Our bad

Another quiet Friday afternoon news release, which is typical of the Feds when they have to admit to a screw-up, particularly when it involves the payout of massive amounts of taxpayer funds to someone that they tried to pin a crime on without any solid proof, or any proof at all, for that matter.

The Justice Department has agreed to pay scientist Steven Hatfill 5.8 million dollars of your money, in order to compensate him for dragging his name all over the media as a "person of interest" in the 2001 anthrax poisoning cases.

"'The United States does not admit to any violation of the Privacy Act and continues to deny all liability in connection with Dr. Hatfill’s claims,' Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said in response to the settlement."

Then why settle? I'll tell you why - because they knew that they were going to be found wholly liable for shredding this man's reputation without one solitary piece of evidence tying him to the poisonings, a la Richard Jewell in the Atlanta Olympics bombing, and they were going to be on the hook for a whole lot more moolah than that. If no one at Justice leaked the info, then how do we even know about Hatfill in the first place?

And, of course, no one is fired, no one is disciplined, and the merry train rolls on. After all, it's not their money being wasted - it's yours.

Where does Dr. Hatfill go to get his reputation back?