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Anthrax: Suspicion Grows Around Hatfill Louisiana State University Friday placed Steven Hatfill — a potential suspect in the investigation into last year’s anthrax attacks — on paid administrative leave for 30 days, according to the Baltimore Sun (see GSN, June 8). “His [employment] status will be re-evaluated at the end of that period,” the university said in a statement. Administrators hired Hatfill in July as associate director of the university’s National Center for Biomedical Research and Training. The center, funded through a U.S. Justice Department grant, helps train emergency personnel to respond to a terrorist attack using biological weapons. In June, the FBI told Hatfill’s supervisor at the university, Stephen Guillot, that Hatfill was “not a suspect and was not on any list” of potential suspects, Guillot said two weeks ago (Scott Shane, Baltimore Sun, Aug. 3). Hatfill’s attorneys have said their client is innocent and has cooperated fully with the FBI during their investigation. “Dr. Hatfill ... was voluntarily debriefed and polygraphed, and voluntarily agreed to have his home, car and other property subjected to a lengthy and comprehensive search by the FBI,” attorney Victor Glasberg said in a statement last week. “He ... was told that the results were all favorable and that he was not a suspect in the case.” FBI officials have said that Hatfill is one out of “around 12” people the bureau is examining and that he is not a suspect. The agency wants to avoid a situation comparable to the 1996 Olympic bombing investigation in which Richard Jewell was wrongly identified as a suspect, according to Newsweek. “Richard Jewell looms large around here,” an FBI official said. “We’ve got to be very careful.” Bloodhounds Meanwhile, the FBI brought bloodhounds last week to several locations visited by a dozen potential suspects, Newsweek reported (see GSN, Aug. 2). FBI agents presented the bloodhounds with scent packs taken from the now-decontaminated anthrax letters sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The agents then took the bloodhounds, whose scent detection abilities are admissible in court, to locations frequented by the possible suspects, according to Newsweek. The bloodhounds became agitated only when they were taken to Hatfill’s apartment, Newsweek reported. “They went crazy,” said a law-enforcement official. The dogs also indicated that they detected a scent when they were taken to the apartment of Hatfill’s girlfriend and to a Denny’s restaurant that Hatfill had recently visited, according to Newsweek. “When you see how the dogs go to everything that connected him, you say ‘Damn!’” one law enforcement official said (Miller/Klaidman, Newsweek, Aug. 12). Framed? FBI agents have asked Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a State University of New York microbiologist who has publicized her views on the anthrax investigation, whether a group of U.S. scientists might be attempting to frame Hatfill, Rosenberg said, according to the Washington Times (see GSN, June 26). “They kept asking me did I think there might be a group in the biodefense community that was trying to land the blame on Hatfill,” Rosenberg said. “Maybe (Dr. Hatfill) was being set up,” she said. “That’s my speculation of what (the agents) thought.” Rosenberg said she told the FBI that she had not heard of any group attempting to frame Hatfill for the attacks. “I just cannot imagine that it was a bona fide conspiracy,” she said. “On the other hand, I’ve heard a lot of support for him from prominent friends in the biodefense community.” Anyone who is questioned by the FBI should be careful when forming conclusions from particular questions, said Van Harp, assistant director for the FBI’s Washington field office. “It’s the nature of any investigation to ask a broad spectrum of questions to cover all or as many issues as possible,” Harp said (Guy Taylor, Washington Times, Aug. 3). Profile: Lone U.S. Scientist FBI agents are continuing to work under the hypothesis that the person responsible for last fall’s attacks is a lone U.S. resident with sophisticated knowledge needed to prepare and deliver anthrax spores, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, July 8). “I feel myself that it’s domestic,” said Martin Hugh-Jones, an anthrax researcher at Louisiana State University. “In the whole world, there are probably only 200 serious anthrax researchers, and of that number, less than half a dozen would have the skill and opportunity to make dry powders.” Others, however, have said that the potential pool of suspects might be much larger and might also include foreign sources, the Post reported (see GSN, June 4). Certain pieces of evidence — such as the use of the Ames strain of anthrax — that supposedly indicate a domestic suspect do not necessarily rule out a non-U.S. connection, according to Ken Alibek, former deputy director of the Soviet biological weapons program. “My previous experience says we should be cautious,” Alibek said. “If a foreign country was involved, they would never use the strain from their own country.” One small group with which the FBI has had little contact is the scientists involved in the former U.S. offensive biological weapons program, which was disbanded in 1973, according to the Post. “I still read the journals,” said Bill Walter, a retired microbiologist who said he would like to assist the FBI in its investigation. “I read where they haven’t left a stone unturned,” he said. “There’s about eight of us stones that are still unturned. It’s a joke” (Guy Gugliotta, Washington Post, Aug. 4). BioPort Troubles Meanwhile, BioPort, the sole U.S. anthrax vaccine producer, has said it is experiencing financial difficulties, according to the New York Times. The Bush administration has not said how much vaccine it intends to purchase, preventing the company from completing contracts to sell the vaccine to other customers at higher prices, BioPort said (see GSN, July 1). While other customers have offered to purchase vaccine at very high prices, BioPort cannot sell to those customers until it has fulfilled its contract with the U.S. military to provide an estimated 3.4 million doses, said BioPort President Robert Kramer. U.S. officials, however, have not told BioPort exactly how many doses it plans to purchase because several civilian agencies have not committed to paying for the vaccine doses they want, the Times reported. Some Pentagon officials have said, however, that BioPort’s financial difficulties are partially the result of the company’s own miscalculations, according to the Times. “They initially underestimated how much it would cost to produce product that could meet FDA [Food and Drug Administration] standards or how much of their costs the state of Michigan, which once owned the plant, routinely picked up,” an official said (Judith Miller, New York Times, Aug. 5). For further information, see: CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)
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