"Destroying the Life and Career of a Valued Physician-Scientist Who Tried to Protect Us from Plague: Was It Really Necessary?"
This is required reading for those who think that criticism of the Bush Administration's War on Science is hyperbole. This August 2005 article published in Clinical Infectious Diseases was written by some of the leading international authorities in microbiology (found here <http://www.fas.org/butler/cid060105.pdf> (warning:pdf):
"Thomas Campbell Butler, at 63 years of age, is completing the first year of a 2-year sentence in federal prison, following an investigation and trial that was initiated after he voluntarily reported that he believed vials containing Yersinia pestis were missing from his laboratory at Texas Tech University. We take this opportunity to remind the infectious diseases community of the plight of our esteemed colleague, whose career and family have, as a result of his efforts to protect us from infection by this organism, paid a price from which he will never recover."
Butler was finally released from prison on January 2, 2006.
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His McCarthyesque imprisonment was protested by the premier US science body, the National Academy of Science, as well as numerous other prestigious scientific organizations and Nobel laureates (see the
Federation of American Scientists link here. His career is in shambles, he is impoverished, he has no medical license, and few patients would want to have an ex-con for their doc anyway.
The explanation for this persecution--not prosecution--was that scientists needed to be taught a lesson. In short, during the hysterical, frenzied atmosphere frothed up by the Bush administration, compounded by poor or nonexistent understanding of science, the FBI and Federal prosecutors accused a scientist, Thomas Butler of bioterrorism. Butler, who has contributed to saving millions of lives through his research on simple anti-diarrhea treatment for developing countries, was obviously not a bioterrorist. But the charges were made, and so to not look foolish, Butler had to be hounded into prison. Saying, "Sorry, oops, I made a mistake" just isn't part of this administration's family values. Many are familiar with the parallel persecution of Dr. Robert Ferrell and Prof. Steven Kurtz, also, see "This is right out of Hitler's Handbook" in The Guardian newspaper.
So, rather than trying this man for his actual accused crimes, he was railroaded. The difference between this injustice and the Stalin-era show trials is only a matter of degree not kind.
Anti-evolution stickers on textbooks, gutting NIH funding, global warming, undermining FDA scientific board decisions, imprisoning scientists.
You tell me, do you think that Bush & Co. has issues with science or am I being too hard on these medieval escapees? What was so bad about the 14th Century, anyway?
Donations to the pro bono team working this can be sent to:
Thomas Butler Legal Defense Fund
Daniel C. Schwartz, Esq.
Bryan Cave LLP
700 Thirteenth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005