FederalDaily - October 27, 2006
Police Arrest Drug Suspects, Find Nuclear Secrets
Los Alamos National Laboratory officials confirm that the documents confiscated during a drug raid
at a home are classified data apparently taken from Los Alamos—one of the nation’s top
nuclear research laboratories. Los Alamos director Michael Anastasio said Oct. 25 the facility had
an “ongoing investigation” into a potential breach of security involving a former subcontractor. “This
is a serious matter, and we are taking immediate steps to address it,” Anastasio said in a statement.
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a Washington-based watchdog group which monitors the lab
and other government agencies, said the apparently classified documents were found on a computer flash
drive in the raid. “This appears to be a new low: even drug dealers can get classified information
out of Los Alamos,” said Danielle Brian, POGO executive director. POGO said it appeared the information
was classified as Secret Restricted Data which means it would involve nuclear weapons data and may
have concerned detection of underground nuclear weapons testing. To see more, go to:
www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-061003-lanl.html,
or to see the Anastasio statement, go to: www.lanl.gov/news/index.php?fuseaction=home.story
&story_id=9261
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Group Questions Social Work Evaluations
A nonprofit foundation urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to sever ties with
a social work education group which the foundation says evaluates students on the basis of their beliefs.
HHS requires its social workers to have degrees from programs accredited by the Council on Social Work
Education (CSWE), the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) said on Oct. 25. But CSWE
standards include the assessment of students on the basis of their beliefs, FIRE said, and urged HHS
to end its relationship with CSWE unless the council drops the standards—which could be used
as a political litmus test. CSWE maintains a set of official standards on the basis of which it decides
whether or not to accredit a social work program, and those standards require CSWE-accredited programs
to integrate social and economic justice, FIRE said. “By requiring that its social workers come
from CSWE-accredited schools, HHS is tacitly approving viewpoint discrimination,” FIRE President
Greg Lukianoff said. “HHS should take steps to ensure that CSWE eliminates the ideological requirements
it currently places on universities and students.” To see more, go to:
www.thefire.org/index.php/article/7429.html?PHPSESSID=
3ad4ff4dfd1e4ced70369e87f0ed6a83
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Officer Pleads Guilty to Sexual Misconduct
A former federal prison guard pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct charges that occurred while he was
supposed to be watching over prisoners at a federal camp for female inmates in Bryan, Texas. Ricky
Bernard pleaded guilty Oct. 20 to a five-count federal information charging him with sexual abuse and
abusive sexual contact stemming from sexual misconduct with three inmates at Camp Bryan. Bernard also
pleaded guilty to making a false statement to a federal agency about the details of the sexual misconduct.
Bernard admitted that on numerous occasions he had sexual contact with inmates under his supervision
in 2003 and 2004. Bernard also admitted that he subsequently lied about the sexual misconduct with
inmates to federal investigators. Bernard faces up to eight years in prison and a fine of $460,000.
To see more, go to: www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/October/06_crt_721.html
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