Security For Who?

Submitted by Tom Davis on October 20, 2005 - 12:12pm

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Security for whose sake?

The government's dubious bioterror case has sent a dangerous message.

By William B. Greenough III

http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=so05greenough

The U.S. government's post-9/11 effort to make citizens more "secure" has had some frighteningly destructive consequences. One of the most egregious examples is the government's prosecution--using new departmental powers of Homeland Security and the PATRIOT Act--of Thomas C. Butler, a distinguished scientist and doctor.

By the time you read this, Butler will have been in prison for well over a year. It's a curious place for the U.S. government to put the man who is credited by the World Health Organization with saving the lives of more than two million children every year through a cholera treatment he helped to develop. Moreover, at the time of his arrest in 2003, Butler was researching ways to protect Americans from plague, a weaponizable pathogen.
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In January 2003, Butler could not locate 30 plague samples at his lab. He noted the missing specimens in his records and immediately reported the discrepancy to the Texas Tech safety officer, as per regulations. But instead of conducting a standard internal investigation, Texas Tech officials immediately called the police, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. The White House was informed about the missing samples, and about 60 FBI agents soon arrived in Lubbock. The result was a modern-day witch-hunt.

Butler was interrogated without legal representation and without sleep and was ultimately induced to sign a statement with the promise that his signature would settle the matter and allay any public panic. But after signing, he was arrested, his research records were confiscated, and he was forbidden to contact any colleagues who might be called as witnesses.
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Butler has a wife and four children, two of them young. He has lost his tenured professorship, medical license, and spent his savings and retirement on legal defense. He is incarcerated in the federal penitentiary at Fort Worth. He refused a plea bargain, as he and his attorneys do not believe he is guilty of any illegal activity.

From an academic standpoint, a chilling question has gone unanswered--why did the Texas Tech administration join the government in prosecuting a highly respected, tenured faculty member with an impeccable record for scientific research? And why did the government pursue so vehemently a case against an outstanding researcher? Perhaps Butler attorney Jonathan Turley has the answer to that. Last summer he told a reporter, "It would have been a personal embarrassment for John Ashcroft" to drop the case.

The U.S. government would like the public to believe that the dangerous plague doctor is in jail and that the country is safer because of it. But the truth is that we have removed from action the only scientist who had embarked on the very research that could save lives should there be a bioterror attack using plague. The government has demonstrated that those who work to protect us are themselves very vulnerable.

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Read the entire article at the link above.