Posted on 06/07/2005 1:41:31 AM PDT by joinedafterattack
Steve Doran helped unearth the case then got fired because, he says, management wanted a cover-up, not the truth.
(CBS) It was the most sensational of all the suspect purchases made with government credit cards. A custom black Mustang, charged by Los Alamos National Laboratory employee Lillian Anaya. After a year-long investigation, the New Mexico lab exonerated her, and even claims she's the victim.
But a CBS News investigation casts serious doubt on that story.
FBI documents show Anaya "denied any knowledge or involvement" with the car and said she "never heard of" the car company. When the FBI showed her records of calls and faxes between her office and the Mustang dealer, Anaya "could not offer any explanation reasonable or not."
So, as CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, one was concocted for her by the University of California, which gets taxpayer money from the Energy Department to run the lab.
In a memo, a university attorney poses "a reasonable hypothesis ..." that Anaya was trying to buy lab equipment called "transducers," but dialed a wrong number and "did not realize she was actually speaking to ... the ... Mustang company," which then tricked her into ordering a car.
Upon hearing the explanation, former lab investigator Steve Doran says, "I literally started laughing. There's absolutely no way that their explanation holds water."
Steve Doran helped unearth the case then got fired because, he says, management wanted a cover-up, not the truth.
But no one was more surprised by the "wrong number" defense than the man who sold Anaya the Mustang.
"I talked to her probably on about five to seven occasions," says Tom Thompson, owner of AMP Performance.
He says Anaya knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn't transducers.
"She wanted a late model Mustang black convertible, with like black leather interior," he says. "She wanted it loaded up with all the options and then she wanted to make it go fast."
CBS News has learned lab auditors flagged thousands more suspect purchases Anaya made as "attractive for personal use" or "unallowed."
Yet the lab declared her innocent and warmly welcomed her "back to the Los Alamos team."
Lab officials hoped closing the case would "restore the public's confidence" in the university's management of the lab. To some, it's done just the opposite. Congress now wants the Energy Department to explain why it swallowed the wrong number explanation, and take a new look at the case.
My boss just got one last friday....the dealer told him it was the last one. He'd described the fact that the 4 headlights was pretty much the only way to tell the 300HP version short of the engine running.
Yeah - only the GT has four headlights. That, too, is a throwback to the sixties.
Only white, heterosexual, conservative males are ever guilty of these things in the UC system.
My Boss got the yellow one (fits his pissy attitude) and is taking it down to the body shop soon for the stripe modification and such. It's nice. He keeps driving it to work and this is hail season in the panhandle so I think hes due a dimple discovery. We had hail so deep last week the DOT had to break out the snow plows. Ever see Hail Fog ? That caused a bunch of accidents by itself. BAd weather season for any nice ride. I keep the FJ80 locked in the garage and the 88 Yot 4x4 aka Titlus Golf ball gets the day to day to work duty.
The batmobile is for sunday use, only.
Especially frequent when I order transducers.
Somebody needs a good whuppin' here.>>>>>At last, someone who knows how to spell! "Whooping" is either a cough or a crane, a beating is a "whuppin'".
Dont fergit whoopin' 'n' hollerin'...
Yeah really.
//guy got a call to meet someone at a bar. He went there and the guy did not show. As he was leaving a bunch of guys pulled him from his car and stopped the shiite out of him.
Alot more complicated than that:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/6/9/115636.shtml
Thanks for the ping!
This story is beginning to get ripe!
Wonder what the CIA is going to 'leak' concerning the FBI.
Although the Lab claims Anaya "dialed a wrong number" and was tricked into ordering a Mustang, FBI phone records obtained by CBS News show a pattern of calls that call into question the "dialed a wrong number" explanation. Calls between Anaya's extension and AllMustang:
May 1, 2002
9:58am - call to AllMustang for 2:04
10:04am - fax to AllMustang
10:40am - AllMustang faxes Anaya
10:40am - AllMustang calls Anaya for 1:00
10:55am - AllMustang calls Anaya for 1:00
12:02pm - AllMustang calls Anaya for 2:00
June 4
3:07pm - call to AllMustang for 5:19
June 10
9:13am - call to AllMustang for 1:14
June 12
10:00am - call to AllMustang for 2:11
After all of these telephone contacts, Anaya claimed she "never heard of" the car company when the FBI interviewed her in August, and she "could not offer any explanation, reasonable or not" for any of it.
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