Free Republic

June 20, 2002 A Scholar Recants on His 'Shakespeare' Discovery By WILLIAM S. NIEDERKORN n 1995 Donald Foster, a professor of English at Vassar College, made a startling case for Shakespeare's being the author of an obscure 578-line poem called "A Funeral Elegy." After a front-page article about his methods of computer analysis in The New York Times — and after his reputation was further burnished by unmasking Joe Klein as the author of "Primary Colors" — the poem was added to three major editions of Shakespeare's works. Now, in a stunning development that has set the world of Shakespeare...

Ask Steven Hatfill’s lawyer about the new October issue of Vanity Fair magazine, and you’ll hear a little chuckle. It’s not that Thomas Connolly dislikes George Clooney, who graces the cover. What really irks him is the small headline next to Clooney’s arm, the one about missed anthrax clues. The story is about Connolly’s client, Hatfill, who was named the lead "person of interest" in the deadly anthrax outbreak in 2001. Within the story’s 11 glossy pages in Vanity Fair, the author tells a compelling tale about Hatfill. One that implicates the virologist in an evil plot to gain recognition...

For more than two years, Steven Hatfill has lived life in legal limbo. Publicly branded a 'person of interest" in the anthrax case, he's never been charged with any crime. Now Hatfill is striking back, in a libel lawsuit against one of his many armchair accusers. Court documents show that Hatfill has filed suit against Donald Foster, an English professor at Vassar College who wrote about Hatfill in the October 2003 issue of Vanity Fair. Hatfill claims Foster and other defendants defamed him by leaving 'no doubt in the minds of reasonable readers that he was imputing guilt for the...

<p>HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — The FBI, revisiting an old lead in the anthrax investigation, recently interviewed a former Fort Detrick researcher and his co-workers about his whereabouts when the letters were mailed, he and his lawyer said Sunday.</p> <p>Ayaad Assaad, who now works for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said the agents also quizzed him Tuesday about his knowledge of producing finely powdered anthrax like that used in the letters.</p>