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Lamar Smith Joins Frank Wolf's Witch Hunt

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
February 20, 2013
Filed under , , ,

GOP Chairmen Go After Pete Worden, Aviation Week
“The official in question, Ames Research Center Director Simon P. “Pete” Worden, vehemently denies he has been lax in protecting technology covered by International Trade in Armaments Regulations (ITAR), and says he has never been approached by federal law enforcement officials about the matter.”
NASA ARC Centerwide Announcement: Ames and National Security
“I have offered to talk to the news reporter, meet with the US representatives and/or testify under oath regarding export control issues at Ames.”
Rep. Wolf’s China Witch Hunt Resumes (Update), previous post

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

10 responses to “Lamar Smith Joins Frank Wolf's Witch Hunt”

  1. DocM says:
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    Several computers in posession of the IG were trashed, and there’s a whistleblower –

    “Among the technologies allegedly leaked at Ames are designs for high-performance rocket engines, fuel and oxidizer tanks from an “ASAT” (anti-satellite weapon), guidance and terrain-mapping systems from the Tomahawk cruise missile and a radar altimeter from the F-35, an Ames whistleblower tells Aviation Week, requesting anonymity on advice of counsel”

    • kcowing says:
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      WHy is it that the people whose responsibility it would be to prosecute say that there is nothing to prosecute over? Wolf and Smith simply doubt what everyone says.

      • DocM says:
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        And those people (Justice Dept, IG etc.) are part of the same administratoon who runs NASA. Speaking from experience in govt; this can cause a blinders effect – which is why agencies, administrations etc. probably shouldn’t investigate themselves, which is why we have Congressional oversight and the ability to appoint outside investigators.

        When it comes to ITAR etc. we have to be even more careful as the techs involved can be passed on by the Chinese to very nasty people as a way around embargoes. They haven’t been shy about doing it before. Do we really want Iran etc. to get what could be turned into high-performance solid stages? An accurate terminal guidance system??

        In terms of the “leakers”, it doesn’t need to be malicious. Sometimes academic collegiality causes people to let their guard down. Sometimes they’re naive. Sometimes they just do something dumb.

        .

        • dogstar29 says:
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          If actual classified documents were released let us see the evidence; no such evidence was presented, only allegations by Wolf that the IG and Justice Dept had concluded there was nothing improper and that therefore both organizations must be lying.

          The technologies you mention (the Tomahawk TFR, a radar altimeter, fuel and oxidizer tanks) are decades old and of little importance compared, for example, to the iphone and other state-of-the-art technology that American companies intentionally send to China to cut manufacturing costs and boost profits.

          • DocM says:
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            If the terrain mapping etc. is better than Iran etc. have now it’s still a net loser.

            Look -I hope there really is not much to this, but just shrugging it away doesn’t work. Neither does the blind belief that nothing can go wrong, wrong, wrong, especially when a branch of govt. is essentially investigating itself. I thought we learned, re-earned, and re-re-learned that lesson going all the way back to 1972.

          • dogstar29 says:
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            The real threat to the US is that we are becoming uncompetitive.  The worst thing NASA can do is continue the current paranoid ITAR policy which has strangled the US commercial space industry. Thales advertises its spacecraft in headlines as being “ITAR-free”.

            Wolf thinks that America should build a wall around itself. He has made statements about the Chinese people that make it clear he is indeed on an irrational “witch hunt”.

            Pete Worden understands that America can only survive by being part of the world. Trade is a two way street. Without the ability to do business with and market to the world we will not have the jobs or tax dollars to pay for the luxury of human spaceflight.

  2. muomega0 says:
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    While ITAR is the issue now, would it be possible that outlining a process of government budget planning is also a reason for this hunt?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wik

    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/f

  3. Gonzo_Skeptic says:
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     The Congressmen showed tremendous restraint and self-control by not reverting back to the old playbook favorite and calling Worden a “Commie”.

  4. rockofritters says:
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    NASA Ames suffers from bay area derangement syndrome. in the decade i worked there I met only a small number of folks who still remembered what security meant during the cold ward. none of whom were research scientists with phds. all of those folks believed in the notion that the world is a new and open place thanks to the end of the oppression from the troglodytes who ran that whole cold war thing. this new world is one in which they could share everything they did with their “peers” in hopes of getting kudos from said “peer” community. the reason it’s bay area derangement is because it happened across the bay area in the 90’s with the exception of Lockheed. the entire culture of the area decided China was a new and exciting market. if you were to open  your mouth and mention that China is a threat in santa clara county you’d be immediately labeled a bigoted hater who should leave the state by every person in earshot. that’s the problem with Ames. and JPL is only marginally better…..