feb. 3).
The FBI has conducted two searches of the area, one in December and one last month. Both searches used divers to search a number of ponds in the area, according to reports. The search of the area was inspired by a section of a bioterrorism-related manuscript recovered from Hatfill’s apartment last year, said the former U.N. inspector, citing a confidential source. A section in Hatfill’s manuscript mentioned terrorists dumping equipment into ponds similar to those investigated during the December search, he said.
The scene in Hatfill’s manuscript probably did not contain any sinister connotations, the former inspector said, adding the similarities were likely not intentional.
“In my mind this would not be unusual,” the former inspector said in a written response to GSN. “One usually writes about what one is familiar with and this would include descriptive areas,” he added.
The FBI’s use of Hatfill’s manuscript as an inspiration for new tactics in its investigation, which has progressed for more than 1 1/2 years without notable results, could indicate a sense of desperation, the former inspector said. “If the FBI is desperate, then anything might be beaten to death,” he added.
The FBI refused to comment on the searches, the motives behind them, or what, if anything, was found, citing that the investigation was still in progress.
The former inspector said he believed Hatfill is being “railroaded” by the FBI, which is ignoring other sources.
“It appears that the FBI has decided he is the one and now are concentrating all their efforts to find the evidence,” the former inspector said. “They are barking up the wrong tree,” he added.
As the FBI continues its efforts to find the person or persons responsible for the anthrax attacks, Hatfill currently lives in limbo — sitting “in his girlfriend’s apartment making fruitless calls looking for employment” and “watching CNN,” said Patrick Clawson, Hatfill’s personal friend and spokesman.
Clawson said that neither he nor Hatfill knew why the FBI had conducted two searches of the section of forest near Frederick and the ponds contained within.
“We don’t know why the FBI is searching those ponds ... but they can keep doing it,” Clawson said, professing Hatfill’s complete innocence in the attacks. The “FBI can keep looking till hell freezes over,” he added.
The FBI might have intended the searches to be only a publicity stunt, Clawson said. They were just to fool “the American public that Johnny G-Man was on the job,” he said.
...or it could be just more of the same.
Anybody seen Hatfill's girlfriend? Wanna know a secret? She doesn't exist.
This much is true.
It must really chap Colin Powell's hide that the FBI won't arrest Hatfill, or even empanel a grand jury to grill him and his pals, especially when we're asking the UN to start a war over Saddam's missing anthrax. That's incongruous and embarassing, to put it mildly. Or is it?
This manuscript is Dr. Hatfill's unpublished Clancy-esque thriller, Emergence. In Emergence, Saddam Hussein launches a biological terrorist attack on the United States, using Palistinian terrorists as proxies. At the end of the novel, Bagdhad is incinerated by a US nuclear strike.
Interesting, no? What could be the significance of that?
Art imitates art.
Perhaps the FBI has not arrested Hatfill or empaneled a grand jury because the FBI has no evidence that is credible enough to attain and indictment.
If the FBI has no evidence, then it should frost neither Colim Powell, nor any good conservative who believes that this battle and all of the battles we fight are about defending our Constitution and the rights subscribed therein.
They turned to the hot topic of anthrax. The powder in the letter mailed to Senator Daschle's office had been found to be potent, prompting officials to suggest its source was likely an expert capable of producing the bacteria in large amounts. Tenet said, "I think it's AQ" – meaning al Qaeda. "I think there's a state sponsor involved. It's too well thought out, the powder's too well refined. It might be Iraq, it might be Russia, it might be a renegade scientist," perhaps from Iraq or Russia.Scooter Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, said he also thought the anthrax attacks were state sponsored. "We've got to be careful on what we say." It was important not to lay it on anyone now. "If we say it's al Qaeda, a state sponsor may feel safe and then hit us thinking they will have a bye because we'll blame it on al Qaeda."
"I'm not going to talk about a state sponsor," Tenet assured them.
"It's good that we don't," said Cheney, "because we're not ready to do anything about it."
— Bush at War, Bob Woodward, pp 248-249
WHO writes the paychecks for that 'former u.n. inspector'?
Everything that has been written, r.e. Hatfill, that is calling him 'guilty', just doesn't pass the smell test. AND, if his manuscript closely matches current events, then WHY isn't Tom Clancy painted with the same brush of 'guilt'?
A more interesting question would be: WHO writes the paychecks for Steve Hatfill?
...which President Bush could have shut down with a single phone call any time in the last twelve months. But he didn't. Why not? Because Dr. Hatfill's brainchild, Amerithrax, is serving a very useful purpose. Can you guess what it is?
The DOJ. You know, that outfit that runs the FBI.
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