By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

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.

For further information, see:

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

FBI Amerithrax Investigation

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

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