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| Texas Tech Professor Arrested in Plague Scare |
| 2003-01-16 |
| A Texas Tech University professor was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of giving false information to authorities about 35 vials possibly containing the bacteria that causes plague which were reported missing at the university, police said. Dr. Thomas Butler, a prominent member of the university's infectious diseases division, was arrested for allegedly giving false information to a federal agent. Butler may have destroyed the vials that were reported missing, Lubbock police said. Falsely stated the vials were missing, did he? Trying to cause a panic over a deadly disease? Sound familiar to anyone? The FBI said all the missing vials had been accounted for and the incident posed no danger to the public. "We have accounted for all of those missing vials and determined that there is no danger to public safety whatsoever," Guadalupe Gonzalez, special agent in charge of the FBI's Dallas office, told a news conference in Lubbock. Gonzalez said an investigation was launched on Tuesday when a doctor at the university reported the vials missing. Law enforcement officials and staff at the university, 330 miles west of Dallas, stressed that the bacteria believed to be in the vials could not be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The vials were kept in a secure area and were used by researchers to test modern antibiotics on the bacteria that causes the plague, university officials said. The White House was briefed on the incident, said spokesman Ari Fleischer. Interesting story, wonder what his agenda is? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 I'm a physician scientist, and as I posted here yesterday, this very likely came about from the inventory of potentially dangerous materials (from a WMD point of view) that's been ordered. That started the ball rolling. To the other scientist: this inventory requirement is known to every biomedical investigator in the country. I've gotten several e-mails from the Dean and the responsible people at my University. It was easy for me since I don't work with anything remotely resembling the work that's of interest. But Dr. Butler is a different story. It's almost inconceivable that a man in his situation would have "misplaced some paperwork." People in this area of work take security very seriously. As Dr. Butler now admits (thanx, Steve) it looks like a cover-up of a mistake. But the mistake is deeper than just accidently destroying a few vials. As I noted, ID labs working with these agents take security very seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if some funny paperwork from around the time of the "accidental destruction" pops up real soon. Dr. Butler is an experienced scientist and administrator -- he really, really should have known better than to screw with the Feds. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-01-16 23:35:16 |
| #5 "will discourage scientists from studying potential "bioterrorist" agents" I'm not clear on how keeping folks who think they're likely to make this kind of mistake out of the bioterror research business is a bad idea. |
| Posted by: VAMark 2003-01-16 18:31:19 |
| #4 Maybe he's corresponded with Dr. Steven Hatfill? |
| Posted by: seafarious 2003-01-16 14:37:57 |
| #3 We'll find out that this guy has been under stress, bad marriage, co-ed's in the closet, hanging around the men's water polo team or something. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-01-16 14:04:43 |
| #2 Dear medical student, explain this please: A university professor at the center of a scare over missing plague bacteria told the FBI he lied when he said 30 vials of the deadly bacteria had disappeared because he had accidentally destroyed them, according to court documents. Dr. Thomas C. Butler was arrested Wednesday on a complaint of giving false information to the FBI about the vials. He was scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon. The FBI said in documents filed in support of its criminal complaint that Butler gave agents a handwritten note in which he admitted lying to his supervisor about the vials. "I made a misjudgment by not telling (the supervisor) that the plague bacteria had been accidentally destroyed earlier rather than erronneously first found missing," Butler wrote, according to the FBI. In the note, Butler said he knew the bacteria had been destroyed and was not a threat to public health, and he didn't realize his story would trigger "such an extensive investigation." According to U.S. Attorney Dick Baker, Butler said Tuesday that vials containing bacteria obtained from tissue samples from East Africa were missing when "truth in fact, as he well knew, he had destroyed them prior to that." Dr.Butler destroyed the vials by mistake and then tried to cover up by reporting them missing. He is the one that who needs to apologize, not the government. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-01-16 12:38:08 |
| #1 I am an American medical school researcher and professor whose research areas include microbiology. I would guess that Dr. Butler misplaced some paperwork or took bad notes and then discovered or realized where the vials were. I think that an arrest such as this, if indeed no evil was intended as I believe, will discourage scientists from studying potential "bioterrorist" agents and is therefore likely to hurt our biodefense capabilities. Even if the government apologizes and makes restitution in this case, there will still be some discouraging effect. |
| Posted by: A medical scientist 2003-01-16 11:45:00 |