Beleaguered researcher Steven J. Hatfill struck back at the government last week, through his attorney, following the latest insult in what he perceives to be a smear campaign by federal investigators.
"This functional equivalent of blacklisting is reprehensible and sanctionable," said attorney Victor Glasberg last Wednesday, of the treatment his client Steven Hatfill has received at the hands of the US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Glasberg blamed the agencies' conduct for Louisiana State University's decision, announced 3 September, to dismiss Hatfill from a job he had only begun on 1 July, as Associate Director of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training.
Prior to Hatfill's termination, the university reportedly received an order from the Justice Department to stop Hatfill from working on government-funded projects. The university claims the order did not influence its decision to fire Hatfill. LSU chancellor Mark Emmert merely described the decision ...
