N.Y. Times Ordered to Disclose Sources in 2001 Anthrax Attacks Coverage

[Ono]

N.Y. Times Ordered to Disclose Sources in 2001 Anthrax Attacks Coverage

Friday, November 03, 2006




http://www.foxnews.com/images/237112/1_61_hatfill_steven1.jpg (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227317,00.html?sPage=fnc.specialsections/lawcenter#) AP

Former Army biological weapons researcher Steven J. Hatfill.


ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge upheld an order requiring The New York Times to disclose a columnist's confidential sources as part of a libel lawsuit filed over its coverage of the 2001 anthrax (javascript:siteSearch('anthrax');) attacks.

Former Army scientist Steven Hatfill (javascript:siteSearch('Steven Hatfill');) sued the Times, arguing that a series of articles by columnist Nicholas Kristof (javascript:siteSearch('Nicholas Kristof');) falsely implicated him in the anthrax mailings that killed five people in late 2001.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Liam O'Grady in October ordered the newspaper (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227317,00.html?sPage=fnc.specialsections/lawcenter#) to disclose the identities of three of Kristof's sources. The judge said Hatfill's right to move forward with his lawsuit outweighed the limited immunity Virginia gives reporters from disclosing sources.

U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton upheld that ruling Tuesday after the Times appealed.

Hatfill's lawyers (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227317,00.html?sPage=fnc.specialsections/lawcenter#) want to question the sources to determine if Kristof's reporting was accurate. The Times had cited FBI sources in reporting Hatfill was one of a limited number of people with the access and technical expertise to manufacture the anthrax and that he failed lie-detector tests.

Hatfill was a physician and bioterrorism expert who worked at the Army's infectious disease laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., in the late 1990s.


The Justice Department has refused to discuss Hatfill but recently said the strain of anthrax used in the attacks was accessible to more people than initially reported. No one has been charged in the attacks.

In Friday's newspaper, George Freeman, vice president and assistant general counsel (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227317,00.html?sPage=fnc.specialsections/lawcenter#) for the Times, called the ruling disappointing but added: "We are confident that in the end, the columns will be vindicated."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227317,00.html?sPage=fnc.specialsections/lawcenter

[Eat Me]

The Times is so fucking arrogant. I'd love to see them disgraced beyond all rapair by this. Stick it to the Times!!!

[al_gy]

Tabloid's contaminated ex-offices reopenif (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE')!=-1) document.write(''); else document.write('
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10:33 p.m. 02/12/2007Feb 12, 2007 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Nearly six years after an anthrax-laced letter contaminated the former headquarters of tabloid publisher American Media Inc. and killed Bob Stevens, a photo editor at the Sun, Palm Beach County health officials Monday reopened the site to the public."Scientific evidence shows all criteria for removing the quarantine and reopening the building have been met," said Dr. Jean Malecki, head of the Palm Beach County Health Department."I'm glad to see this come to a close," she said.Stevens died Oct. 5, 2001, after inhaling the deadly bacterium. Malecki closed the building three days later. Ernesto Blanco, a mailroom worker from North Miami, also inhaled anthrax and became ill, but survived. The spread of anthrax displaced hundreds of employees and forced them to take antibiotics for months. Mike Kahane, an AMI spokesman, did not return calls for comment.The bioterrorist attack, which came just weeks after Sept. 11, unnerved many here because terrorism had suddenly hit close to home. Ultimately, a handful of anthrax letters killed five people and sickened 19 others. No one knows who sent those letters or why. No one has been arrested despite an expensive ongoing FBI investigation.Maureen Stevens, who sued the federal government over her husband's death, said Monday she was not surprised the building reopened but "had no real interest" in the matter.The reopening of the three-story building marks the end of a long struggle to decontaminate it. While several contaminated federal buildings in Washington, D.C., and postal facilities in New Jersey and Washington, D.C., reopened, the former AMI building remained abandoned and unsafe, even as the company sold the $3.8 million property to real estate investor David Rustine for $40,000 in 2003.Since then, the cleanup was slowed by a business dispute with BioONE, a fumigation company linked to former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani; by lawsuits by freelance photographers who wanted their celebrity photos back; and by red tape.Glen Calder, a spokesman for Rustine, said his client "would not be making any statements at this time."