Stephen Hatfill a biological weapons expert for Science Applications International Corp until March 2002, remains under surveillance 24 hours a day, even though he has never been charged with any crime. The investigation, after nearly 2 years, remains empty-handed, despite alleged "tips" and the draining and ecological slaughter of a Maryland pond. What is going on here?

Well, an article in the Washington Post today (the story first broke in the NY Times) - despite the highly slanted headline ("Anthrax Suspect Trained US Team on Bioweapons"- tho' Hatfill is not yet considered a suspect by the FBI) may hold the key. Hatfill, by his own report, never worked with anthrax directly as in bioengineering, weapons development, etc. Instead, his focus was on detection of WMDs.

However, he DID design a replica of a mobile biological weapons production laboratory for the Pentagon. The same Pentagon that now repeatedly keeps making allusions, for the benefit of the clueless mainstream media, to a mobile biological weapons production laboratory allgedly found in Iraq. Yep, I bet a very convincing lab was indeed found in Iraq. In fact, I suspect it was the self-same mobile lab designed by Hatfill.

But, while Hatfill no doubt assumed he was creating said lab for for "training troops to identify WMD facilities," could it be that the lab was designed expressly as a future plant in Iraq? The project was commissioned in late 2001, about the same time Bush and Rumsfeld first began making noises about wanting to invade Iraq. (they started "exploring" an invasion even before the war in Afghanistan had been fully launched).

For MONTHS, now, Rumsfeld and Bush have repeatedly made references to the mysterious mobile labs, often enough to fix the idea, intentionally, in the mind of the public.

The possible catch in this neat premeditated plan would, of course, be Hatfill. If called in as a mobile WMD lab expert - as he absolutely would have been had he not been conveniently made the object of FBI persecution -- he would have been able to conclusively identify the "Saddam mobile lab" hyped in the news as the one he himself designed. In other words, he would have been able to expose the Bush administration's fabrication of WMD evidence in no uncertain terms.

To make the whole thing even fishier, it turns out that Hatfill, right up into March of 2002, was leading a training session for the Defense Intelligence Agency, teaching WMD hunter teams how to recognize and identify WMDs accurately in the field. The DIA was so happy with Hatfill's work they provided him with a letter of commendation. And then boom. In late March, Science Applications International Corp decided to fire Hatfill simply (allegedly) because he had become a "person of interest" to the FBI. But, could it be that the Bush administration colluded with SAIC to get rid of Hatfill? Less than one month after Hatfill was fired, the Bush administration awarded SAIC a great big fat juicy defense contract (NexGen) worth up to $1 billion. What a nice pay off! (see http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0429/web-disa-04-30-02.asp).

So now, instead of leading the WMD investigation in Iraq, and thus being able to tell the true weapons from the bogus Bush plants, Hatfill has been smeared and thus discredited with thoroughly evil inuendoes - but no charges - and kept under 24-hour surveillance. Is he being watched because he is viewed as a threat to the US public - or because he is seen as a threat to the Bush administration? Afterall, what would Bush do if Hatfill were to meet with a key person - say someone from the foreign media (forget the US media - look at the lame-o mockingbird spin given to the headline and subhead of the Hatfill article in the Post! In the print edition, the subheading trumpets: "HATFILL HAD LOST HIS SECURITY CLEARANCE". This is designed to make it seem as if Hatfill were such a shady character and furtive weirdo that the company he worked for withdrew his security clearance. However, if you read down through the article, you'll get the real story - long about paragraph 11. Of course, most people, according to various newspaper surveys, typically only read the first three paragraphs of a news story thoroughly - at most - then skim the rest unless it really trips their trigger. Turns out Hatfill only lost his clearance AFTER the FBI started acting as if he were a suspect in the anthrax case. Quite a difference enchilada from the implications of the Post's subhead, eh?)

I bet Hatfill can't wait to get his day in court to tell the world his side. But that possibility is why, of course, he will probably never be charged. I fear he is far more likely to end up the victim of an untidy deminse - a nasty accident or "suicide."

Meanwhile, the real anthrax killer remains at large. And, one of the foremost experts in the detection of bioweapons, remains unable to aid Americans in their quest for safety - not to mention justice - because he remains a "person of interest" to the Bush administration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1606-2003Jul2.html