◆ SpookStack

Declassified Document Archive & Reader
Log In Register
Reader Ad Slot
Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.

Amerithrax — Part 10

234 pages · May 08, 2026 · Document date: Sep 25, 2002 · Broad topic: Terrorism · Topic: Amerithrax · 207 pages OCR'd
← Back to feed
~~ lwith un teak os promses made to mz. i Ssarnces Contes, ia te Infections buberees Divntios cnet hall jist? inconvenience ty ofius. woo toeeeneb Heo. pasition am. bond Sat Dispose. T heal wh my ACerS tees —anenmneedmnennrt he tbeve sta lenenkas tye vuclccbick de fan beceg . 6 of: Dinical specimens Vrut wert altares en 1 ——__|_ ecee Danna buckrta. please bacteria were acctionta Lr steccfae mmoake fhe fellewine, oduussto i (Gr to Totn tt ,23 oDbeueh T cannot specety the tyme o mo ! 1% 2% | i TT {e] wnieds a by me ——— dale ¢ tha cfien, However, Denn buow fon a fact Hak De. Senes ome tld hon Het 0 haol notbecl! fe the fost tome tot the 30 yinls othe phrane bacterin were russ . Lane hen Hus 2x ene tigen afe wis | could not account for. tre plague ———| rey Heel hel Ht om YM, ni siudgenent by ns At fhe pb : | rag bean acc ibentall, Ceetrogerl 2arkein necther. than SESS iet » made on backr, Tan 0,03. hpeceng 25 hes oug onl Usw ums no f praniled a inaceunate, iplonas - 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
OCR quality for this page
Community corrections
First editor: none yet Last editor: none yet
No user corrections yet.
Comments
Document-wide discussion. Follow the Community Standards.
No comments on this document yet.
Bottom Reader Ad Slot
Bottom Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.

Continue Exploring

Use the strongest next step for this document: continue reading, jump to the topic hub, or move into the matching agency collection.
Continue Reading at Page 29
Jump straight to page 29 of 234.
Reader
Amerithrax — Part 14
Stay inside Amerithrax with another closely related document.
Topic
FBI Documents & FOIA Archive
Open the FBI agency landing page for stronger archive context.
FBI
Amerithrax Topic Hub
See the topic overview, related documents, and linked subtopics.
Hub

Agency Collection

This document also belongs in the FBI Documents & FOIA Archive landing page, which is the stronger starting point for agency-level browsing and for searches focused on FBI records.
FBI Documents & FOIA Archive
Open the agency landing page for introduction text, topic links, and more FBI documents.
FBI

Explore This Archive Cluster

This document belongs to the Terrorism archive hub and the more specific Amerithrax topic page. Use these hub pages when you want the broader collection context, linked subtopics, and more documents around the same archive thread.
investigation
Related subtopics
9-11 Commission Report
74 documents · 1592 known pages
Subtopic
16th Street Church Bombing
33 documents · 4210 known pages
Subtopic
Irgun Zvai Leumi
8 documents · 264 known pages
Subtopic
American Nazi Party
2 documents · 120 known pages
Subtopic
Aryan Circle
2 documents · 36 known pages
Subtopic
Aryan Nation
2 documents · 121 known pages
Subtopic