Posted on 03/09/2007 8:41:11 AM PST by jpl
(CBS) They followed him. They brought bloodhounds into his home. The attorney general identified him to the world as a "person of interest" in the first major bioterrorism attack in the nation's history.
But five years after letters sent through the U.S. mail containing anthrax killed five and injured 17, the FBI has yet to charge Dr. Steven Hatfill. In 2003, he sued the government.
The resulting depositions of FBI personnel and law enforcement records obtained by 60 Minutes provide an inside look into one of the FBI's biggest investigations ever and raise the possibility that the bureau may have a cold case on its hands.
Correspondent Lesley Stahl's report, which contains revelations from those depositions, will be broadcast this Sunday, March 11, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Hatfill, a scientist who worked at an Army laboratory where the strain of anthrax used in the attacks was stored, is the only "person of interest" named publicly in the case. He has maintained his innocence all along.
Hatfill is suing the government for destroying his reputation by, among other things, naming him "a person of interest." According to depositions taken for Hatfill's suit and obtained by 60 Minutes, the FBI official who oversaw the investigation says the bureau was looking at many more people.
"There were … 20 to 30 other people who were also likewise identified as 'persons of interest' in the investigation,' " the FBI's Richard Lambert says under oath.
60 Minutes has learned that today at least a dozen of those other people still have not been eliminated as so-called "persons of interest."
Hatfill charges in his suit that the FBI leaked information about him that was distorted and damaging. After the deadly mailings, evidence-sniffing bloodhounds reportedly "went crazy" at Hatfill's apartment, according to a Newsweek story.
60 Minutes has learned that the bloodhounds reacted similarly at the home and office of another scientist, too. And two of the dogs have been wrong on a number of occasions, including a serial rape case in which a man in California was arrested and jailed, based largely on the evidence from the dogs. He was ultimately exonerated with DNA evidence.
To quell the leaks, FBI Director Robert Mueller instituted a tactic known as "stovepiping," whereby the various squads assigned to the case stopped sharing information with one another.
In his deposition, the FBI's Lambert said he opposed Mueller's order because barring investigators from exchanging information "… would inhibit our ability to 'connect the dots' in a case of this magnitude …" just as it had leading up to 9/11.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, agrees that stovepiping undercut the investigation. He also charges that the FBI used the leaks to cover a lack of progress in the case.
"I believe … they wanted the public to believe that they … were making great progress in this case," he tells Stahl. "It's just turning out to be a cold case."
60 Minutes has also learned that the FBI's biggest hope to crack the case turned out to be a dead end created by one of its own investigators.
Early on in its investigation, the bureau was able to lift trace amounts of DNA from one of the envelopes used in the attacks. Agents hoped this forensic evidence would hold the key to solving the crime. But the amount of DNA recovered was so minute the bureau decided not to test it, fearing that doing so would use up the sample without yielding results.
The FBI then improved its DNA-testing technology so it could accurately test the microscopic sample. They then discovered that the DNA belonged to one of its own investigators who had contaminated the envelope.
Not only has the Bureau relentlessly pursued Hatfill, without any hard evidence, but it has been ignoring the significance of two letters that were received at the headquarters of AMI in Florida, the publisher of the National Enquirer and other tabloids. These are the tabloids that made themselves potential targets of al Qaeda by having interviewed an alleged concubine of Osama bin Laden, who complained of his sexual inadequacy. The letters to AMI were addressed care of Jennifer Lopez, the actress and singer. One letter was described as having a white powder and a Star of David pendant. It was handled by AMI employee Bob Stevens, who died from an anthrax infection.
The FBI's "Amerithrax" investigation focuses only on the anthrax letters sent from New Jersey to Senators Daschle and Leahy, Tom Brokaw and the New York Post. Those letters included praise for Allah and the phrases, "Death to Israel. Death to America." But the FBI believes that this information was intended to divert attention from the domestic right-winger who really carried out the attacks.
The FBI may dismiss the Lopez letters, but a report from the Centers for Disease Control describes how Stevens had examined and was observed handling one of the letters with "a fine-white-talc-like powder." The CDC links his death to the letter. Why would the perpetrators use the name of Jennifer Lopez? Using that name would almost certainly get the letter noticed and opened. But CBS News reports that Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, lived near the AMI headquarters in the weeks leading up to 9/11, and that he was communicating by code with a terrorist contact in Germany that he called "Jenny." There may be nothing to this, but if the media and the FBI are going to examine the significance of "Greendale," they should also take the "Jenny" connection seriously.
Another reason to take it seriously is that we already know that Atta had showed up at a pharmacy in Florida to get medicine for a red rash on his arm. The pharmacist reported this to the FBI and suspected that the rash had been caused by bleach used to decontaminate the scene of an anthrax accident. Another 9/11 hijacker, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Haznawi, went to a hospital to get treated for a black sore on his leg that was later determined by the doctor to be anthrax-related.
Was al Qaeda behind the Jennifer Lopez anthrax letter? The use of the name "Jenny" may be an indication that Atta and/or his fellow conspirators were behind it. Two years into the anthrax probe, it doesn't make sense for the Bureau to continue to ignore the evidence implicating the 9/11 hijackers in the attacks.
You have a brilliant career ahead of you with the FBI. Just a hunch.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/572763/posts
Freeper Research on Anthrax Perps - Updated 9/17/01
Ed
There's only one thing dogs CAN sniff for: A person's scent.
The Newsweek story said the FBI had gotten Dr. Hatfill's scent off the anthrax envelopes.
That was about as dumb an article as we've seen the media print about this case.
In my book I suggest that the bloodhounds had actually been GIVEN Dr. Hatfill's scent because the FBI had lost their tail on Dr. Hatfill at a critical time and needed to determine where he'd been during the period he was missing. The bloodhounds began their sniffing at a Denny's restaurant in Louisiana and checked other spots between there and Dr. Hatfill's apartment, where the dogs were finally allowed to "find" their prey.
Huh? I don't know if dogs can smell anthrax, but I know that they can be trained to sniff for things other than a human scent. The dogs you see in airports can sniff for things such as contraband food items and certain types of chemical explosive compounds.
Oops. You're quite right. I should have said that the only things dogs can sniff for is "a scent". They also sniff for the scent of drugs, the scent of cancer, etc. My bad.
He's not.
I agree... at least some of them took flight training down in Florida near the first attack.
After reading the book, "The Third Terrorist", I'm not at all surprised the FBI's ineptitude resulted in contamination of the evidence in the Anthrax case.
The whole story came out at the time. That's how you know about it. The government did not cover it up.
IIRC the purpose of the salmonella poisoning was to make enough citizens of the town sick so that they could not vote in the election. Therefore it was not really a "bioterror" attack.
We can draw one strong suspicion from all evidence collected so far and the events that occurred. If Hatfield didn't committ the act...the person who did committ the act...knew Hatfield to a great extent. There were more than just one or two cards drawn on the table to lead at Hatfield in a strong manner...so the offending party had know certain portions of his history (not the current stuff...but over 20 years of his history). When you see no repeat of anthrax affair...no further attempts...this leads to a person who had an agenda to worry people in a certain direction. The guy who did this...wanted a massive government support program and knew he or she was in the position to be a major player in that anthrax program.
Generally, agree, except I would say, if it WAS Hatfill, perhaps he was spooked and destroyed all his stuff due to the investigation.
"Hatfill, a scientist who worked at an Army laboratory where the strain of anthrax used in the attacks was stored,"
AS if it isn't present in a thousand other places.
Sorry, but there's absolutely no evidence to support this notion, and no valid reason whatsoever to believe that this is the case.
You really need to stop believing all the ridiculous BS that Rosenberg, Kristof, Weberman, and Foster were putting out years ago. Conde Nast just retracted their entire article for Pete's sake!
As the eminent Jayson Blair once advised us, don't believe everything you read in the newspapers.
"Hatfield didn't committ the act...the person who did committ the act...knew Hatfield to a great extent."
Could you name one reason why?
Of course it was a bioterror attack.
I was living in Oregon at the time and still live nearby. The spiking of food and drinks in 10 restaurants with salmonella was known at the time. The scientific examination of the DNA of the bacteria from the sick people may have been published later, but everyone knew at the time about the basic facts of the poisoning and indeed there was sufficient proof to send Rajneeshees to prison.
Of course it was a bioterror attack.
You yourself said that the intention of the attack was to affect an election. Rajneeshpuram was located in a county with a very low population. After the Rajneeshees moved in they began to make up a sizeable percentage of the county population. The only way they could affect the election was to make sure that their candidates would get more votes. They tried to do this by sickening as many non-members as possible. If the intention of the attack was merely to cause "terror", how would that have helped them get more votes in the election?
"The Oregonian is a unique species of idiot." - Rajneesh
Detective Bobby Goren could have solved this in less than an hour.
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