Beleaguered researcher Steven J. Hatfill struck back at the government last week, through his attorney, following the latest insult in what he perceives to be a smear campaign by federal investigators.

"This functional equivalent of blacklisting is reprehensible and sanctionable," said attorney Victor Glasberg last Wednesday, of the treatment his client Steven Hatfill has received at the hands of the US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Glasberg blamed the agencies' conduct for Louisiana State University's decision, announced 3 September, to dismiss Hatfill from a job he had only begun on 1 July, as Associate Director of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training.

Prior to Hatfill's termination, the university reportedly received an order from the Justice Department to stop Hatfill from working on government-funded projects. The university claims the order did not influence its decision to fire Hatfill. LSU chancellor Mark Emmert merely described the decision as "in the best interest" of the university, in a statement issued last week.

Though Hatfill is not an official "suspect," he is the only named "person of interest" in the FBI's ongoing investigation of the anthrax-tainted mail attacks first revealed by the 5 October death of Robert Stevens, a Florida photo editor. By the end of fall, five people had died, dozens more had been infected by anthrax, and investigators were focusing their search on domestic scientists who might have the knowledge and access to materials to create the high-grade anthrax used in the attacks.

According to recent press reports, the FBI has narrowed its focus to some 20–30 specific biowarfare researchers, including Hatfill. But an FBI spokesman explicitly rejected that figure, telling The Scientist that the agency has simply "talked with and continues to talk with individuals who might provide information on the case."

Nonetheless, Hatfill is the only such individual to have been publicly identified by government investigators, and Glasberg says the government's "inappropriate attention" has destroyed his client's life. Glasberg sent a letter last week to Attorney General John Ashcroft, demanding an apology for the Justice Department's treatment of Hatfill, and calling on Ashcroft to find the embattled researcher a new job. Glasberg has also filed a complaint with the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, claiming agency officials and FBI agents have leaked information to the media.

Hatfill, a physician and biowarfare researcher who worked at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland between 1997 and 1999, has so far refused press interviews. He called two press conferences in August to proclaim his innocence and complain that he is followed around-the-clock by the FBI, that agents "trashed" his girlfriend's apartment, as well as having twice searched Hatfill's own home in a Maryland suburb.

During one such search, the FBI reportedly discovered an incomplete novel on Hatfill's computer describing a bioterror attack that kills or disables dozens of people, including the president and congressional leaders, though the plot contains no mention of anthrax or of launching an attack by mail. Hatfill did commission a 1999 study detailing a hypothetical anthrax attack by mail while working for defense contractor Science Applications International Corp., a spokesman for the San Diego-based company told the Associated Press in June. The study was written by William C. Patrick III, a former chief of product development at Fort Detrick's Biological Warfare Laboratories and describes placing 2.5 grams of Bacillus globigii, a simulated form of anthrax, in a standard business envelope, the AP reported when the FBI first publicly identified Hatfill.

"He could be the guy, I don't know, but I don't think it's fair to nail the guy in public like this," said CJ Peters, director of the Center for Biodefense at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and one of many scientists who find Hatfill's ordeal disturbing. Peters, who spent 13 years at USAMRIID and was its deputy commander, argued that there does not seem to be enough evidence to point a finger at the embattled researcher. "[W]here is the data, and how much data do you need to put someone on the skewer in public? I think you need more than has been made public," Peters told The Scientist.

Hatfill's media advisor and spokesman, Pat Clawson, promises that Hatfill will soon make further public statements about his situation. Clawson, however, refused to say when, or what action Hatfill will take next.