This is really a trip ... the lengths they will go to inventing new phrases to describe a suspect, especially when he doesn't fit the politically correct profile. You know if this dude was from another demographic he'd be much more than a "person of interest"!

Scientist in anthrax probe fired
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By Christopher Newton

Sept. 4, 2002 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dr. Steven J. Hatfill's firing from Louisiana State University came after the Justice Department ordered the school not to use him on projects funded by grants from the agency, which has called Hatfill a "person of interest" in the anthrax attacks. ...

You can read the entire article at:

http://www.salon.com/news...index.html

NuPwrSoul said:

Well, um, he did do a project where he sent out envelopes of white powdery stuff in basically the same fashion as the Anthrax mailings...

Aaron said:

I know. That's why I'm trippin that Ashcroft and the boys keep referring to him simply as a "person of interest." I mean when did THAT become lingo in law enforcement? Either they don't know ish and too embarrassed to admit it or they hopin that they find a "real" "authentic" (i.e., foreign-born) "suspect" that better fits their political agenda.
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[This message was edited Wed Sep 4 23:44:13 PDT 2002 by NuPwrSoul]

NuPwrSoul said:

ah, gotcha.

one beef i have with this guy is that he had a press conference a few weeks ago to whine about this "person of interest" thing and that the FBI and the media were smearing his name and basically making his life miserable. understandable. the evidence him aside, i'll give him that.

then last week, after everyone's stopped talking about his guilty ass, he has ANOTHER press conference to do the same thing. this guy's getting off on the attention. don't be fooled.

Oh man this dude's history is really really scary. He is linked to a white-supremacist armed group in Rhodesia (before it became Mozambique) that is accused of distributing anthrax that led to the one of the greatest anthrax outbreaks that infected thousands of Africans fighting for independence in the late 1970s.

How does someone like this then get a job working for the U.S.'s top biological weapons facility?

Here's just one link to a story on Hatfill, but a google search on Hatfill & Rhodesia will turn up even more.

http://www.africaonline.c...l8599.html

NuPwrSoul said:

Yeah, the return address on the Anthrax letters was a fictional name of a school. But the name is actually that of a town or subdivision near where he lived in Rhodesia. Genius.

I'd like to stand up and defend this guys right to fair trail...and im disgusted with our Attorney General for leaking out people who are "persons of interest".

this man has now lost his job because of this witchhunt..and i dont care if he is a white supremist or a guy who screws sheep...this just isnt the American Way...

SkletonKee said:

Do you feel the same way about Jose Padillo, who has not been charged with any crime, only the suspicion that he was *going to* commit a crime (straight outta the "Minority Report" flick), and is being held indefinitely without charge and without legal counsel?

I agree this "person of interest" is bullshit. Either charge the man or admit you don't know wtf you are doing.

SkletonKee said:

He still has every right to a fair trial in the court system. No such right exists in the forum of public opinion.




well, he only got the job by telling some major lies on his resume, so... i feel no pity for him.

NuPwrSoul said:

thats a *yes*...who is this Jose Padillo that you speak of?

Aaron said:

your right...but does that make it fair to judge him? you nor I know all the facts to his situation...ive always had a strong stance, dont fall prey to tabloid fodder...even if it comes from the government...

Aaron said:

and this wouldnt have registered with anyone if it were not for the government's leak...he would have just been another man who had lost his job...now, you have people speculating that he is a terrorist and his life is in danger...why? so that our government can further and justify its agenda of removing *all* our civil rights...

all in the guise of protection. :ROLL:







protect the edit!!!
[This message was edited Thu Sep 5 14:42:35 PDT 2002 by SkletonKee]

They need to be investigating a guy named Larry Wayne Harris from Lancaster, Ohio. He was caught with Anthrax many times, supposedly to research it, but he is not licensed in any way to have it. He is a known white supremacist separatist who hates all minorities and "sellout whites" as he has said, and he once was quoted as saying that he doesnt care if all urban people die of anthrax. Do a search about him. It will blow your mind. I knew people who reported the guy to the feds but they never did nothing to the guy.

SkletonKee said:

fair to judge him? no. but that's life. it's not fair, and judging is what we do. and i don't fall prey to tabloid fodder. both sides of this guy's story have been argued to death, and his side just doesnt hold up.




I think this actually a rare instance of them NOT trying (on purpose) since 9/11 to take away civil rights. At least I don't think that's the direct intent this time. I think this one is just PR. It's been almost a year, and not much has really happened on the Anthrax frong. So suddenly we have a person of interest, and they're finally opening up that building down in Florida to look around. It's all PR, trying to make them look like they're doing something.



dammit, Kee! get the quote labels right next time!
[This message was edited Thu Sep 5 14:39:43 PDT 2002 by Aaron]

for the record...there are 165 other people being investigated...and experts on this subject say that Hatfill is one of the *least* likely to have committed the crimes...

this from my lovely NPR report over the weekend...

Aaron said:

what error? my post came out just fine...stop looking at my profile pic...your glasses are all steamed up...

SkletonKee said:

oh no


pleaseohpleaseohpleasestayoutofanydiscussionsaboutnpr...

SkletonKee said:

uh huh, uh huh... sure. sneaky

follows aaron then, hides shhh... he can't see me after him {tip toes}

Sep 5, 10:47 PM (ET)

By EMILY GERSEMA

(AP) Dr. Steven J. Hatfill speaks to the media outside his lawyers office, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2002, in...
Full Image


WASHINGTON (AP) - A lawyer for Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, called a "person of interest" in the anthrax attacks, demanded Thursday that Attorney General John Ashcroft find the fired researcher a new job.

Attorney Victor Glasberg wrote in the letter that Hatfill was fired from his job as a researcher and probably won't be able find employment because of the Justice Department's "inappropriate actions" in naming him a person of interest.

"With all due respect, it is proper for you to take the lead in setting this right immediately," Glasberg wrote.

The letter also asked why Hatfill has been targeted by the Justice Department and FBI.


The department had no immediate comment.

Louisiana State University fired Hatfill on Wednesday from his job with the university's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training after an e-mail from the Justice Department surfaced, ordering the university to stop him from working on federally funded projects. LSU spokesman Gene Sands said Hatfill's firing was not related to the e-mail.

In addition to the letter, Glasberg has filed a complaint with the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, saying the Justice Department leaked information to the media and allowed FBI agents to harass Hatfill's girlfriend. He also complained that the department intentionally blacklisted Hatfill.

Glasberg also asked the agency to define what a "person of interest" is, saying the intention in using the phrase appears to be to defame his client.

"This functional equivalent of blacklisting is reprehensible and sanctionable," Glasberg wrote.


(AP) Dr. Stephen J. Hatfill gestures during his press conference outside his lawyers office Sunday,...
Full Image

Also in the complaint, Glasberg quoted Hatfill's girlfriend, who was not identified, as saying FBI agents ransacked her apartment and told her Hatfill was a murder suspect.

University officials confirmed Thursday that they also fired Stephen L. Guillot, director of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training and the Academy for Counter-Terrorist Education.

Sands declined to discuss why Guillot was fired, saying it was a personnel matter.

Guillot was not at home and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Law enforcement officials have said Hatfill, 48, is not a suspect in the deaths of five people killed by anthrax-tainted letters. They also have said no evidence links him to the letters.

Hatfill worked until 1999 for Fort Detrick's Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland - the primary custodian of the virulent Ames strain of anthrax found in the anthrax letters.

Hatfill, who recently moved to Baton Rouge, La., taught classes for the LSU center on the East Coast before getting the $150,000-a-year associate director's job on July 1.

I just dont see a guilty man raising this much hell...IMHO

ohhh...and another thing...an investigator who specializes in terrorism went on record saying that the strain of Anthrax that was used is a very common strain...and that anyone, inside or outside of this country, could have access to it...so go figure...