Researcher denies anthrax attacks

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Former bioweapons researcher Steven Hatfill on Sunday denied any role in last year's anthrax attacks that he called a "terrible" act.

"I have had nothing to do in any way, shape or form with the mailing of these anthrax letters, and it is extremely wrong for anyone to contend or suggest that I have," Hatfill said reading from a statement in a news conference outside his attorney's Virginia office.

"I'm a loyal American and I love my country," he said.

Law enforcement officials have said privately that Hatfill is one of as many as 30 "persons of interest" in the investigation into last year's anthrax attacks that killed five people. But Hatfill said nothing connected him to the attacks.

After "one of the most intensive public and private investigations in American history, no one has come up with a shred of evidence that I had anything to do with the anthrax letters," he said.

He called the media scrutiny over the FBI's searches of his home character assassination.

"I am appalled at the terrible 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 said.

"I especially object to having my character assassinated."

Sunday's remarks were Hatfill's first since his name came to light.

In an interview published in Sunday's Washington Post, Hatfill, once a highly respected researcher and teacher of biological warfare, said suspicions raised by the investigation were preventing him from working.

"I went from being someone with pride in my work, pride in my profession, to being made into the biggest criminal of the 21st century, for something I never touched," Hatfill told the newspaper. "What I've been trying to contribute, my work, is finished. My life is destroyed."

On Saturday, the Post reported that Louisiana State University's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, which teaches emergency personnel how to deal with biological threats, suspended Hatfill for 30 days with pay. He had just begun a job there as associate director.

FBI officials continued to decline to say publicly why they have searched his Frederick, Md. apartment twice.

Hatfill apparently attracted particular attention because of his work in the biological weapons program and his general level of expertise with biological agents.

His attorney Victor Glasberg told the Post the reasons cited for directing attention in Hatfill's direction don't make sense. When Hatfill worked at the Army bioresearch lab at Fort Detrick, "he did not do anthrax work. Steve has never worked with anthrax. He has never cultured anthrax. He has never handled anthrax."

Hatfill has not been charged. But even so, Glasberg said, "Steve's life has been devastated by a drumbeat of innuendo, implication and speculation. We have a frightening public attack on an individual who, guilty or not, should not be exposed to this type of public opprobrium based on speculation."

Glasberg said Hatfill had no motive to commit bioterror and he is not disgruntled or unhappy.

Hatfill was initially interviewed by investigators in January, and then given a lie-detector test as part of a wide-ranging FBI review of the scientific community. Hatfill was told he gave satisfactory answers on the test.

His name kept resurfacing, both among scientists and on the Internet, and the FBI returned for a two-hour interview in March, and then a voluntary search of his apartment June 25 -- accompanied by reporters, cameras and hovering news helicopters.

"My friends are bombarded," Hatfill told the Post. "Phone calls at night. Trespassing. Beating on my door. For the sheer purpose of selling newspapers and television."

Hatfill, 48, was carefully monitored by his attorney during his interview with the Post, only being allowed to speak freely when asked about the impact of the FBI investigation.

According to his resume, Hatfill worked for the U.S. Army Institute for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg at the same time he served in the Rhodesian Special Air Squadron from 1975 to 1978. The SAS, like the Green Berets, carry out secret, behind-the lines missions.

Hatfill then attended medical school in Rhodesia before a civil war removed the Afrikaners from power and the nation changed its name to Zimbabwe. After graduation from medical school, he moved to South Africa and reportedly joined a counter-insurgency unit called the Selous Scouts, dedicated to overthrowing the new government of Zimbabwe.

After working and living in South Africa and receiving a post-doctorate degree from Oxford University in Britain, Hatfill returned to the United States in 1995 and began work at the National Institutes of Health. After leaving Fort Detrick in 1999, Hatfill continued to have security clearance to use the USAMRIID facilities for bioresearch as part of his job with Scientific Applications International Corp., a large defense contractor. At SAIC, Hatfill worked to train the U.S. Special Forces along with embassy personnel and other government workers to endure biological weapons attacks.

He was fired in March after some colleagues claimed to have seen him remove biological material carriers from the facility, according to law enforcement sources, but even after U.S. Army officials admitted that he may have used the containers for demonstration purposes, he was not rehired.