Posted on 06/07/2005 3:28:53 AM PDT by ovrtaxt
In fact most state university labs are unionized.
Faculty and research scientists may be in such unions as AAUP but the majority of the workers are in more tradiational unions.
gotta broke jaw at 'cheeks'. huhhuh.
Most state lab workers are actually not unionized. I believe all at Los Alamos are and also all in the UC system.
Awesome work! Keep it going. This has legs.
Bump for the Chicom connection.
So what part of this is "updated"? I read all of this on yesterdays thread. Let us know when they catch the thugs.
I'm willing to wager the lot is under the constant watch of video cameras. These sorts of clubs generally have very strong security for the dancers leaving the club. Dancers are usually escorted out to the lot, under the watch of a camera.
I should have said state 'university'rather than state.
You're quite welcome!
I'll try to post MORE, later, when I have more time.
LANL lab employees are not all unionized, but a lot of pressure is being put on them by UC union organizers.
Even with state university lab employees, it is only the most liberal blue states where you find any really significant unionization. Maybe you live in such a place. I've been employed in university research for almost 40 years and have met very few unionized lab workers except in CA, MA, NY and MN. Most of the university lab workers in red states generally still are not (depends on the university), although they are getting pressured by unions to join.
This is too important a story to let slide. Retaliation of a Whistle Blower is all too familiar - universities who live off the tax payer tit, are perhaps other than government agencies or departments, the most flagrant violators. This is not the fault of President Bush! This is the fault of allowing 'in-house' powers that be, to form small 'not for profit' companies run by cliques that reap profits through either the universities or government agencies...reaping millions of dollars.
"We are looking into the allegations made by Mr. Hook," Elwell said.............
I am sure that Mr. Hook's allegations are facts, affirmations of wrong doing, not some trumped up charges. Some group bilking the government, looting the taxpayer is at fault; find the persons who were looting. Looking into them now is a little late and a dollar short, the horse has left the barn
however, bringing these people to justice will never be too late. BUMP
What an amazing coincidence.
Excuse me Kirkwood, but I think you are delusional here. Mr. Hook is far from the first Whistle Blower to meet with near death and will not be the last even thought we are supposed to have laws protecting them. The money is just too great from these back room research companies. The word University is a dead give away as to the possible perps are here the governor of New Mexico is most likely not without knowledge and/or is part of the scheme and has been since the Clinton days.
Well, back from work now. Glad to see your additional info. I love FR!
Hate to show my FReeper 'age', but this sure does smell like a klintler crime.
It's definitely part of Clinton's Legacy. The Chinese were the recipients of military secrets. Money went into Clinton's pocket. Does that sound familiar? :)
Here's a little background info on this brave and illustrious man....
Notra Trulock is the Associate Editor of the Accuracy in Media Report, the Director of Media Relations at Free Congress Foundation, the former Director of the Office of Intelligence for the U.S. Department of Energy and Chief of Counter Intelligence from 1994 to 1998.
Trulock came to public notice in 1999 in a NY Times article headlined: "Breach at Los Alamos: A Special Report; China Stole Nuclear Secrets For Bombs, U.S. Aides Say." The article mentioned a "Chinese American" working at the lab. Two days later, the Taiwan-born Lee, a U.S. citizen, was fired. The source of this claim, according to the Times, was Trulock, who was the key witness before a secret congressional committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach). Trulock was instrumental in alerting Congress to potential espionage at the nuclear labs.
He is the author of Code Name KINDRED SPIRIT: Inside the Chinese Nuclear Espionage Scandal.
I'm not sure he is still with AIM...can't find him listed.
Notra Trulock
Friday, Feb. 6, 2004
Last November, Vanity Fair magazine ran an expose on security vulnerabilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other Energy Department facilities around the nation. Based on disclosures by Energy whistleblowers, the article charged that mock terrorists have repeatedly defeated security forces during exercises of the labs security system. The whistleblowers said that the terrorists penetrated lab security and then got away undetected.
The worry is that real terrorists could steal substantial amounts of the plutonium or highly enriched uranium stored at these facilities. If true, this would be more than enough for an improvised nuclear device that Homeland Security officials say is their worst nightmare.
Energy Department officials categorically rejected these allegations, but a 1999 government report found that security problems are endemic at the labs and long-standing. In particular, the report raised concerns about the security of significant amounts of fissile materials held in facilities never intended for use as storage. These concerns linger despite the expenditure of literally hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on guards, gates and guns over the years.
Security forces at a nuclear plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., however, have found a way to avoid all the bad publicity arising from such failures. They cheated.
An internal Energy Department report recently revealed that members of the guard force got advance looks at the test questions for upcoming exercises. The guard force knew in advance which buildings mock terrorists would be attacking, down to the exact wall they would try to penetrate. Guards were also told whether the attackers would employ diversionary tactics in advance of the exercise assault.
That knowledge enabled the guard force to prepare for the mock assault; security managers ensured that the best-trained personnel were on-hand to repel the mock terrorists, and other countermeasures were put in place to ensure success. They also disabled electronic devices on their weapons so their deaths at the hands of the terrorists would not be registered.
The internal report concluded that the results of these tests of the plants security force were tainted and unreliable.
Wackenhut, the security contractor, denied the allegations and claimed security today is much better than it has been. But inspectors were told that this cheating has been going on at Oak Ridge since at least the mid-1980s. The whistleblowers in the Vanity Fair article also alleged that guard forces at Los Alamos and elsewhere were often warned in advance of upcoming exercise events.
So, why did they cheat? Thats easy money. Last September, Wackenhut received over $3 million in fees as a reward for its outstanding performance on security. That gave the inspectors heartburn, and they recommended that the department pay close attention to their findings when it next evaluates Wackenhuts performance.
But this is the second time in recent months that the departments federal oversight appears to have broken down. The last such incident involved security vulnerabilities resulting from the loss or theft of master keys and key cards at Livermore National Lab in California.
Moreover, none of this was supposed to happen on the Bush administrations watch. In response to the public outcry over Chinas theft of nuclear secrets and the mysterious loss of classified computer hard drives, congressional Republicans pushed through a restructuring of the Energy Department late in the Clinton years.
They created a new, semi-autonomous agency within the department that is specifically tasked to ensure the security and safety of the nations nuclear weapons laboratories. They were also harshly critical of the Clinton-appointed leadership of the department and vowed that, given the opportunity, they would ensure that future secretaries would have solid national security and intelligence credentials.
But the new administration failed to clean out the Clinton holdovers; former security officials reported that the same old faces occupy the new agencys top security positions.
And it is increasingly evident that lab security has fared no better under the new agency than before. If the labs past history is any guide, lost master keys, missing computer disks and lost or stolen computers containing classified data, fudged security tests, and misappropriated taxpayer funds are only the tip of the security iceberg.
And, as before, the new agency crushes anyone who dares voice concerns about security failures. After 9/11, everything was supposed to have changed, but the labs and their federal masters in Washington apparently didnt get the message.
THIS is some scary stuff, considering the WOT.
Notra Trulock
Monday, Jan. 19,2004
Another day, another report of a security scandal from inside the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories. On Jan. 1, CBS Evening News reported that hundreds of keys were missing at several Energy Department nuclear facilities around the nation. CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson told viewers that some of the keys controlled access to laboratory buildings that contain classified or sensitive materials and information.
Her report was triggered by revelations that 200 keys have turned up missing at the Y-12 nuclear plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Y-12 was set up during World War II to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU) for nuclear warheads. Today, Y-12 refurbishes nuclear warheads and serves as a major storage facility for HEU.
Attkisson said that some of the missing keys controlled access to sensitive areas at the plant. Energy Department spokesmen tried to stonewall her and sent security guards out to harass her when she did a standup in front of the headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
Plant spokesmen dismissed concerns about the vulnerability of sensitive information and materials. One told the media that most of the keys were to administrative, non-sensitive functions. He did admit that a relatively small number of keys were for what the plant considers medium security buildings. But all of these facilities have already been rekeyed, according the spokesman. Another shrugged off the lost keys and pointed to reports about similar problems at other labs in California and New Mexico.
Attkisson said these references were to reports earlier this year about the loss of keys at Livermore National Lab in California and Sandia National Lab in New Mexico. At Sandia, she reported, a set of master keys had gone missing for more than a week. The potential security breach went unreported and no one bothered to change the locks.
She also reported on a more serious security problem at Livermore. In early November, an internal Energy Department report found that more than 100,000 locks will have to be changed at the California lab as a result of lost master keys and master-key cards. The estimated cost to taxpayers will be $1.7 million.
The internal report warned that some of the missing keys opened locks leading to some of the most sensitive areas of the lab. Moreover, in some cases, the lab had experienced a double failure. That means that the two primary types of security locks protecting the same area are compromised at the same time. But Livermore responded that there was no evidence that classified materials had been jeopardized.
The report also criticizes the lab for failing to report the losses in a timely fashion and also for failing to recognize the potential security vulnerability. After Attkissons CBS News report, the Energy Department announced that it was set to launch a lock and key inventory at all the nations nuclear labs.
That was the second time Attkisson's reporting prodded the department to review security at its labs. Last year, her stories about fraud and mismanagement at Los Alamos led to firings and reassignments of top lab managers. I don't know if this made FReeper headlines. At the time of this article/report, we were 'homeless' after someone burned our house down. So, I lost a LOT of FR news/etc.
Pinging.
Oh, are you close to the case? And do you know how clued-in Susan Hooker was to the meeting?
And what makes you so sure he couldn't write either?
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