Posted on 12/05/2001 10:59:13 PM PST by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON – Federal authorities are taking a closer look at Middle Easterners enrolled in an Energy Department program started by the Clinton administration that trains foreign nationals to, among other things, spot holes in modern security systems, WorldNetDaily has learned.The foreign students, including some from Yemen, have enrolled in security-training classes at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., and "interfaced" with security teams at nearby Sandia National Laboratory, an Energy security contractor says.
The contractor told WorldNetDaily that, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal authorities expressed concern about the program and asked to see student enrollment lists.
"There was a name-by-name audit done to determine if any foreign students who came through showed up on a terrorist-watch list that the intelligence community had," said Frank Martin, an Energy security contractor who, until a recent promotion, ran the program. He still oversees it.
No known-terrorist matches were found, but he says authorities are still worried about individuals who have gone through the program.
"There obviously was a concern, and there remains a lingering concern about individuals who have been here," Martin said, adding that both the Energy and State departments vet the foreign students before they arrive in Albuquerque.
The foreign security-training courses began in October 1999 under the auspices of the Non-proliferation National Security Institute, which was set up by former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
Energy, in partnership with the State Department, teaches basic security to the foreigners with the hope that they will go back to their countries and assist security officers at American embassies, "if things get dicey," Martin explained.
"These folks wouldn't leave here and go straight back to the American embassy," he said. "They would be part of their home country's security infrastructure."
He says groups from nearly 25 countries, including Kenya, the Philippines and Yemen, have gone through the course. The students are mostly young men, who bring along interpreters.
Yemen, where terrorists last year bombed the USS Cole, is one of many Arab countries that harbors al-Qaida cells.
"There were Yemenites at the Albuquerque security facilities taking training on various security techniques employed by the labs," a former Energy intelligence official told WorldNetDaily. "At the conclusion of their visit, a couple of them disappeared."
Classes are held at Kirtland, where the government stores films of nuclear weapons tests in a secure vault, as well as at police facilities in downtown Albuquerque.
Training involves "some interface" with Sandia nuclear lab, "as to the handling of an operations center or central alarm station," Martin said. Sensors are among the technologies covered.
"They're taught how to protect a facility and how to determine its vulnerabilities," he said.
State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, meanwhile, trains Saudis and other Middle Easterners at Louisiana State University and at facilities in the Washington area, Martin said.
The Bush administration has not canceled the Albuquerque program, and is still enrolling foreign students in it.
"There's been nothing out of DOE [Department of Energy] that says slow it down," Martin said. "But they have been more stringent about background checks, post-9-11."
and steal all those "found-late-behind-the-file-cabinet" disk drives?
Remember the list of board of directors for one of the associated organizations with included some far-left old-time SDS memebers and such? And the various 'charitable' foundations with whom they were associated like the GreenstarFoundation, etc?
That one was a foundation whose purpose was to help 3rd world countries get linked into the modern world by providing water for the Palestinians, solar power collection in assorted other countries (Pakistan too, I think) and internet services in areas without access to modern ammenities?
I thought it interesting over time since our terrorist buddies seem to have adapted well to using internet services (building cute web sites, sending encoded messages in image files, etc, and it always made me wonder what allegedly impoverished shepherds in some drought-stricken third world country would want with e-mail and access to ameritrade. ; )
The funding for those programs was from the US Energy Department in the Clinton Administration, courtesy the US taxpayer.
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