Posted on 06/06/2003 12:36:59 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
Why Hasn't This Received More Attention?
A top official at the Department of Homeland Security is investigated and now placed on leave after questions arise regarding her PhD, which appears to have come from a "diploma mill" rather than a legitimate university. Yet, outside of a few niche publications, Washington Technology, Government Computer News, and Federal Computer Week, that cover the business of selling technology products and services to the government, the story has received scant attention.
UPDATE: The Washington Post's Al Kamen did cover the story on June 4, with an item in a round-up of news. Interesting tidbits: Laura L. Callahan, deputy chief information officer at Homeland Securrity, (who previously held a similar post at the Labor Department) lists a doctorate in "computer information systems from Hamilton University" on her resume. The trade magazine Government Computer News says Hamiliton, in Evanston, Wyo., is unaccredited and affiliated with and supported by Faith in the Order of Nature Fellowship Church in the same city, and housed in a former motel. Hamilton, says the WaPo, "charges $3,600 for folks in need of a Ph.D."
Callahan got her Hamilton PhD in 2000. Requirements include completing one home-study course, an open-book exam - aboug 5 to 8 hours of work - and completion of a 2,000-word paper that Hamilton course materials say will "be referred to as a dissertation,." And then you get "an official diploma in leather-bound holder . . . of the highest possible quality and carry[ing] the official raised seal of the university."
Kamen reports some interesting info about Callahan: She was "a Clinton White House aide who allegedly threatened four computer specialists with jail if they talked about a glitch that kept thousands of emails covered by subpoenas from being turned over to investigators." Callahan denied threatening the employees but admitted to the House Government Reform Committee she did seek to keep the problem private. A lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch against Callahan is still pending.
Why hasn't the Dubya group gotten rid of the i42 bad apples?
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