MR. ASHCROFT:
GET THE FBI OFF HATFILL'S BACK
By: Phil Brennan
It is now reaching a stage of absurdity. At a cost of an estimated $250,000 of taxpayer's money the FBI drained a small pond outside of Frederick, Maryland seeking proof that Dr. Steven Hatfill had waded into the water a year or so ago and loaded envelopes with anthrax which he then mailed to a number of intended victims.
They won't say what they found this time around to add to the plastic container and glass vials they alleged found last winter in the pond, but news reports indicate among the items discovered were a gun, a fishing rod, and a street sign. It was also reported that they dredged up tons of mud which was sent to a laboratory to see if it contained any traces of anthrax - something they had been unable to find in the previous visit to the pond.
The plastic box, which has been variously described as a crude glove box with either one or two holes cut into its side which FBI agents speculated could have enabled Hatfill to work under water safely while using gloves to maneuver the anthrax into envelopes without exposing himself to the deadly spores, or, as Hatfill's friend Pat Clawson called a "K-Mart sweater box," and somebody else described as a turtle trap.
Whatever it is, some FBI agents said the theory created a lot of giggles.
The Bureau won't say exactly what they found, but reporters close to the FBI indicate they found nothing - that the $250,000 fishing expedition caught nothing but a lot of junk, most of which was turned over to local authorities.
It would be bad enough if this was an isolated instance of the FBI's startling incompetence which is made far worse by their hubris. I mentioned before their utter failure to find Eric Rudolf despite five years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars and man hours only to discover he'd been right there under their noses all that time. Yet despite these embarrassing facts, they still did their peacock strut after a local cop nabbed Rudolf, preening themselves in the limelight surrounding the real hero of the affair.
Then we had their shoddy performance in the case of Elizabeth Smart, who was also right under their noses for months and once again they pushed themselves forward to share in the credit for finding her that belonged solely to local police officials.
In the anthrax case, the Bureau's record has been shameful and a lot of the blame lies at the feet of top Bureau officials, specifically the agent in charge of the anthrax investigation, the recently retired Van Harp. The pond search started as Harp prepared to retire. He played it up big initially, broadly hinting that this could be the big break the Bureau was looking for.
After the first effort proved futile, and just before he was to leave the Bureau, the draining of the pond became the focus of the investigation, with Harp hinting that this would be the big break. But then again, he allowed that although his investigation had convinced him that Hatfill was the culprit, the FBI might never be able to prove it.
Now, with the second pond episode leaving the bureau with egg on their face, news reports suddenly surfaced revealing darkly that Hatfill had worked on a top secret project for Delta Force - not an outfit given to working with anthrax killers and had designed a built a mock up mobile biowarfare lab. He had done that work even though the FBI was breathing down his neck as a "person of interest."
That revelation was leaked to the media suggesting that there was some sinister connection with the mock-up which could never be used to produce biological agents and was merely built to show Delta Force operatives what to look for.
The leak backfired.
Last year, it was reported that Dr. Hatfill had surreptitiously taken three old biological safety cabinets from Fort Detrick, and it was suggested that he had used them in some way to manufacture anthrax.
According to Ed Lake who publishes the anthrax investigation web site: "It's been known for well over a year that one of the reasons Dr. Hatfill was suspected by some people was because he took three non-functioning biosafety cabinets from USAMRIID.
Scott Shane wrote about it in the Baltimore Sun on February 22, 2002:
"Among others, the agents asked about a former Fort Detrick scientist who returned a few years ago and took discarded biological safety cabinets, used for work with dangerous pathogens. Like some other military lab workers, the scientist has expertise on weaponizing anthrax and has been vaccinated against it, sources say."
"The scientist acknowledged that several years ago, with Army permission, he took three biosafety cabinets that were being discarded at Fort Detrick, but he said they were for use in a classified Defense Department project that he could not discuss."
So, now we know a little bit more about the "classified" DOD project. Big deal. And we now know that those "mobile bioweapons labs" in Iraq were of concern for a long time before Colin Powell talked about them at the U.N.
In the Washington Post Marilyn Thompson answered a few questions with some provocative and (possibly) informative statements:
Regarding the plastic box found in the pond, she says:
"My understanding of the box is that it is a plastic or plexiglass box about the size of a small cooler made into a crude or makeshift glove box. It has holes in the sides for gloves. I have researched lightweight portable glove boxes that are commercially available and shown pictures of these to sources who have seen the evidence. I am told that these boxes are much more sophisticated than the one the FBI has found."
She also indicates that she got her information second hand from her colleague Allen Lengel who apparently got the information from someone else - who may have gotten the information from someone else. Clearly, no reporter has actually seen the box.
Then there is this statement about the anthrax:
"The FBI has now had this material analyzed by numerous expert labs -- yet even last week, work [word?] surfaced that the agency would send it out for more cutting-edge analysis."
Regarding Dr. Hatfill working long hours at SAIC at the time of the mailings:
My sources who know and worked with Hatfill believe strongly that he was on duty at SAIC during those hours.
And this about a possible end to the Dr. Hatfill situation:
"Some sources have acknowledged privately that the FBI will soon have to put up or shut up and leave Dr. Hatfill alone.
"[FBI] Agents spent two weeks studying a mock mobile biolab he helped build on an old truck chassis on the property of a Frederick contractor, AFW Fabrication, then halted the unit for another look while it was being transported to Fort Bragg, according to a source close to the case.
And
"But the units never manufactured any germs and were not capable of making the anthrax mailed in the attacks, according to defense officials and contractors involved in the projects.
"No way in the wildest dream could it have been used to make anything," says William C. Patrick III, a Frederick scientist retired from Fort Detrick who worked closely with Hatfill on one project.
But it's been known for over a year that his work in this area made him a suspect to Barbara Hatch Rosenberg and other scientists. The problem is: There is no way to tell if the FBI's attention was purely the result of those scientists pointing at Dr. Hatfill or the result of some other evidence (even though most reports say there is nothing but innuendo). The following two paragraphs - also from the Sun - probably sum it all up:
"However, as months have passed without any decision to charge or clear him, even the investigators have split into camps, according to an official who speaks regularly with agents on the case.
"Some agents still believe that they're on the right track, while others have grown skeptical that Hatfill had any connection to the attacks."
The skeptics are right, Mr. Attorney General. It's time to get these bumblers off Dr. Hatfill's back. They've been leading you down a blind alley.
And I can report that this may well be happening. The bureau has been trailing Dr. Hatfill day and night, sometimes with 50 agents shadowing him at one time. Over the weekend he drove to West Virginia and said that he was not tailed for the first time, no FBI agents in cars in front, behind and alongside him as has always been the case in the past.
Last night, he had dinner with his friend and spokesman Pat Clawson who told me that there wasn't an agent in sight at the restaurant or later at Dr. Hatfill's home.
Hopefully, Steve Hatfill's long nightmare is coming to an end. It's about time.
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