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Anthrax Mystery Continues To Cost Us

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 9, 2008

We still don't know who mailed the anthrax that killed seven people in 2001, but eyebrow-raising developments continue to happen.

One was the big payday for Steven Hatfill. The Justice Department, which admits doing nothing wrong, is giving the research scientist $5.8 million to compensate for ruining his career.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft made a huge mistake six years ago to single out Hatfill as a person of interest in the case. It made no sense to identify someone without backup evidence.

Ashcroft's announcement and related news leaks certainly didn't help agents trying to put the clues together into a case that could be presented to a jury. They were forced to try to back up their boss's theory amid a media circus.

At one point it was rumored that the anthrax mailed to several Senate offices and news organizations was a rare, weaponized form of the deadly spores. That suggested the possibility of state-sponsored terrorism.

Now it is alleged in a lawsuit filed by the wife of a journalist killed by anthrax mailed to his newspaper office in Boca Raton that the infectious spores came from a research company in Ohio. The widow is suing the federal government and a private lab.

Part of the surprising defense in the case, as argued before the Florida Supreme Court, is that the government says it is not legally required to protect the public from the poisons it makes.

With a defense like that, it seems likely taxpayers soon will have to cover another big payday.

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