Get off your high-horse. I need to shoot it.
I'm very comfortable up here on my high-horse, thank you.
As I said: Anyone who claims that what happened to Dr. Hatfill is all the fault of the FBI just doesn't know what he's talking about.
Barbara Hatch Rosenberg began her campaign SIX MONTHS before Dr. Hatfill's name was made public.
She made speeches at scientific conventions, stating that she knew who sent the letters and that the government was covering up the crime.
She did interviews with newspapers all over the world, and they printed what she told them. Nicolas Kristof at The New York Times believed her and began a series of columns that pointed at Dr. Hatfill without actually naming him.
She made speeches at universities. She got people to write their congressmen.
She posted papers on the web site of the Federation of American Scientists stating the facts as she saw them.
THIS WENT ON FOR SIX MONTHS!
In June of 2002, shortly after posting a paper titled "What the FBI Knows," she was summoned before a Senate committee along with Van Harp, who was the head of the Washington Field Office of the FBI.
The staffers in charge of that committee believed what Barbara Hatch Rosenberg told them about Dr. Hatfill. When Van Harp called her an "amateur detective," the committee ORDERED Harp to apologize to her. They also DEMANDED that the FBI check out Dr. Rosenberg's accusations and they DEMANDED that Harp report back to the committee with his findings.
A week later, the public investigation of Dr. Hatfill began. (The FBI had checked him out as soon as his name came up in November of 2001, but they found no reason to suspect him.)
So, while "Looney-Tune Conspiracy Theorists are not in charge of the FBI," they can apply a LOT of pressure when they are believed by newspapers, by the public and by politicians who hold the purse strings which allow the FBI to operate. (In case you have forgotten, there was talk at that time of shutting down the FBI and creating a new agency that would be more interested in going after potential terrorists.)
Most are.