BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Louisiana State University officials said Thursday that they plan a management review of the university's biomedical research and training center.
The action comes after the firing of two key officials in the program funded by the federal government to provide anti-terrorism training.
Steven Hatfill, a "person of interest" in the FBI's anthrax investigation, was fired Tuesday, and Stephen Guillot, his supervisor, was terminated Wednesday by LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert, who plans the review of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training.
"At this time it seems prudent to conduct a top-to-bottom management review," LSU spokesman Gene Sands said Thursday.
The review will examine management structure, leadership, programs and hiring practices, he said.
Although Emmert offered no explanation for the firing of Guillot as center director, the action coincided with the disclosure that Guillot received an e-mail Aug. 1 from the Justice Department demanding that Hatfill play no role in any program funded by the agency. Top LSU officials reportedly learned of the e-mail Tuesday.
Hatfill, who was associate center director, had been on paid administrative leave since Aug. 2, but Sands said the e-mail had no role in Emmert's decision to put him on leave. When Hatfill was fired Tuesday, however, Emmert cited concerns about the university fulfilling its contractual obligations.
LSU released a copy of the e-mail labeled "high priority," which was sent to Guillot from Tim Beres, acting director of the Justice's Office of Domestic Preparedness.
"The Office of Justice Programs/Office for Domestic Preparedness directs that the Louisiana State University Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education immediately cease and desist from utilizing the subject matter expert and course instructor duties of Steven J. Hatfill on all Department of Justice funded programs," it stated.
The academy is a training subdivision of the national center, which develops and delivers training programs to prepare officials for responding to terrorist events involving weapons of mass destruction. Most of the funding is provided by the Justice Department.
Pat Clawson, a spokesman for Hatfill, said the e-mail violated the due-process rights held by employees of programs funded by federal grants.
"Steve Hatfill is stunned by the Justice Department's interference with his employment," Clawson said. "It's called blacklisting. Has the Justice Department gone back to the McCarthy tactics of the 1950s? Blacklisting was discredited in this country."
The FBI has called Hatfill a "person of interest," but not a suspect in its investigation of the anthrax-tainted letters that killed five people last fall. Hatfill has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Deborah Daniels, an assistant attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs, told the Baton Rouge Advocate that the Justice Department was not involved in any of LSU's decisions on the employment of Hatfill.
Daniels said the agency told LSU it could not use Hatfill as an instructor or expert on bioterrorism in programs funded by the agency. "It is a specific condition of our grant to LSU that we maintain management oversight and control," she said.
