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Amerithrax — Part 10
Page 28
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- Butler soon confirmed Green’s scenario
_ by smiling, Green said. “This wasn’t a
-.*That’s a good joke’ smile. ... This was ‘I
CREDIT: (INSET) JiM4 WATKINS/LUBBOCK A VALANCHE-JOURNALIAP
.got caught with my hand in the cookie jar,’ ”
he testified. Then, Green asked Butler to
write a statement. In it, the researcher ad-
mitted to “accidentally” destroying the
vials and making a “misjudgment” by re-
porting them missing.
At the trial, the two men differed sharply
over how the admission was crafted and
what it was intended to accomplish. Green
said he wanted Butler to reassure the public
that it was not in danger, and that he sug-
gested only a few specific phrases. But But-
ler testified that Green essentially dictated
large chunks of the document. The two men
went “back and forth,’ Butler testified, until
the handwritten note (see graphic above) be-
came a “composite effort which fit what he
wanted and what I felt comfortable with.”
Among the things Green wanted was a
Sentence saying that investigators had made
“no threats or promises” to obtain the state-
ment, the researcher testified. But Green
“tricked and deceived” him, Butler told the
television news show 60 Minutes in August,
just hours before the gag order was imposed.
And he. testified that the FBI agent had as-
Sured him that if he recalled destroying the
vials, “we'll both walk out of here and no-
www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL302 19 DECEMBER 2003
+ word fh hee
‘Butler answered more
re suck
body will be investigated.”
Green disputed that claim.
After the statement was
finished, Butler was given
a second polygraph, which
agents claim confirmed
his new account. Next,
questions and then cooled
his heels while the agents met in another
room. At about 8 p.m.—barely 24 hours af-
ter the investigation started—Butler learned,
that he was under arrest.
The news sparked confusion and outrage
among scientists and friends. In the 10’
months between his arrest and the start of
his trial, several scientific organizations and
individuals rallied to Butler’s defense. Some,
including a quartet of Nobelists, loudly de-
nounced how the government had treated
him—including 6 days in jail, the yanking
of his passport, and house arrest with an
electronic anklet. “Tom Butler is not a crim-
inal,” says laureate and longtime Butler
friend Peter Agre of Johns Hopkins. “He’s a
fine and honorable physician-scientist
working for the good of mankind.” He and
more than 50 others have donated to Butler’s
defense fund.
Others predicted that Butler’s case might
discourage scientists “from embarking upon
or continuing crucial bioterrorism-related
| ny nasennch side bubrnie wes twhirl to benef
TALS OF THOMAS :BUTLER ~
242
a
Paper chase. Texas Tech medical school dean Richard Homan re-
assures the public at a press conference held soon after Thomas
Butler signed a statement that he had destroyed the 30 missing
vials of plague bacteria. Butler later recanted the staternent, sayin;
it had been coerced by FBI agents. .
scientific research,” as two presidents of the
US. National Academies put it in an August
letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft.
And the “seemingly selective prosecution
raises extremely serious concerns,” the New
York Academy of Sciences’ human rights
committee added in September. Both groups
pressured the government to drop the
charges. But after several delays, Butler’s
trial finally began on 3 November. .
On trial in Lubbock
It didn’t have to happen. Prosecutors offered
Butler a plea bargain that included 6 months
in prison and a fine, if he agreed to plead
guilty to several charges, according to media
reports. But Butler, who friends say can be
stubborn, balked at any deal involving jail
time. He decided to roll the dice.
It was a big gamble. Texas Tech has a tra-
dition of settling work-related disputes with
employees, says Victoria Sutton, a bioterror
law expert at the university who advised the
2061
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