Scientist seeks contempt for journalists, RE: anthrax details

[babylonsister]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071002/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/anthrax_hatfill;_ylt=AlVMjSBlrdz_2Lg06e0XSmUD5gcF

Scientist seeks contempt for journalists

Tue Oct 2, 3:25 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A former Army scientist asked a federal judge Tuesday to hold two journalists in contempt for refusing to identify the government officials who leaked details about the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Steven J. Hatfill, who worked at the Army's infectious diseases laboratory from 1997 to 1999, was publicly identified as a "person of interest" in the attacks. He is suing the Justice Department, accusing the agency of violating the federal Privacy Act by giving reporters information about him.

Five journalists are under court order to reveal their sources. In court documents Tuesday, Hatfill asked for a contempt order against two who have refused: James Stewart, formerly of CBS News and Toni Locy, a former Associated Press reporter who wrote about Hatfill while working at USA Today.

Locy testified that she could not remember specifically who told her information about Hatfill and she refused to disclose which officials she spoke to while reporting generally on the investigation.

After the reporters attempted to contact their sources to see if they still sought anonymity, Stewart identified one FBI official and Locy's attorneys identified an FBI official and a former Justice Department official. Stewart refuses to reveal three other FBI sources and Locy refused to reveal any of her remaining contacts, Hatfill's attorneys wrote.

Hatfill's attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton to fine the reporters $1,000 per day until they cooperate. The proposed fine would increase to $2,000 after a week and continue to increase $1,000 every week. Attorneys also asked that media corporations be prohibited from paying the fines for them.

The court documents did not mention whether the other reporters have cooperated. An attorney for the three reporters — Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman of Newsweek and Allan Lengel of The Washington Post — did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

[annabanana]

1. Anything that gets this story back up in front of people

deserves kicks and recs...

[Old and In the Way]

2. Same attorney for 3 reporters?

Not orchestrating their defense, are they? Seems to me that any government official who was the source accusing Hatfill ought to be exposed. Why does reporter privilage supercede a person who was victimized by anonymous source(s) in our government?

[Poll_Blind]

3. Meet Dr. Philip M Zack: Racist, illegally accessed anthrax lab after being fired

:bluebox:The Hartford Courant via UCLA Dept. of Epidemiology:

Lab specimens of anthrax spores, Ebola virus and other pathogens disappeared from the Army's biological warfare research facility in the early 1990s, during a turbulent period of labor complaints and recriminations among rival scientists there, documents from an internal Army inquiry show.

The 1992 inquiry also found evidence that someone was secretly entering a lab late at night to conduct unauthorized research, apparently involving anthrax. A numerical counter on a piece of lab equipment had been rolled back to hide work done by the mystery researcher, who left the misspelled label "antrax" in the machine's electronic memory, according to the documents obtained by The Courant.

--snip--

Documents from the inquiry show that one unauthorized person who was observed entering the lab building at night was Langford's predecessor, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who at the time no longer worked at Fort Detrick. A surveillance camera recorded Zack being let in at 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1992, apparently by Dr. Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack's, according to a report filed by a security guard.

--snip--

Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991, after a controversy over allegations of unprofessional behavior by Zack, Rippy, Brown and others who worked in the pathology division. They had formed a clique that was accused of harassing the Egyptian-born Assaad, who later sued the Army, claiming discrimination.

:bluebox: Racist harassment of Dr. Ayaad Assaad by Drs. Zack and Rippy (among others) can be found in Salon's piece "Fort Detrick's anthrax mystery".
:redbox: Anonymous attempt to frame Dr. Assaad for anthrax attack a day or so prior to anyone, even the FBI, knowing of the anthrax letters:
Salon's piece "Fort Detrick's anthrax mystery":

Who tried to frame Dr. Ayaad Assaad, a former bio-warfare researcher at the Army lab? Was it the same person responsible for last fall's anthrax mail terrorism?

Ayaad Assaad, a U.S. government scientist and former biowarfare researcher, received a call from an FBI agent asking him to come in for a talk. It was well before anthrax panic gripped the nation -- in fact, it was the same day that photo editor Robert Stevens, 63, was admitted to a Florida hospital. It wasn't until the next day that Stevens was diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, and another two days later, on Oct. 5, when he would become the first of five eventual fatalities caused by the apparent bioterrorist attack.

--snip--

"Dr. Assaad is a potential biological terrorist," the letter stated, according to Assaad and McDermott. The letter was received by the FBI in Quantico, Va., but Assaad did not learn from the FBI where it had been mailed from. "I have worked with Dr. Assaad," the letter continued, "and I heard him say that he has a vendetta against the U.S. government and that if anything happens to him, he told his sons to carry on."

According to Assaad, "The letter-writer clearly knew my entire background, my training in both chemical and biological agents, my security clearance, what floor where I work now, that I have two sons, what train I take to work, and where I live.

"The letter warned the FBI to stop me," he said.

After their meeting, Assad was thanked by the FBI agents, who have not contacted him since. The bureau says it cleared Assaad of the anonymous allegations against him.

Zack's still at the top of the suspects' list. He had the motive, the means, and the opportunity.

PB

[robinlynne]

4. but once again the crime here is "leaking". Isn't the real crime not investigating?

or was false info "leaked' on purpose?

[Poll_Blind]

5. K&R! n/t

PB

[Amonester]

6. kicking this up for the night

:thumbsup:

[raccoon]

7. K&R. nt