MSNBC.com reports in an article titled, “FBI tries to link Hatfill to mailbox.” Excerpt:
FAILED CIA POLYGRAPH
Hatfill worked until September 1999 for the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Md., which is the primary custodian of the virulent Ames strain of anthrax found in last fall’s deadly letters.
Subsequently, he went to work for Science Applications International Corp., a Virginia-based defense company working on contract for the infectious diseases agency. Although Hatfill probably had access to anthrax, his primary duties did not involve working with it, a spokesman for the base has said.
The company dismissed Hatfill in March. He has since then been placed on administrative leave with pay from Louisiana State University’s National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, which he joined after his dismissal from Science Applications.
Hatfill complained that he lost his job with Science Applications because of a constant barrage of media calls, which he said had ruined his career. But U.S. officials indicated Tuesday that Hatfill actually was fired because he failed a CIA polygraph examination in August 2001.
One of the officials told NBC News that the polygraph was administered because Hatfill needed to upgrade his security clearance to work on a CIA counterterrorism contract awarded to Science Applications.
Once Hatfill had failed the polygraph, another U.S. official said, the CIA informed the Defense Security Service, which regulates security clearances. As a result, Hatfill was stripped of all of his security clearances, which led Science Applications to dismiss him.
The U.S. official would not say what questions Hatfill was believed to have answered less than truthfully, nor would he say what projects Hatfill would have been working on had he obtained the necessary clearance.
However, referring to a report in Tuesday’s editions of the New York Post, which said Hatfill stumbled on questions related to his purported service with a white Rhodesian commando unit, the official said, “That story is largely accurate.”