The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

A New Perch for One Environmental Deregulator

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (whose blog can be found here) announced that Jeff Holmstead, former assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for air and radiation, joined the firm as a partner in the Washington D.C. office.  Holmstead, who resigned on August 30, 2005, will head the firm's newly formed Environmental Strategies Group to "advise the nation's top companies and business groups as they grapple with increasingly complex environmental and energy development challenges in the coming years."  During his time at EPA, Holmstead was criticized by environmentalists as a point man for the administration's efforts to weaken air-quality regulations.

-- Mandy Smithberger

Los Alamos Owner of Meth Trailer's MySpace Page

We can't be 100% sure, but this may be Jessica Quintana's MySpace page.  Quintana is the owner of the Los Alamos trailer where Justin Stone was arrested for drugs and three flash drives were found that allegedly had classified information from Los Alamos National Laboratory on them.

It adds up: We did a search for Jessica Quintana on MySpace within 100 miles of Los Alamos' zip code.  This page is only one that matches that, along with her confirmed age of 22.  Furthermore, under "Occupation," the page says she is a "Data Tech."  According to the Los Alamos Monitor, "Reports also indicate that Quintana was employed as a data entry clerk at Information Assets Management, a LANL subcontractor, before being laid off."

-- Nick Schwellenbach

A Fishy Revolving Door?

Linda Fishman, recently the director of the Office of Legislation for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, begins work at the American Hospital Association on Monday as their new vice president of legislative affairs.  Fishman has also worked for the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees and the Association of American Medical colleges.  Ethics rules prohibit Fishman from dealing with her former colleagues at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for one year.

-- Mandy Smithberger

The Nation’s First Modern-Day Whistleblower Speaks

This month’s Harper’s magazine features an article by Dan Ellsberg drawing parallels between his experience blowing the whistle during the Vietnam War with his leaking of the infamous Pentagon Papers, and political events today. Ellsberg urges government employees to follow their conscience. Next month, the Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize,’ will recognize Dan Ellsberg for his years of speaking out.

-- Beth Daley

CREM de Meth

The Los Alamos County Police Department is holding a press conference right now (3:45 p.m. EST) on the meth lab drug raid which surfaced Classified Removable Electronic Media (CREM). Here are the documents from the arrest (pdf) which they provided today. Also here a list of seized items (pdf) including three jumpdrives and a CD.

A new unconfirmed tip just in: The A woman involved in the incident allegedly worked in the Dynamic Experimentation Division (DX) in a Special Access Program (SAP). She has Q level security clearance, meaning for nuke weapons info. She went through the Human Reliability Program which is used to clear people and may have been randomly drug tested. The man apparently is the one who works for KSL.  UPDATE: The man is not an employee for KSL we now understand, and there seem to be two women involved in the situation.  One is Jessica Quintana, a woman in her early 20s who has lived in the trailer where Justin Stone was arrested in the drug raid.  According to the Los Alamos Monitor, "Reports also indicate that Quintana was employed as a data entry clerk at Information Assets Management, a LANL subcontractor, before being laid off."  The other woman, according to our unconfirmed sources, is the older scientist referred to at the top of the paragraph.

UPDATE: Here's a statement from National Nuclear Security Administration head Linton Brooks.

Los Alamos: Meth, Classified Docs and Nukes

With the latest incident at Los Alamos National Laboratory--birthplace of the atomic bomb--we wonder: Could you sneak away classified documents like drug dealers sling methamphetamine?  Since a drug bust at a Los Alamos trailer home last week, where authorities also found a Lab flash drive with classified documents in the trailer we are told, you have to ask that question.  A man was arrested for dealing meth and for domestic violence, and there has been a connection to a Los Alamos contractor.

Secretary of Energy Bodman was briefed this morning about the drug raid and was reportedly furious.

The Los Alamos Monitor reported on a methamphetamine drug raid last week which appears to be the initial encounter which led the authorities to conduct the raid on Friday. The Monitor reports that police were “responding to a 4:16 p.m. call from a neighbor alerting them to loud arguing occurring inside the house” when they discovered “pipes and other paraphernalia” and “hazardous meth lab components.” The article includes details about what, who, where of this initial incident.

According to unconfirmed sources, a person who was connected to the drug raid worked for a subcontractor of KSL, a company that provides maintenance for Los Alamos. KSL helpfully lists its subcontractors on their website.

According to the KSL website: “Awarded the Los Alamos National Labs Support Services Contract in 2003, KSL provides services support for the three main contractors at LANL:

--Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. Government Operations;

--Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, Inc.;

--and Los Alamos Technical Associates, Inc.

Together, these four companies provide over 75% of the Los Alamos National Labs work force providing multiple services varying from simple custodial workers to nuclear scientists and technicians. With an exemplary safety record and a proven history of success KSL has intertwined itself with Los Alamos National Labs providing a steadfast commitment to supporting partnerships in the economic, academic, and cultural life of the New Mexico region.”

Ironically, the Los Alamos Lab’s public affairs office published a puff piece in August 2004 that quotes KSL Services General Manger Ed Burckle saying “we must never lose sight that the overriding concern during the resumption process is to ensure we have re-examined our procedures for safety, security and compliance and that all employees have been trained and qualified to perform their duties.”

-- Beth Daley

Bravery is Not Always Protected

First, we want to applaud the bravery of all who speak up for what they believe in, despite the risks they face in doing so.  That said, we were deeply concerned by today’s news in the Brattleboro Reformer that an active duty Marine is stepping forward to raise concerns about the war, presumably under the assumption that he will be “protected” under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act.

Tomorrow, dozens more may follow in his foot steps at a press call organized by Fenton Communications. We wondered whether these courageous individuals realize that getting whistleblower protection from retaliation is extremely difficult, made even more so by the Uniform Code of Military Justice which allows discipline for such catch-all violations as “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” Little has changed to improve the situation since David Hackworth’s 1994 column “Blow the Whistle, Get the Ax.” 

Today’s comment by Democratic Senator Jack Reed at a press conference was also not encouraging:

With respect to active duty personnel, soldiers have an obligation to serve. I think the province of public discourse is not something that they should be engaged in so free. I have not heard these comments. I heard a reflection of them. But let me make a general point: We expect our soldiers to follow the rules, follow the legitimate orders of their commanders. And if you feel a course of action is inappropriate, your choice is just getting out of the service, basically, if you can and making your comments as a civilian.

POGO and other whistleblower organizations regularly advise members of the military and government employees not to become publicly identified as whistleblowers. Their First Amendment right can be exercised more safely if they stay anonymous. The Department of Defense Inspector General investigates military retaliation cases, but only finds in favor of 17% of them. There are big hurdles to reversing retaliation -- among them, the need to establish a clear connection between the whistleblowing and the retaliation that occurs. Retaliation can come years down the road after the limelight has faded. Even “straight arrows” can suffer as the smallest infraction or appearance of an infraction is used against them. One of the few things that government bureaucracies do well is to hold grudges against their whistleblowers.

We don't want to discourage anyone in the government or the military from following their conscience, but we just want them to be aware of the reality of (the lack of) whistleblower protections and to be prepared to face the difficult road they may have to face.

--Beth Daley

 

Public Interest Declassification Board: Who's the Boss?

Although POGO supported the funding of the Public Interest Declassification Board last year, we realize there are some important weaknesses in the legislation. 

Currently, the first real test is underway of the Board's power to review classified documents--and, if it thinks it is in the public interest, recommend declassification.  One weakness had to with confusion over whether or not Congressional committees with jurisdiction can have the Board review classified information without Presidential approval. 

At issue are two parts of the Public Interest Declassification Act of 2000 as amended by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.  Section 703(b)(5)--an insertion from 2004--states that the Board will:

...review and make recommendations to the President in a timely manner with respect to any congressional request, made by the committee of jurisdiction, to declassify certain   records or to reconsider a declination to declassify specific records.

However, a Section 704(e)--also an insertion from the 2004 amendments--expounds upon this and states--note the bolded text:

If requested by the President, the Board shall review in a timely manner certain      records or declinations to declassify specific records, the declassification of which has been the subject of specific congressional request described in section 703(b)(5). (emphasis POGO's)

The Chairman of the Public Interest Declassification Board, L. Britt Snider--no stranger to the struggle between Congress and the Executive on access to secrets--told Congressional Quarterly last week that, "There's no way we can require [the White House] to cooperate with our review if they're opposed to it."

POGO believes that the White House should agree to let the Public Interest Declassification Board review classified portions of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee reports on prewar Iraq intelligence.  But if the Board is going to continue to exist, at a minimum it should be able to review classified documents at the request of Congress--regardless of what the Executive thinks.  And if Congress truly wants to empower the Board, it should give the Board the power to declassify, not just to recommend declassification.

-- Nick Schwellenbach

Congress Sucks Asbestos Fumes

There is an underground here in Washington, DC and it’s not pretty. It is “crumbling, asbestos-choked, and furnace-like” and spews “asbestos and other contaminants through grates and man-holes around First Street, S.E. including in front of popular Capitol Hill eateries.” Workers who maintain tunnels under the Capitol brought these concerns forward, which were verified in Congressional hearings and a government office.

Today the tunnel shop workers filed a complaint (pdf) against the Architect of the Capitol for retaliation they faced for alerting the public. Most disturbing is that even after admitting at a Congressional hearing earlier this year that proper safety standards were not kept up, the Architect of the Capitol has recently refused to cover the cost of medical testing for the workers to determine if they are suffering from asbestos disease, prompting a direct appeal (pdf) to Senator Durbin today to cover those costs.

-- Beth Daley

Avoidable: Partisan Divide Over Release of Cunningham Report

Partisan fissures have widened on the House intelligence committee with ranking member Jane Harman's (D-California) release of the unclassified summary of a report (pdf) on disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's (R-California) defense and intelligence earmarking and manipulation of the contracting system.  Such partisan finger-pointing could have been averted had Harman and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Michigan), chairman of the committee, jointly released in a timely matter the unclassified version of the report, which POGO urged in a letter to both, after the media reported on it in August.

-- Nick Schwellenbach

Tip of the Hat to Ken Silverstein

Ken Silverstein has been a dogged investigator into Representative Curt Weldon’s (R-Pennsylvania) connections to lobbyists, including Weldon's own daughter. McClatchy reported on Friday that the FBI has mounted an investigation into many of the issues raised in Silverstein’s 2004 reporting. To keep up to date on Silverstein’s latest finds, visit him at Washington Babylon.

-- Beth Daley

Oak Ridge as Asteroid Magnet

"There are better odds that an asteroid would hit Oak Ridge than the likelihood that terrorists would have the access and time to build and detonate an IND [improvised nuclear device--pdf]," Y-12 National Security Complex spokesman Steven Wyatt told Los Angeles Times reporter Ralph Vartabedian in response to the concerns of an IND detonation a recently-released POGO report raises (pdf). (Y-12 is located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee; also located nearby is Oak Ridge National Laboratory.)

If what Wyatt says is true, then Oak Ridge must be a magnet for asteroids. Or security experts at the Department of Energy are totally wrong.

More likely though, his dismissal of the IND threat is PR spin more than anything else.  The government's own security strategy of access denial--which Wyatt says Y-12 does not meet--is built around the threat of INDs.  Moreover, mock attacks by force-on-force adversary teams have shown that a (not-unrealistic) team of terrorists could actually penetrate Y-12 and get to its HEU and build an IND within minutes of the initiation of an attack.

INDs are ridiculously easy to create, according to several esteemed physicists.  According to Princeton University physicist Frank von Hippel, “a 100-pound mass of uranium dropped on a second 100-pound mass, from a height of about 6 feet, could produce a blast of 5 to 10 kilotons.” By comparison, the blast from the Hiroshima bomb was 13 kilotons. It killed over 200,000 people.

The concern over INDs is based on the government's findings, not just POGO's.  Wyatt can spin as much as he wants (and we have to grant him some kudos for the asteroid statement; rarely are government spokepersons so clever), but security experts inside and out of the government find the vulnerabilities at Y-12 and the threat of an IND detonation significant enough to warrant greater security as soon as possible--before the next asteroid hits Oak Ridge, ahem Earth.

-- Peter Stockton and Nick Schwellenbach