Scientist Responds To Anthrax Allegations

ABC World News Tonight
August 11, 2002

 

TERRY MORAN: A former government scientist and germ warfare expert today passionately denied any involvement in last fall’s anthrax attacks that killed five people. Dr. Steven Hatfill is one of dozens of scientists who have taken lie detector tests at the FBI’s request, but the only one whose case has been discussed publicly in great detail. Today, in his first public comments,

Hatfill described himself as the victim of an unethical investigation and a media frenzy. ABC’s Barry Serafin has details from Washington.

BARRY SERAFIN: After keeping a low profile for months, Hatfill went public today to deny any involvement in the anthrax attacks.

STEVEN HATFILL [Former Biotech Scientist]: I am a loyal American, and I love my country. I have had nothing to do, in any way, shape or form, with the mailing of these anthrax letters.

SERAFIN: Hatfill, who declined to answer reporters’ questions, said that when he worked as a biological warfare researcher at Fort Detrick, Maryland, he focused on viruses, not bacteria such as anthrax.

HATFILL: I have never, ever worked with anthrax in my life.

SERAFIN: Hatfill said he had cooperated with the FBI, taking a lie detector test, which he said he passed, and allowing a search of his apartment near Fort Detrick in June. But he was upset when agents returned this month with a warrant for highly publicized searches of not only his apartment, but his girlfriend’s.

HATFILL: Her apartment was wrecked, while FBI agents screamed at her that I had killed five people and that her life would never be the same again.

SERAFIN: Hatfill said through government leaks and some press reports, he was being made a fall guy.

HATFILL: I acknowledge the right of the authorities and the press to satisfy themselves as to whether I am the anthrax mailer. This does not, however, give them the right to smear me and gratuitously make a wasteland of my life in the process. I will not be railroaded.

SERAFIN: Hatfill has attracted the interest of the FBI partly because in 1999, while working for a defense contractor, he commissioned a study detailing how anthrax attacks could be carried out through the mail. It was also revealed today that he has been working on a novel. Part of the manuscript has been obtained by ABC affiliate WJLA in Washington.

REBECCA COOPER [WJLA reporter]: This novel written by Steven Hatfill envisioned a biological attack on Congress. It’s an attack so deadly that not only do members of Congress and congressional aides become ill, but hundreds of Washington residents become ill and many die as a result.

SERAFIN: Late today, the FBI responded to Hatfill’s remarks, saying any credible allegations concerning mishandling of evidence will be investigated thoroughly. As far as the FBI is concerned, Hatfill is not a suspect, but along with others he remains a person of interest. Terry?

MORAN: Thanks, Barry. Barry Serafin reporting from Washington. ABC’s chief investigative correspondent, Brian Ross, has been reporting on the FBI’s anthrax investigation since the attacks last fall. He joins us from Connecticut. Brian, as we’ve just heard, Doctor Hatfill is adamant that he had nothing to do with these attacks. So why do investigators seem to remain suspicious of him?

BRIAN ROSS: Well, Terry, it was some of his former co-workers at Fort Detrick in Maryland who first told the FBI they were suspicious of him, that he could, in fact, be the anthrax mailer. He was fired from his job at Fort Detrick, or dismissed, in 1999 and then lost his top secret security clearance August 23rd of 2001. He apparently had misrepresented a number of things on his resume. He was said at that time to be mad at the world, mad at the government, and many in the FBI thought that perhaps gave them the motive for some kind of revenge against the government. As well, he’s known as a person who has worked around anthrax experts, although the FBI concedes he could not himself make anthrax, does not have what they call "the bench skills" to make it.

MORAN: Well, aside from Doctor Hatfill, Brian, what else has this massive investigation turned up? Where else might it be headed?

ROSS: Well, it’s hard to know. There’s very little evidence that leads to anyone, Doctor Hatfill or anyone else. No fingerprints, no DNA. Right now, some of the investigation is focusing on the so-called hoaxes, other letters that were sent with phony anthrax, including one sent in November to Senator Daschle from London. It turns out that Doctor Hatfill was in London on the very same day that that letter was sent to Senator Daschle. So the interest in Hatfill continues despite his protestations and denials.

MORAN: All right, Brian. Thanks. That’s Brian Ross, ABC’s chief investigative correspondent. We should emphasize, as Brian did, that the FBI has not formally named Doctor Hatfill as a suspect in this case.

 

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