Who is Steven Hatfill?

american prospect ^ | 6/27/02

[knak]

here's a couple paragraphs:

To qualify for this clearance, he was reportedly required to take a polygraph test. Hatfill allegedly told the military official that he failed the polygraph on questions concerning his activities in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The people conducting the polygraph were amateurs, Hatfill allegedly complained to his interlocutor; they couldn't understand what Cold Warriors like himself had to do in Rhodesia. The military official recalls Hatfill as saying that his father-in-law had been killed by rebels in Rhodesia, and that he had consequently undertaken some actions that caused concern when he was given his polygraph test.

Hatfill has appealed the loss of his security clearance in a process that is pending. In the meantime, some former SAIC colleagues have gone to the FBI with concerns that nagged them in the wake of October's letters. They have pointed out that Hatfill was in the UK around November 15 for a business meeting at the very place and time from which a little-publicized hoax anthrax letter was apparently sent to Senator Tom Daschle. One colleague recounts specific comments Hatfill made about the mistakes made by the anthrax-letter perpetrator in his or her planning. For instance, Hatfill allegedly said that anyone who knew "how to grow anthrax spores of one to three microns had to know that the hole in an envelope is 10 microns and that the spores would escape."

hatfill

[knak]

I didn't think I should post the whole thing. It had a bit of copyrite junk at the bottom.

[Mitchell]

Ping.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Fabozz]

"Hatfill allegedly said that anyone who knew 'how to grow anthrax spores of one to three microns had to know that the hole in an envelope is 10 microns and that the spores would escape.'"

Huh?! That's supposed to be evidence that he's the perp? Sheesh, I've pretty much said the exact same thing right here on FR—does that make me a suspect too? Hmm... come to think of it, as a right-wing nut with scientific training I do fit the FBI profile. Guess I better go turn myself in and throw myself on the mercy of the court.

[Fred Mertz]

The Great Satan just posted a nice summary.

http://www.freerepublic.com/fo cus/news/707688/posts?page=18# 18

[Mitchell]

"Hatfill allegedly said that anyone who knew 'how to grow anthrax spores of one to three microns had to know that the hole in an envelope is 10 microns and that the spores would escape.'"

That would seem to be evidence that he didn't do it. Why would he make a statement like that if he's guilty?

[joesnuffy]

Not right now...wait and do it when Hildabeast become Atty General

[Fabozz]

Another quote from the article...

"Was the U.S. military biowarfare program willing to hire and give sensitive security clearances to someone who had served in the apartheid-era South African military medical corps, and with white-led Rhodesian paramilitary units in Zimbabwe's civil war two decades earlier?"

Quite niftily feigned astonishment there from the left-wing American Prospect. The answer is of course the Army was willing to give a security clearance to someone who served in the "apartheid-era" SA military, and there's not a single thing sinister about that. Highly-educated professionals such as doctors and engineers who are US citizens with military experience do not get turned away from US military work just because their experience is with a friendly foreign military; such people are not so common that the Army can afford to turn any of them away without cause. South Africa was (and is) a friendly country, apartheid or no apartheid—although I can see where TAP would assume that any country boycotted by the Harvard Student Union would automatically be boycotted by every arm of the federal government as well.

[denydenydeny]

Sources close to the investigation say that he had been questioned on four previous occasions by FBI investigators, and that he'd been given, and passed, a polygraph exam. These sources also say that Hatfill has always been very cooperative with the bureau.

Wrong move. Clearly he needs to do a Wen Ho Lee and act outraged, hire a lawyer, and accuse the government of persecuting him. Maybe the New York Times will start to defend him them?

[First_Salute]

spider?

[Nogbad]

That would seem to be evidence that he didn't do it.

So far the only evidence that he did do it
seems to be that Barbara Hatch Rosenberg says so.

[The Great Satan]

Who is Barbara Rosenberg?

Forum on the Social Control of Science

Uncomfortable feeling of the public

By Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Professor, State University of NY, Natural Sciences. Chair, Federation of American Scientists' Working Group on Biological Weapons. As an echo to the words of  Malur R. Srinivasan about "the distortion that continues regarding deployment of vast global resources to military armaments", and as an echo to the words of Mrs S. Ahmed Durre, Barbara H. Rosenberg, having "just returned from the Biological Weapons (BW) negotiations in Geneva, which are at a critical state", send us this short letter. 2 March 2001. Traduction française.

I do agree that government is very pro-science and our culture is committed to technology. But I think the public increasingly has an uncomfortable feeling about both.  Unfortunately, it seems that a balanced view is going to have to evolve gradually, along with a series of catastrophes. They are already starting, but people don't want to believe it yet. That is frustrating for us, the Cassandras, who can foresee the dangers but can't seem to raise a warning that is loud enough.

One piece of evidence for the evolving consciousness is the appearance of more and more organizations of scientists "for global responsibility" etc. This is definitely not mainstream thinking. Fifteen years ago, there was nothing. It is a growing movement.

Written by Barbara Rosenberg.

[The Great Satan]

The Hatfill-versus-Rosenberg Grudge Match has gone public. Will Barbara send Steve to the Florida death house? Or will Babs be exposed as a shrill leftwing activist with a bitter antipathy to manly Cold Warriors? Get your popcorn ready, because this is getting good.

[tracer]

J Comp Pathol 2001 Nov;125(4):243-53

Haematological, biochemical and coagulation changes in mice, guinea-pigs and monkeys infected with a mouse-adapted variant of Ebola Zaire virus.

Bray M, Hatfill S, Hensley L, Huggins JW.

Virology Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases(USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21702-5011, USA.

Ebola Zaire virus from the 1976 outbreak (EBO-Z) was recently adapted to the stage of lethal virulence in BALB/c mice through serial passage. In the present study, various parameters were examined in groups of mice and guinea-pigs and in three rhesus monkeys after infection with use-adapted EBO-Z. The virus caused fatal disease not only in mice but also in guinea-pigs.........

Sleep well..............

[Nogbad]

They have pointed out that Hatfill was in the UK around November 15
for a business meeting at the very place and time
from which a little-publicized hoax anthrax letter was apparently sent to Senator Tom Daschle.

Do you have any recollection of such a letter?

Why would anyone who had sent a real anthrax letter
follow it up with a hoax letter?????

[The Great Satan]

Hmmm, leftwing nutter Barbara has it in for Rhodesian Special Forces "Omega Man" Hatfill. Quel surprise!

[Nogbad]

Hmm. Sounds as if BHR may have been influenced by that great thinker Kaczynski.

[keri]

I agree. Maybe that's why the FBI has stressed he isn't a suspect. But, she gets her bone, the media gets a story, and the Democrats get to appear concerned.

This concerns me. All the brights are gonna wonder what kind of future they might have in Bio-defense. Just when we need very smart folks we could be stuck with Rosenberg clones.

[Mitchell]

spider?

Sorry to be dense, but what do you mean?

[Mitchell]

Do you have any recollection of such a letter?

This letter is mentioned, along with a number of other hoax letters, in Rosenberg's FAS report. I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere.

Why would anyone who had sent a real anthrax letter follow it up with a hoax letter?????

I don't know, but Tom Brokaw's office did receive both a hoax letter and a real anthrax letter.