Meantime, law enforcement official says there’s no physical evidence linking scientist to attacks

MSNBC
August 12, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/news/788650.asp?pne=msntv

The FBI and U.S. Army experts are testing a mail collection box from Princeton, N.J., after a field swab test was positive for traces of anthrax, NBC's Pete Williams reported Monday in the latest development in the invesigation of last fall's anthrax attacks. Meanwhile, a law enforcement official said investigators have no physical evidence linking Dr. Steven Hatfill, whose name surfaced in the probe, to the crime, but they are not prepared to clear him. Hatfill has denied involvement in the attacks, which killed five people.

Since late last year, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has been checking every mail collection box - the blue boxes on the street - that feed into the central mail processing center in Trenton, where the anthrax letters were postmarked. With about 50 boxes left to check, and some investigators believing the tests were a waste of time, a box on Nassau Street in Princeton, across from the university campus, tested positive on Thursday, NBC's Williams reported.

A university spokesman emphasized that the box was not actually on the campus.

The box was unbolted from the sidewalk and shipped to the U.S. Army's facility at Aberdeen, Md., for further testing inside a biohazard chamber. Federal agents say it will be given the more thorough and dependable culture test for anthrax and will also be checked for fingerprints, fibers and every other conceivable trace of potential evidence.

The box is receiving this treatment because it is the first collection box to show a positive field test. However, many questions remain about this development - questions of why no postal workers were sickened after repeatedly retrieving mail from the box, and why no cases of secondary contamination emerged among postal patrons in the Princeton area.

Investigators told Williams it was too soon to know the answers until the testing is complete, which may take a few more days.

NO EVIDENCE LINKED TO SUSPECTS

Meanwhile, investigators continue to be frustrated by the absence of physical clues linking anyone to the mailings, the law enfoercement official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official told The Associated Press Monday that Hatfill has been straightforward in answering questions from investigators, but that a number of intriguing items from his past make authorities unwilling to declare him cleared of any suspicion.

Hatfill, whose name surfaced more than a month ago but has not been declared a suspect, went on the offensive over the weekend, saying he has cooperated with the investigation only to see his life and work destroyed through speculation and innuendo. He emphatically declared that he had nothing to do with the attacks that killed five.

The FBI has searched Hatfill's apartment in Frederick, Md., twice, as well as his car, a storage locker in Florida and the home of his girlfriend.

Among the reasons officials still remain interested in Hatfill:

The anthrax letters contained a return address of a nonexistent Greendale School in New Jersey. Hatfill once lived in Harare, Zimbabwe, where there is a school known as Greendale School. That school is actually named for Courtney Selous, the namesake of the Selous Scouts, who fought for white rule in what was then called Rhodesia. Hatfill has said he fought with the Selous Scouts.

On his computer, officials found the draft of a novel about a bioterrorism attack.

In 1999, while working for a defense contractor, Hatfill commissioned a report looking at how anthrax might be sent through the mail. That report suggested there would be about 2.5 grams of anthrax in an envelope - and that's what was in last fall's mailings.

'I LOVE MY COUNTRY'

At a news conference on Sunday, Hatfill denied that he had anything to do with the anthrax spores. "I am a loyal American and I love my country," he said.

In his first public comments on his identification as a "person of interest," Hatfill said he had never worked with anthrax, noting that he has specialized in viral diseases rather than bacteria such as anthrax. And he said he had fully cooperated with investigators. On Monday, a friend and spokesman for Hatfill told NBC's "Today" show that Hatfill was a victim of FBI "leaks and smearing."

Pat Clawson added that Hatfill and his lawyers would file a formal complaint against the government.

"I can tell you that they are planning to file a complaint with the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility … over leaks and smearing," Clawson said.

FBI: 'CREDIBLE ALLEGATIONS'

Clawson blamed the FBI for leaking excerpts from the novel Hatfill was working on since the leak happened after the FBI seized his computer.

FBI spokesman Chris Murray responded: "Credible allegations concerning the mishandling of evidence will be investigated thoroughly."

Hatfill, 48, on Sunday said that "no one has come up with a shred of evidence that I had anything to do with the anthrax letters."

"I am appalled at the heinous acts of biological terrorism that caused death, disease and havoc in America starting last fall, but I am just as appalled that my experience, knowledge and service relative to defending Americans against biological warfare has been turned against me in connection with the search for the anthrax killer," he added.

He also complained that leaks to the media and subsequent coverage had led to him being fired from one job and being suspended from a second, saying that the attention has "made a wasteland of my life."

Law enforcement officials, who have spoken with reporters on condition of anonymity, have said Hatfill is one of about 30 scientists being looked at in the anthrax investigation. The investigation remains unsolved 10 months after tainted letters killed five, sickened more than a dozen people and put many Americans on edge about opening their mail.

Hatfill's is the only name to have emerged publicly.

Hatfill spokesman Clawson said his friend recognized that he was "a legitimate area of inquiry for the FBI," but that "If there are another 30 people of interest, how come we haven't heard about them?"

The FBI declined to comment on Hatfill's statement.

A law enforcement official close to the case, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that the scientist has not "received any more attention than any other person of interest in the investigation."

"His background is more varied and unusual, so looking at his personal history has taken longer," said the official.

FULL COOPERATION CLAIMED

Hatfill, who took no questions, said he had cooperated fully with authorities and charged that investigators have leaked information and singled him out. He said some leaks concerned his past and had no relevance to the anthrax investigation, an apparent reference to media reports stating that he had overstated some of his academic credentials on his resumé.

Hatfill said two FBI investigators asked him last fall for a "cordial and short" interview at his office and if he would take a polygraph being given to others.

He said an examiner told him that he had passed the test, and that later the FBI confirmed that to him.

Victor Glasberg, his lawyer, said that Hatfill also was in "total cooperation mode" when the FBI contacted him a second time and asked if he would be willing to be questioned again. Instead, he said, the FBI and Postal Service inspectors served a search warrant Aug. 1 on Hatfill's apartment.

INTERVIEW WITH WASHINGTON POST

Until this weekend, Hatfill had said virtually nothing in his own defense. He first granted an interview to the Washington Post, then held Sunday's news conference.

Hatfill worked until 1999 for Fort Detrick's Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, which is the primary custodian of the virulent Ames strain of anthrax found in last fall's deadly letters.

On Aug. 1, after FBI and Postal Service agents wearing protective gloves conducted a second search at Hatfill's apartment, FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters, "We're making progress in the case." But he declined to say why a second search was conducted.

Federal investigators previously searched the apartment on June 25, when FBI agents removed computer components and at least a half-dozen garbage bags full of material. But officials said no trace of anthrax was found in his home or at a storage unit he rented in Florida.

The apartment complex is outside Fort Detrick, which is about 40 miles northwest of Washington. Hatfill keeps a residence at the complex but has rarely lived there since his apartment was first searched in June, a U.S. official said.

Although he probably had access to anthrax, his primary duties didn't involve working with it, a spokesman for the base has said.

JOB AT LOUISIANA STATE

Last month Hatfill was named associate director of Louisiana State University's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, which is sponsored and financed by the Justice Department. Instructors travel around the country and train first responders, like emergency medical teams. But after the second search of his apartment he was suspended, Hatfill said Sunday.

Officials at LSU confirmed that Hatfill had been placed on 30-day administrative leave with pay and said the university is conducting its own investigation.

Hatfill previously was one of the adjunct instructors in the program.

NBC's Pete Williams, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

© 2002 MSNBC

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