Posted on 06/09/2003 7:07:25 PM PDT by John H K
As the FBI began draining an entire pond today in its 20-month-old anthrax probe, investigators remained focused on one man in the hunt for the perpetrator, ABCNEWS' World News Tonight reported.
And today's unusual move appears to be the FBI's last, best shot at proving what it so far has been unable to prove, that former government scientist Steven Hatfill was the anthrax killer.
Five people died and more than a dozen others were sickened in the rash of anthrax attacks targeting Congress and media outlets in the fall of 2001.
The decision to drain the pond in Maryland's Frederick Municipal Forest was based on what federal officials say is no more than a growing circumstantial case against Hatfill, federal law enforcement sources said.
The FBI's working theory, sources said, is that Hatfill, who lived eight miles away in Frederick, Md., next to U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases where he worked, used makeshift lab equipment to put finely powdered anthrax in envelopes, and then dumped the equipment in the pond. Hatfill has vehemently denied any involvement in the anthrax attacks, and his spokesman reiterated that today.
"They can drain the Pacific Ocean and they're not going to find any evidence that Steve Hatfill was the anthrax killer because he's had no involvement whatsoever," said Hatfill spokesman Pat Clawson.
The Sweater Box Mystery
But the circumstantial case is continuing to develop. The FBI was led to the pond last year by bloodhounds, including one named Tinkerbell, tracking the scent picked up from Hatfill and the anthrax letters, federal sources said.
Over the Christmas holiday, FBI divers recovered what they think was a piece of the makeshift equipment used to load the anthrax, a plastic sweater box with two hand-sized holes cut in it, sources said.
Other circumstantial evidence that has sources said has led the FBI to continue its focus on Hatfill includes his presence in Florida, around the time an anthrax-laced letter was mailed to the American Media Co. in Boca Raton, Fla.
Also, sources said, Hatfill made an admission to the FBI that he was taking the powerful antibiotic Cipro at the time of the anthrax attacks, which he reportedly said was for a nasal infection.
Cipro is the treatment prescribed for suspected anthrax poinsoning, and was given preventatively to thousands of people at the peak of the anthrax attacks.
Still, none of that circumstantial evidence has produced an arrest, leaving the FBI draining a 1-acre pond, a process that is expected to take three to four weeks and cost $250,000.
"If the FBI had any facts tying Steve Hatfill directly into the anthrax case, I don't think he'd be out walking the streets right now," said Clawson.
It's a new article (Brian Ross, not just the AP article info) but I'm actually a little hazy on what is new in it....
1) I believe it's new that Hatfill admitted taking Cipro at the time of the attacks (though Cipro was mentioned in the vague accusations of Nicholas Kristoff(sp?) at the NYT.)
That is new. Is it true? This is the earlier story:
At times, Hatfill's friends say, the rumor mill among scientists and reporters following the anthrax investigation has distorted innocent acts by Hatfill, making them seem ominous. As an example, they point to a widely repeated report about a country house that Hatfill visited last fall.BTW, the anthrax letters didn't mention Cipro but "Penacilin". Also, I think it turned out the Cipro isn't the best drug for Anthrax - De-something or other is.In mid-June, two weeks before the first search of his apartment, biologist Barbara Hatch Rosenberg sent biodefense experts and reporters an account of a "likely suspect" who "had access to a conveniently located but remote location where activities could have been conducted without risk of observation." She wrote of evidence "that the suspect knew in October that the remote site was contaminated with anthrax."
On July 2, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, calling the Hatfill-like suspect "Mr. Z.," accused the FBI of "lethargy" in pursuing the suspect and elaborated on the "remote site" theory.
"Have you searched the isolated residence that he had access to last fall?" Kristof asked the FBI in a series of rhetorical questions. "The FBI has known about this building, and knows that Mr. Z gave Cipro to people who visited it. This property and many others are legally registered in the name of a friend of Mr. Z, but may be safe houses operated by American intelligence."
Pat Clawson, a broadcasting executive and former CNN reporter who has known Hatfill socially for six years, said he and Hatfill are part of a group of friends who visited a house in the Virginia mountains near Shenandoah National Park in October for a weekend of skeet-shooting and socializing.
The visit, in the middle of that month, came at the peak of anthrax hysteria, Clawson said. He told Hatfill that a few weeks earlier he had opened a vitriolic letter addressed to Oliver North, whose radio program is produced by Clawson's employer, Radio America. White powder had spilled from the envelope, which Clawson discarded.
In light of the subsequent anthrax deaths, Clawson said, he asked Hatfill whether he should get on Cipro. Hatfill told him that the tetracycline Clawson was taking for an infection should suffice. A general discussion of anthrax and antibiotics followed, with Hatfill offering advice to the others, said Clawson and George R. Borsari Jr., a lawyer and owner of the Virginia house.
Borsari said he was contacted a month ago by an FBI agent who asked him about Hatfill's access to the "cabin," really a three-bedroom house. He said he told the agent that Hatfill had visited the house a few times but had to call from the road in October to get directions.
As for the idea that his mountain house might be a safe house used by U.S. intelligence, Borsari simply laughed. "Boy, if it's a safe house, the CIA is way behind on the rent," he said.
FBI defends anthrax inquiry (Scott Shane, August 13,2002 story)
2) I've never seen it mentioned he was in Florida before or during the attacks (a little odd they mention "when the letter was mailed" since the FL letter was never actually found.)
Yes. He owns a storage space in Ocala, or near Orlando. Apparently that is/was where his parents lived - and they had a horse farm there or similar. The storage space was searched more than once. It turned out to be a non-starter - except for the insinuation that if someone had a storage space in Florida...anthrax attacks were in Florida...well, was he in Florida at the time? If not, who cares? What if the AMI letter was mailed in Florida, could he have done it, and from Princeton too? Who else was in Florida...Atta and (remaining) Friends.
3) Has the box found in the pond been specifically mentioned as a "sweater box" before by actual sources that may actually have a connection with people who saw the box? (showed a pic of one, not THE box, that is clear plastic and had holes cut in the end. Looks NOTHING like a "minnow bucket" though, of course.
Reporter picked up on Clawson's statement, or FBI fessed up. I WANNA SEE THE PIC!!!
Also new, Tinkerbelle The Junk Science Dog. I figured they think Hatfill jogs in the area...Think about this, how could the dog smell the scent so many months after? After rains, winter, summer. Compare Chandra Levy.
And this story seems to "dump" the submerged box story. Still doesn't explain the seal between the glove and box wall. They seem to keep editing the story...
You are in big trouble now mister. FBI scent dogs are being brought to lock onto your scent. One of them has already indicated you may have discarded something in the dumpster at Burger King.
Naturally we aren't given a list of all the items found in the lake since it might just prove that - a dumping ground.
. . .apparently not.
And in wondering 'how' that could be; leads one to some interesting scenarios and motivations re this Investigation.
But the sad answer just may be no more than . . .they did not; have not. . . learned anything from the Jewel fiasco.
He was working in Virignia...and I doubt anyone at the time after 9/11 was leaving on vacations or such...unless he's was in Florida before 9/11, a possible time of mainling the J Lo letter...that would admit the J Lo letter theory...but would he write such a letter? Doubt it.
I wouldn't read as much into this report, compared to a newspaper report. TV reports are sketchy and more prone to mistakes and misconstrued facts.
BTW, did the box look like this?
In today's earlier thread we talked about the boxes, and I made a Tinkerbelle catfish joke. Little did I know...
At least they put a fact in amongst their fiction....but wasn't it AMI, not AMC? This is crazy stuff. There must be something coming down from the other side of the globe.
For those who want backgound on the "bloodhounds," see:
FBI's use of bloodhounds in anthrax probe disputed Baltimore Sun ^ | October 29, 2002 | Scott Shane
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There is a reservoir there than must be about 30 feet deep. There is also a pond higher up on the mountain that must be about a maximum of eight feet deep. The definition of a pond is a body of water wher the water vegitation grows to the top of the water surface at all points. The reservopir occasionally runs dry during dry periods. It was completely empty during the '62 drouth and probably a few times since them. It used to be a clean bottom. The pond is small and a different matter. It's probably filled with cattails. It dries up periodically. It would be difficult to drain it in the large daily rains that have been occurring for the last two months.
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