A Multi-Million Dollar Settlement in Anthrax Accusation
Here's another reminder that, despite the oft-repeated talking point, our nation has indeed been attacked since 9/11.
The Washington Post reports that the United States Department of Justice has agreed to pay $5.85 million to Dr. Steven Hatfill as a settlement to the lawsuit he filed after former Attorney General John Ashcroft named him a person on interest in the anthrax attacks that began on September 18, 2001.
The government admits no wrongdoing in the settlement. But, I have to agree with the following observation:
"I don't think anyone would believe the Department of Justice would . . . pay that kind of money unless they felt there was significant exposure at trial," said Brian A. Sun, a defense lawyer who represented nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee in a leak case.
While far too many reporters and Republicans reading their talking points today often suggest that we have not been attacked since 9/11, the Washington Post story reminds us just how seriously all of us took the anthrax attacks at the time.
The October 2001 anthrax mailings, sent to then-Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), network television offices in New York and the company that owns National Enquirer, gripped the nation and disrupted correspondence. In addition to the two D.C. postal workers, a Florida photographer, a New York hospital worker and an elderly Connecticut woman died after being exposed to the powder.
Just as we have not captured Osama bin Laden, just has we have not finished the job in Afghanistan, just as terrorist attacks have risen dramatically around the world -- the Bush Administration has failed to solve these anthrax attacks.
And people wonder why I am not impressed by the Bush Administration's record on such issues.