Caught in Political Crosshairs

AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Jim Watkins Thomas Butler It's open season on life scientists. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is doggedly determined to prove that Thomas Butler, a researcher and international plague authority at Texas Tech University, is a biocriminal. Ebola investigator Steven J. Hatfill, formerly with the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Disease (USAMRIID), may never recover from the suspicion cast by the FBI's constant surveillance after he was named a "person of interest" in its anthrax letters case. In Britain, microbiologist David Kelly committed suicide after Tony Blair's press officer exposed Kelly as a possible source for a BBC story asserting that the government exaggerated Iraq's weapons capability to build its case for war. Together, these cases threaten to sour relationships between scientists and their governments, prompting researchers to avoid biodefense work just when the governments need them most. In August, the presidents of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine warned the Unites States Attorney General by letter "about the impact that Butler's case may have on other scientists who may be discouraged from embarking upon or continuing crucial bioterrorism-related scientific research ...." The National Academies' Committee on Human Rights followed suit, protesting government treatment of a US researcher for only the second time in its 27 years. The first time was its defense of Wen Ho Lee, a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory two years ago. Donald Henderson, director of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies at Johns Hopkins University, predicts the FBI's conduct in Butler's case will create a schism: "... Anybody in the scientific community [will be] very reluctant to talk to the FBI on any number of issues." THE POLITICAL NET Critics of the US and British governments suggest short-term political gain prompted all three incidents. The FBI concluded that Butler was not a bioterrorist only after his case became famous, one of his attorneys asserts, and the agency's continued pursuit is a face-saving measure. The FBI's focus on Hatfill, the critics say, has detracted attention from the agency's inconclusive investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings. FBI spokesman Bill Carter refuses to comment on Butler, citing its ongoing investigation; Carter also says the agency has never commented on Hatfill's case. The British government's statements about Kelly have been labeled as efforts to deflect criticism. The government has launched an independent investigation into Kelly's decision to die. Butler is charged with 69 federal criminal counts. The US Department of Justice alleges that he smuggled vials of plague and told the agency they were later stolen. According to the DOJ, Butler destroyed the vials, evaded taxes, and committed extortion. But according to his attorney, Jonathan Turley, Butler is not guilty of any crime, and the FBI knows it. "I don't view any of these counts as honest counts," says Turley, a professor of public service law at George Washington University and an expert on national security law. Butler is scheduled to go on trial in November. Officially, Hatfill is not a suspect in the mailings of anthrax letters that killed five Americans, according to statements by US Attorney General John Ashcroft. But for more than a year the scientist has been under intense FBI scrutiny. Agents tailgate him when he leaves home. "He's being harassed," Henderson says, calling the treatment not "appropriate in this democracy." In August Hatfill sued Ashcroft, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and several individual agents. Kelly's troubles began when a BBC reporter said that an intelligence source had refuted the government's claim that the Iraqis could launch a bioterror or chemoterror attack in 45 minutes. The government names Kelly as a source for other statements in the BBC broadcast, but not for the bio-chemo-weapons claim, to imply that the reporter had made it up. Just days after enduring harsh criticism at the parliamentary inquiry in July, Kelly committed suicide. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer Steven J. Hatfill TEXAS CHILL Butler's case offends American scientists even more than do the Kelly or Hatfill sagas. Butler wrote a book that the worldwide plague research community still references, Plague and Other Yersinia Infections, and he is universally respected as a researcher. William Greenough, Professor of Medicine and international health at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, is unwavering in his endorsement. "Here is a person who has absolute integrity, absolute respect in the scientific field, made major contributions throughout his life, who has caused no public hazard ...." Before Sept. 11, 2001, scientists commonly transported samples just the way Butler did, says Henderson, who led the World Health Organization team credited with eradicating smallpox worldwide in the 1960s and 1970s. "... I carried a lot of smallpox around for a great many years," he says. "They [the FBI] have lost all perspective on this." Because Butler worked in the Third World, sometimes felt he had no choice but to bypass the bureaucracy, Greenough says. "Often [in Africa] one has to cut through an awful lot of red tape to be able to do your work," Greenough relates. "So I'm sure this was the mode he was acting in to complete this study and to try to keep the authorities out of his hair probably." Turley says the FBI grilled Butler into exhaustion, prompting a false confession. "He was interrogated all through the first day and into the second," says Turley, who asserts that the FBI told Butler he had to sign so they could close the case and set him free. PA Photos Limited David Kelly DANGEROUS AT THE TOP These re-searchers' expertise turned out to be a liability instead of an asset. Had Butler not been the national go-to expert colleagues say he was, he might not have won the grant that supported the research for which he imported plague vials from Tanzania. Had Hatfill never been highly trained at USAMRIID, he might not be the FBI's perpetual unofficial suspect. Had Kelly never become Britain's preeminent expert about Iraqi bioweapons, the BBC wouldn't have interviewed him. All three scientists were late getting their sides of the story out to the public. According to Turley, the FBI pressured Butler's other attorneys not to speak with the media. Hatfill didn't release his long statement until roughly nine months after the FBI first investigated him. Kelly did not comment publicly until he testified. Butler and Kelly stand accused of doing wrong in situations where they intended doing right. Butler's plague samples proved that two modern antibiotics could effectively treat the disease, replacing two other drugs no longer available, Greenough says. For years Kelly filled a role many scientists eschew, briefing journalists about Iraq's weapons programs, reporters said at the inquiry. Had he not felt that obligation, he might still be alive today. Irrelevant allegations have ruined the careers of the two American scientists, their lawyers say. The false statements journalists have discovered in Hatfill's past resumes do not prove he killed five people with anthrax, Henderson points out. "I think it may be information," he concedes. "I don't think it says anything about his guilt or innocence." The income tax evasion charge is unrelated to Butler's missing vials. Turley says he paid the tax when he thought it was due, and he corresponded with the Internal Revenue Service about it. The only legitimate issue, he says, concerns the year in which research-expense revenue should be reported (based on the cash accounting method or the accrual method). "This is a fairly common issue," Turley says. "Our tax people believe this is a nonstarter." John Dudley Miller (johnmiller@nasw.org) is a freelance writer in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. THE DON'T-DO LIST OF BIODEFENSE RESEARCH Don't work in national security-related research without soberly assessing the risks. "The message people will take from the Butler case is, 'Don't get involved in working with agents on the [CDC] select list,'" says William Greenough, professor of internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Jonathan Turley, Thomas Butler's lawyer, disagrees. "You can be involved," he says. "Just be cautious," legally and politically. Don't find out so much that you're one of a few super-experts. After the anthrax mailings, the FBI screened several of the recent USAMRIID anthrax researchers and hired a few as consultants, says Hatfill's lawyer, Tom Connally. "At the same time, they had strong suspicions that the pool of candidates that could have done this resided in that pool of experts," says Connally. Don't avoid the press. Before he joined the case, Turley says, the FBI pressured Butler and his other attorneys not to speak publicly about the case, while "the Justice Department proceeded to shape the story through leaks." Turley adds, "Once you become the designated defendant by the Justice Department, your life is ruined." Don't depend on your record of success to immunize you. In August the head of Texas Tech's medical center notified Butler, chief of its infectious diseases division, that he was recommending Butler be dismissed from the university for cause. In this country, "there's a matter of innocent until proven guilty," says Donald Henderson, director of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "And what has [he] been found guilty of, guilty of what?" Don't talk with law-enforcement authorities without your own lawyer present. If Butler had had an attorney from the beginning, "none of this would have happened," says Turley. "Avoid the natural inclination of all lay persons to decline counsel" to avoid looking guilty, he adds. Most employee contracts require the university to provide independent counsel. function sendData() { document.frm.pathName.value = location.pathname; result = false if (document.frm.score[0].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[1].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[2].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[3].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[4].checked) result = true; if (!result) alert("Please select") return result; } .myradio{background-color : #94bee5} Please indicate on a 1 - 5 scale how strongly you would recommend this article to your colleagues? Not recommended 1 2 3 4 5 Highly recommended Please register your vote

Caught in Political Crosshairs

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AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Jim Watkins
Thomas Butler