FBI hires ex-colleague of anthrax probe figure
WASHINGTON -- The FBI has hired a former colleague of Steven J. Hatfill, who became a "person of interest" in the government's long-running investigation of several anthrax mailings in 2001.
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Some specialists said the hiring of the former colleague, Glenn Cross, could create the appearance of a conflict of interest if the government tries to use Cross as a prosecution witness.
An FBI spokesman said the recent hiring of Cross as a full-time counterterrorism analyst based at FBI headquarters is "not related to the anthrax case" and would not prevent him from testifying before a grand jury or in a court proceeding.
Although Justice Department guidelines permit the FBI to make cash payments to confidential informants, lawyers say it is unusual for the FBI to hire for a full-time government position a person who has worked with the bureau in developing a criminal investigation.
Such a relationship "blurs the distinction as to what this person is," said criminal defense lawyer Abbe D. Lowell, "and you never want to blur the purity of your witnesses."
Hatfill's attorney, Nick Bravin, declined to comment on Cross's new role at the FBI. Pat Clawson, a Hatfill friend who served until recently as his spokesman, said Cross's cooperation with the bureau was well known at the company where the two worked, Science Applications International Corp. in McLean, Va.
Cross, reached at the FBI, declined to comment and referred questions to the FBI press office.
Hatfill, 49, has not been charged in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people and sickened 17 others, but he has been singled out by US Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "person of interest" in the investigation.
Last month, Hatfill filed a lawsuit that accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of an unprecedented campaign of harassment.
Now unemployed, Hatfill said that the FBI's tactics have included months of round-the-clock surveillance, wiretaps, and job interference.
A federal grand jury has been empaneled in the anthrax case under the supervision of Roscoe C. Howard Jr., US attorney for the District of Columbia. In recent months, many of Hatfill's friends and colleagues and his former employers have said that they provided documents under grand jury subpoena.
Howard declined to say whether the grand jury has begun calling witnesses in the case, one of the largest and most expensive criminal investigations the FBI has ever conducted.
Sources familiar with the case said that FBI anthrax investigators have interviewed Cross extensively about his relationship with Hatfill and his concerns in the fall of 2001 about possible security risks posed by Hatfill's work with classified government projects.
Hatfill's supporters said that Cross and Hatfill were rivals at work and that Cross reported information to his bosses and later to the FBI that heightened interest in Hatfill early in the anthrax investigation. Hatfill was first interviewed by the FBI in fall 2001 at his SAIC office. The company is a large government consulting firm whose work includes classified projects for the CIA and the Pentagon.
Clawson said that Hatfill told Cross exaggerated "war stories" about his years in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa that Cross took seriously and reported to his superiors, expressing concern that Hatfill could be a security risk.
"Steve amused himself by telling him some whoppers," Clawson said. "Cross repeated these stories to government officials. The stories seemed to get larger and even more exaggerated with the retelling."
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
