The Baltimore affair: a different view.

Abstract

You’ve heard it all before, perhaps: the epic story of an uncooperative lab director with communication problems; a disenfranchised and disillusioned whistleblower with a mission, a world-renowned but obstinate scientist; a powerful congressman with a mandate to ensure that the taxpayer’s money is used responsibly; a duo of unofficial but intellectually well-armed and ethically uncompromising investigators; confused university officials torn between concerns about fairness on one hand and possible damage to their institution’s reputation on the other; government officials more preoccupied with in-fighting and advancing their own careers than with their investigative duties; aggressive and unscrupulous Washington lawyers; friends, enemies, colleagues, emotions, loyalties, moral obligations and self-interest. In short, this was a very human story about people who were expected to behave in a superhuman way under exceptional circumstances. All were convinced that their motives were honorable; all were under pressure to protect their own reputations in the eyes of different peer communities and constituencies; and all made serious mistakes. Of the thousands of lines that have been written about the