Scientist Is Paid Millions by U.S. in Anthrax Suit

[groovedaddy]

The Justice Department announced Friday that it would pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Steven J. Hatfill, a former Army biodefense researcher intensively investigated as a “person of interest” in the deadly anthrax letters of 2001.

The settlement, consisting of $2.825 million in cash and an annuity paying Dr. Hatfill $150,000 a year for 20 years, brings to an end a five-year legal battle that had recently threatened a reporter with large fines for declining to name sources she said she did not recall.

Dr. Hatfill, who worked at the Army’s laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., in the late 1990s, was the subject of a flood of news media coverage beginning in mid-2002, after television cameras showed Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in biohazard suits searching his apartment near the Army base. He was later named a “person of interest” in the case by then Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking on national television.

In a news conference in August 2002, Dr. Hatfill tearfully denied that he had anything to do with the anthrax letters and said irresponsible news media coverage based on government leaks had destroyed his reputation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/washington/28hatfill.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1214832127-auWLC/IEtp7yHSPSw+9wGw

[sharp_stick]

1. You'd think that after the fiasco in Atlanta

with that poor Richard Jewell bastard the goddamned cops would figure out that you don't convict someone in the media without a little bit of evidence.

This money should come out of the FBI budget.

[seafan]

2. “Solving this case is a top priority for the F.B.I. .....,” says FBI spokesman. Yeah, right.

NYT

June 28, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced Friday that it would pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Steven J. Hatfill, a former Army biodefense researcher intensively investigated as a “person of interest” in the deadly anthrax letters of 2001.

....

Dr. Hatfill’s lawsuit, filed in 2003, accused F.B.I. agents and Justice Department officials involved in the criminal investigation of the anthrax mailings of leaking information about him to the news media in violation of the Privacy Act. In order to prove their case, his lawyers took depositions from key F.B.I. investigators, senior officials and a number of reporters who had covered the investigation.

.....

“The good news is that we still live in a country where a guy who’s been horribly abused can go to a judge and say ‘I need your help,’ and maybe it takes a while, but he gets justice,” Mr. Grannis said.
The settlement, Mr. Grannis said, “means that Steven Hatfill is finally an ex-person of interest.”
In a written statement, Mr. Grannis and Dr. Hatfill’s other lawyers said, “We can only hope that the individuals and institutions involved are sufficiently chastened by this episode to deter similar destruction of private citizens in the future — and that we will all read anonymously sourced news reports with a great deal more skepticism.”

.....

The settlement called new attention to the fact that nearly seven years after the toxic letters were mailed, killing five people and sickening at least 17 others, the case has not been solved.
A Justice Department spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, said in a statement that the government admitted no liability but decided settlement was “in the best interest of the United States.”

“The government remains resolute in its investigation into the anthrax attacks, which killed five individuals and sickened others after lethal anthrax powder was sent through the United States mail,” Mr. Roehrkasse said.
An F.B.I. spokesman, Jason Pack, said the anthrax investigation “is one of the largest and most complex investigations ever conducted by law enforcement” and is currently being pursued by more than 20 agents of the F.B.I. and the Postal Inspection Service.

“Solving this case is a top priority for the F.B.I. .....,” Mr. Pack said.

But Representative Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat whose district was the site of a postal box believed to have been used in the attacks, said he would press Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., for more answers about the status of the case.
“As today’s settlement announcement confirms, this case was botched from the very beginning,” Mr. Holt said. “The F.B.I. did a poor job of collecting evidence, and then inappropriately focused on one individual as a suspect for too long, developing an erroneous theory of the case that has led to this very expensive dead end.”

.....

Again, a look at the victims of these directed attacks is illuminating: two leading Democratic Senators in an administration-pressured negotiation over the Patriot Act language; news media anchors; the American Media Institute; a newspaper.


What has happened in this country over the last 8 years is criminal destruction.

[Old and In the Way]

3. What did the WH know about the anthrax attacks on 9/11?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20011023/aponline201158_000.htm



While Cipro is effective in treating infection, it's not recommended as a preventative measure-

2. Is Cipro approved for anthrax?

Cipro is approved for use in patients who have been exposed to the inhaled form of anthrax.

3. Is Cipro the only product approved to treat anthrax infections?

No. There are a number of antibiotics that are currently indicated to treat anthrax infections including doxycycline and penicillin. These older antibiotics are readily available. FDA is stressing that any antibiotic should only be used by those who really need it because unnecessary antibiotic use exposes patients to the risks of a drug without any potential benefit.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/cipro/cipro_faq.htm



Anthrax - Symptoms

The average incubation period for anthrax is up to 7 days, but it can take 60 days or longer for symptoms to develop.2 Symptoms depend on how the infection was acquired.
Cutaneous anthrax

Cutaneous anthrax usually occurs when spores from the bacteria enter a cut or scrape on the skin. Cutaneous anthrax infection has the following characteristics:

* Skin infection begins as a small, raised bump that might itch-similar to an insect or spider bite.
* Within 1 to 2 days, the bump develops into a fluid-filled blister about 1cm to 3cm in diameter. Within 7 to 10 days, the blister usually has a black center of dying tissue (eschar) surrounded by redness and swelling. The blister is usually painless.
* Additional blisters may develop.

Bush on fainting episode: 'Chew your food'

January 14, 2002 Posted: 6:38 PM EST (2338 GMT)

[groovedaddy]

4. More from an FBI agent who worked the case

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3375100