When a foreign presidential candidate became gravely ill as an election approached, when a standoff with the extremist anti-government group Montana-Freeman lasted 81 days, and during the protracted D.C. area sniper crisis, to whom did the FBI turn for help?
Their troubles brought them to Dr. Gregory Saathoff, their Conflict Resolution Specialist and executive director of the University's Critical Incident Analysis Group.
The CIAG received national and international attention Friday when The Washington Post reported that a team of doctors led by Saathoff treated Ukranian president Viktor Yushchenko during his candidacy.
"This last situation demonstrated our ability in short order to bring together dramatic expertise," said Saathoff. "We are able to deploy and identify intellectual resources."
The team, which also included a University toxicologist and a linguist, diagnosed the candidate with dioxin poisoning in mid-December and had to keep secret their role in the operation until the conclusion of the election.
"In a political context, keeping it secret is as much for the electorate's sake as for the patients," said Politics Prof. Fred Hitz, former Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency who was not involved with the CAIG operation.
Citing patient confidentiality and the desire of Yuschenko's family to keep the matter private, Saathoff was unable to elaborate on the details of this incident but confirmed the Post report.
Maya Woloshyn, a third-year College student and Ukrainian activist who helped plan a national protest in D.C. and moderated a Web site about the issue said she was pleased with the University's involvement.
"I'm more proud to be a U.Va. student," Woloshyn said. "In Austria they have a great clinic, but we have so much more here. For something that's such a destabilizing factor, I think it's very good that the government and U.Va. especially got involved."
The University CIAG was founded in 1996 in response to the Branch Davidian siege at Waco, Texas. The group has evolved into a "think-net" of academics, government officials and other experts who strategize for future crises, dispatch specialists in response to emerging situations and inform the media and public about how to respond to such incidents. Other recent work has included conferences on terror response.
"I'm of the belief that when it comes to crisis you don't exchange business cards on game day," Saathoff said.
The CIAG has three employees and is financially self-sufficient. It is led by a steering committee of 12 that includes Ret. Lt. General Edward Rowney and John Marsh, Jr., a former Congressmen and Secretary of the Army.
It seems logical that the Institute is based at the University, Saathoff said, citing the values of patriotism and trust in government.
"The more we have an understanding of Jefferson's intent, the more we see that solutions come from tried and true values," Saathoff said. "There's something special about U.Va. as a public university founded by a founding father"
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