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NY Times Says U.S. Failed in Anthrax Mailing Inquiry
An attorney for the New York Times said the U.S. inability to find the real culprit in the 2001 anthrax mailings is a law enforcement failure, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, April 25). David Schultz, attorney for the Times, urged a federal appeals court yesterday not to reinstate a case by former Army scientist Steven Hatfill that alleges the paper improperly implicated Hatfill. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton dismissed Hatfill’s libel suit against the Times in November, AP reported, and a circuit court of appeals heard Hatfill’s appeal of that decision yesterday. Schultz said columns run by the paper noted that the FBI had no physical evidence against Hatfill, that Hatfill denied involvement in the mailing and that he was innocent until proven guilty. “There’s no way to read all of that except that our government is failing us,” Schultz argued. Schultz said columnist Nicholas Kristof repeated news reports on Hatfill and raised concerns about the handling of the investigation. “He’s raising critical questions that the public has a right to hear,” Schultz told the court. Hatfill’s attorney Christopher Wright accused the Times of printing false allegations and dismissed the arguments that the columns contained disclaimers of innocence. “We don’t think the disclaimers are irrelevant, but we don’t think the disclaimers are a get out of jail free card for the New York Times,” Wright told the court. Thomas Connolly, another Hatfill lawyer, said the allegations have made it difficult for his client to find another job. “He remains unemployed and unemployable in light of what the government and news organizations like the New York Times have done to him,” Connolly said. (Larry O’Dell, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, May 24).
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