US Scientist Denies Link with Anthrax Attacks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 12, 2002

US Scientist Denies Link with Anthrax Attacks

A former US Army scientist under scrutiny for the anthrax attacks last fall has vehemently denied any involvement in the anthrax mailings.

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A former US Army scientist under scrutiny for the anthrax attacks last fall has vehemently denied any involvement in the anthrax mailings.

"I have had nothing to do in any way, shape or form with the mailing of these anthrax letters, and it is extremely wrong for anyone to contend or suggest that I have," Dr. Steven Hatfill said��Sunday in a news conference outside his attorney's office in Alexandria, Virginia.

Law enforcement officials have said Hatfill, 48, is only one of��about 30 people being looked at as part of the investigation. His attorneys have said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told them he is not considered a suspect.

"I acknowledge the right of the authorities and the press to satisfy themselves as to whether I am the anthrax mailer," Hatfillsaid. "This does not, however, give them the right to smear me andgratuitously make a wasteland of my life in the process."

He expressed frustration over the TV cameras, satellite trucks and helicopters that gathered around his Maryland apartment when authorities searched it recently. "The FBI agents promised me thatthe search would be quiet, private and very low key. It did not turn out that way."

Hatfill, a medical doctor and germ warfare expert, worked from 1997 to 1999 at a US bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick,Maryland. He was suspended with pay from Louisiana State University one day after the FBI staged a well-publicized search of his apartment 10 days ago.

Five people were killed and 13 others sickened by anthrax-tainted letters last fall, shortly after the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington.

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