
The Wrong Man - danh
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/04/the-wrong-man/8019/
======
barrkel
And as pointed out here:

[http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/21...](http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/21/hatfill)

... the evidence against the newer suspect Bruce Ivins (which actually did
result in suicide), is similarly circumstantial but the government is dead set
against anyone questioning that suspicion.

~~~
dminor
Maybe, but the circumstantial evidence against Ivins is far more damning that
anything they had on Hatfill.

> Ivins had been the sole custodian of a large flask of highly purified
> anthrax spores genetically linked to those found in the letters. He had
> allegedly submitted purposely misleading lab data to the FBI in an attempt
> to hide the fact that the strain of anthrax used in the attacks was a
> genetic match with the anthrax in his possession.

~~~
billswift
Who did the genetic matching? The same FBI labs that were well known for
making up results to support their cases?

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kevingadd
Every time I start to think that our country might be on a trajectory towards
improvement, a story like this comes along to throw that out the window.

It really astounds me that Dr. Hatfill managed to put up with the abuse for so
long without doing anything irrational - just reading about it makes me
understand why someone would want to mail anthrax to the government. Imagine
how many innocent people might have been subjected to similar treatment
without our knowledge, simply because - like Dr. Ivins - they didn't manage to
survive?

~~~
ovi256
And what about the press, who did nothing like their supposed role of
objective observers, but simply served as a propaganda, shame and social
torture machine. Truly disgraceful.

------
Herring
Why didn't he move? First thing I would have done is skipped town to Japan or
something, & maybe come back after a decade.

~~~
Estragon
For the same reason he didn't suicide: he knew he hadn't done it, and he
wasn't going to give those lazy, dumb sons of bitches the satisfaction.

~~~
Herring
His loss then, 10 years of torture, basically. You don't play around with
people that powerful.

~~~
Estragon

      You don't play around with people that powerful.
    

He did get approximately $6 million in a settlement with the DOJ. Sounds like
an explicit exoneration and a humiliating defeat for his transgressors, to me.

~~~
Herring
Ok, but how many people never get the settlement? And it's not like any of the
people in power learned anything. That's tax money.

------
apphacker
I have trouble feeling bad for someone who works with biological weapons.

