[CTRL] DOE Ex-Aide Describes 'Reprisal' for Warnings

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

 -Caveat Lector-

DOE Ex-Aide Describes 'Reprisal' for Warnings
Energy, Defense Whistleblowers Testify
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 25, 1999; Page A10

The Department of Energy's former security director told a House panel
yesterday that his superiors forced him out of his job two months ago in
retaliation for his repeated warnings that security was failing at the
nation's nuclear weapons laboratories.

Edward J. McCallum, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who headed DOE's
Office of Safeguards and Security, said the department has a "long history
of suppression and reprisal" against employees who disclose security
breaches.

The House Committee on Government Reform invited testimony from McCallum and
three other "whistleblowers" at the departments of Energy and Defense who
said their careers suffered after they warned about arms sales, technology
transfers or espionage involving China.

McCallum's supporters on the committee said they were appalled that he lost
his job just as the Energy Department began to acknowledge the legitimacy of
his concerns about the alleged theft of secrets from DOE's nuclear weapons
laboratories.

"I think the record will show that nobody has fought harder to try to
improve security at DOE labs than Colonel McCallum," said the committee's
chairman, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.).

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), the committee's ranking Democrat, added that
he too is "particularly troubled by the treatment Mr. McCallum has
received."

McCallum was placed on administrative leave with pay in April -- three days
after he was asked to testify before the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board on security lapses at the labs -- for what Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson has described as a "serious security infraction" involving
classified information.

The alleged infraction took place in telephone conversations between
McCallum and Jeff Peters, a security official who had lost his job at Rocky
Flats, a heavily polluted nuclear weapons facility in Colorado. Peters
tape-recorded the conversations, in which he and McCallum discussed a
variety of security breaches.

Transcripts of the phone calls were posted on the Internet in early April by
attorneys representing another Rocky Flats security official contesting his
dismissal. McCallum denied that anything he told Peters was classified.

Also testifying yesterday were:

Jonathan D. Fox, an attorney at the Defense Special Weapons Agency, who said
he was forced by Pentagon superiors to rewrite a 1997 memorandum to change
his conclusion that China was a nuclear arms "proliferator" to one in which
China was deemed a "nonproliferator." The change was necessary, Burton said,
so China could be certified as a nonproliferator at a summit between
President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Peter M. Leitner, an export licensing officer at the Defense Technology
Security Administration, who said he has been subjected to "one adverse
harassing act after another" since he appeared last summer before a House
committee probing technology transfers to China and Chinese espionage.

F. Michael Maloof, an opponent of liberal technology transfers to China at
the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, who said he has been "isolated, ignored
and subject to political retribution" for refusing to temper his belief that
the Chinese military poses a significant security threat to the United
States.

--
"Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind or thunder, who want
to see the fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that faith can
move mountains, can follow the thread on the pages of this book. It is a
fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and dates"
    -Kate Seredy, "The White Stag"
ICQ: 9815080   Operator Taliesin_2 of #SacredNemeton on IRC PaganPaths

DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing!  These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically  by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html

http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Om