Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 02:03, 18 December 2006

Dr. Steven Jay Hatfill (b. October 24, 1953) (photo )is a physician, virologist and bio-weapons expert. The US Department of Justice identified the former government scientist as a "person of interest" in its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks but has not sought charges. FBI raids on his home were well attended by journalists and, fit a criminal profile, and consequently, several news outlets have speculated that Hatfill was the likely suspect for the attacks.

Biography

Hatfill was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from Mattoon Senior High School, Mattoon, Illinois (1971) and Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas (1975) where he studied biology. During college he took a year off and worked with a Methodist medical missionary in Kapanga, Zaire. (His mentor was Dr. Glenn Eschtruth, whose daughter Caroline he later married and divorced.)

Hatfill thensettled in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where his claimed military associations included work with the United States Army's Institute for Military Assistance, the Rhodesian SAS, and the Selous Scouts. He stayed on to study medicine (1978-84) at the Godfrey Huggins Medical School in Salisbury (now Harare). In 1984, he took a board certification in hematological pathology from South Africa. The South African government recruited him to be medical officer on a one-year tour of duty in Antarctica. He claimed a Ph.D. in molecular cellular biology as well as completion of a post-doctoral fellowship at Oxford University in England and three master's degrees (in microbial genetics, medical biochemistry, and experimental pathology). Some of these credentials have been questioned.

The anthrax attacks

Dr Hatfill's postdoctoral appointments included one at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He subsequently worked as a civilian researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the US Department of Defense's medical research institute for biological warfare (BW) defense at Fort Detrick, MD. There he studied new drug treatments for the Ebola virus and became a specialist in BW defense.

After leaving USAMRIID, he worked for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), also on Ft Detrick, and later at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA.

Hatfill has maintained that he is innocent of any involvement in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks and is suing the government for compensation for the damage he claims has been inflicted on his professional reputation and employment prospects. His lawyer, Victor M. Glasberg, stated: "Steve's life has been devastated by a drumbeat of innuendo, implication and speculation. We have a frightening public attack on an individual who, guilty or not, should not be exposed to this type of public opprobrium based on speculation."

In an embarrassing incident, FBI agents trailing Hatfill in a motor vehicle ran over his foot when he attempted to approach them in May, 2003.

References

• Burger, Marlene, "Murky past of a US bio-warrior", Mail & Guardian, (date disputed; URL retrieved September 11, 2006).
• Bright, Martin, and Cooper, Simon, "Anthrax suspect lied to get jobs", The Observer, June 1, 2003 (URL retrieved September 11, 2006).
• Bright, Martin, and Cooper, Simon, "Walter Mitty life of anthrax terror suspect", The Observer, June 1, 2003 (URL retrieved September 11, 2006).
• Cooper, Simon, The Lesson of Steven Hatfill, Seed, May/June 2003 (URL retrieved September 11, 2006).
• Foster, Don, "The Message In The Anthrax", Vanity Fair, pp. 180-200, October 1, 2003 (URL retrieved September 11, 2006).
• http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/vforum/02/anthrax_media/index.html Video of Columbia University School of Journalism Panel Discussion of Hatfill Investigation and Trial by Media
• Stix, Nicholas, "Media manufacture cloud of suspicion over Hatfill," Insight on the News, August 12, 2002.
• Stix, Nicholas, [http://web.archive.org/web/20020814090407/http://toogoodreports.com/column/general/stix/20020814.htm

“A High-Tech Lynching: ABC News, the FBI, and the ‘Greendale School’ Myth,” Toogood Reports], August 14, 2002.

• Stix, Nicholas, [http://web.archive.org/web/20021020001710/toogoodreports.com/column/general/stix/20020905.htm

“DOJ Ordered Hatfill Dismissed: Should AG John Ashcroft Be Next?,” Toogood Reports], September 5, 2002.

• Stix, Nicholas, "Scientist with Rhodesian past still center of media crosshairs," Insight on the News, September 30, 2002.
• Tell, David '"The Hunting of Steven J. Hatfill"'. The Weekly Standard Sept 16th 2002 (URL retrieved November 11, 2006).
• Weaver, Tony, "AWB sympathiser quizzed over anthrax killings", Daily News (South Africa), July 1, 2002 (URL retrieved September 11, 2006).

External links

• http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/hatfill.pdf One of Hatfill's resumés.
• http://cryptome.quintessenz.org/mirror/hatfill.pdf "Questionable (Quite Possibly Unsavory) Past – Ideal Fall-Guy for the Anthrax Incidents"
• http://www.anthraxattacks.net/ A Web Site that examines Hatfill's background in relation to the 2001 anthrax attacks.
• http://www.angelfire.com/ex/projecthatfill/images/weaver.jpg Hatfill boasted of being the armed combat trainer of Aquila/Brandwag, the bodyguards of Eugene Terre'Blanche 's neo-Nazi party, the AWB (Afrikanerweerstandsbeweging), in apartheid South Africa.
• http://jdo.org/hatfill A Web Site that poses a challenge to Hatfill (termed "The Bioevangelist") to sue the Author (Alan J Weberman). Weberman offers Hatfill's spokesperson, Pat Clawson, "a five pound glatt kosher pastrami sandwich on two thick slices of kosher rye bread with an entire jar of deli-mustard on it....if he can convince Hatfill to sue us"
• http://luigiwarren.blogspot.com/2006/02/steve-had-righteously-decided-such.html An account of Hatfill in action in Rhodesia by Peter McAleese
• http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/8/19/201601.shtml Supportive of Hatfill and calls the FBI investigation of Hatfill a "crucifixion."
• http://www.angelfire.com/ex/projecthatfill/framed.html A Blog devoted to a thesis that "Far from being the anthrax killer, biodefense insider and acknowledged leg-puller Steve Hatfill is a willing fall guy in a diversion staged to paper over an unvoicable reality"
• http://luigiwarren.blogspot.com/2005/04/luigi-anthrax-warren.html A Blog (The Luigi Andrea Warren Deception) which uncovers the identity of the author of the Blog above ("The Hatfill Deception")

• 1953 births
• Living people
• American biologists
• Virologists
• 2001 anthrax attacks
• People from St. Louis