From TPM:
Facing a massive lawsuit, the U.S. Justice Department is opting to give a $5.8 million settlement to Steven Hatfill, the bio-weapons expert publicly tagged as a "person of interest" in the anthrax-in-the-mail scare from October 2001.
....
Hatfill, whose lawsuit against the New York Times was dismissed last year, will receive the lump sum of about $2.825 million and the government will also purchase for him a $3 million annuity that will pay him $150,000 each year for 20 years, DOJ said.
Once word got out that Hatfill was "a person of interest", he was terminated at Louisiana State University, where he worked at the National Center for Biomedical Research. The person who hired him at LSU was fired, too.
By the way, who did send out the envelopes that contained anthrax? No one charged, no one convicted, leaving unsolved a terrorist attack in the US. Why don't the Democrats remind everyone that the case languishes in the hands of the incompetent minions of Bush maladministration? And Bin Laden is still loose. Remember him?
Bin who?
ReplyDelete(sorry could not help it...)
Folks forget. Even someone as smart as you, Fran. Lord knows the Bushies seem to have forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI just heard about this yesterday in the car. This fits the pattern we've seen for the past 7 years of big bold announcements when arrests are made (although in this case they didn't get any farther than implicating the guy) and then a quiet little mention when the case gets dumped later on.
ReplyDeleteBubs, his working life is ruined, but at least he won't join the ranks of the homeless. I have no idea what "evidence" the Feds had against him that made him "a person of interest", whether it was strong or weak, but it messed up his life. His story played for days (or longer?)on the tee vee and in the newspapers, but this story will disappear quickly and quietly.
ReplyDeleteWhat disturbes me is that he can be dismissed out-of-hand, his whole life completely trashed, not to mention the U.S. Constitution, without a shred of evidence. No matter what the compensation, nothing can ever make up for that.
ReplyDeleteThe damage can't be undone. That's tragic.
ReplyDelete