I'm probably not going to do this story justice, but here goes. While Bush & Co. were busy stripping our civil liberties on one hand and challenging us to find abuses to the carte blanche powers on the other, I was screaming - STEVEN HATFILL!!!
As now reported by NBC, the Justice Department has paid out a hefty sum of more than 5.8 million to Mr. Hatfill, a former "person of interest" in the anthrax investigation that came on the heels of 9/11. If you lived in DC at the time like I did, you will always remember this time because you either got no mail (me!) OR if you did get mail it appeared to have been microwaved.
According to NBC news:
The legal settlement to Hatfill, in cash and an annual payments, signals the end of a civil lawsuit Hatfill brought against the Justice Department and FBI, accusing them of violating his privacy rights by improperly leaking sensitive information about the anthrax investigation to reporters.
And even MORE hilariously: (if it weren't so tragic)
The agreement states that it "should not be construed as an admission of liability or fault on the part of" the FBI or Justice Department. But legal experts are sure to see the settlement as a serious black eye for the FBI, because it has the effect of clearing Hatfill of any involvement in the lethal, envelope-born attacks.
Me again:
The FBI and Justice Depts. not only leaked Hatfill's name and essential details to the press, but as NBC reports, they tailed him relentlessly with...
one agent in an unmarked car once running over his foot.
What NBC doesn't recount that I can never forget- after running over his foot, the authorities (FBI)? ticketed Hatfill for "walking to create a hazard."
Read about it here
and here