Posted on 03/22/2002 1:23:34 PM PST by flamefront
For Immediate Release
Mar 21, 2002Contact: Press Office
202-646-5172
FORMER DEFENSE DEPARTMENT ENGINEER ?BLOWS THE WHISTLE? ON SATELLITE & MISSILE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS
Engineer Asked To Sign-off On Improper Transfers Of High Technology While Working at Defense Threat Reduction Agency
United Arab Emirates, Russia, & Others Gained Satellite and Advanced Ballistic Missile Design Information
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it is representing Carlet Auguste, an aerospace engineer and former employee of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (?DTRA?), in his effort to seek redress for retaliatory actions taken against him when he engaged in whistle blowing activity over sensitive national security technology transfers.
Mr. Auguste, who has a BS degree from the School of Engineering of the Ohio State University and a MS degree in Aerospace Engineering from the George Washington University?s School of Engineering and Applied Science, began working for the DTRA in April 2000 as a GS-14. Mr. Auguste was tasked with conducting export control reviews of technical information for satellite projects. Mr. Auguste was alarmed by the quantity and array of testing data on mechanical, electrical and software technology that was being regularly approved for transfer to foreign governments. The data also included detailed drawings of rocket components. It was Mr. Auguste?s opinion that the information transferred could be invaluable to engineers trying to develop ballistic missiles.
Mr. Auguste was told by his superiors that although he was an engineer, he had to put aside his technical concerns, and take ?political and economic? factors into consideration in his evaluations. He was told to consider the economic effects of decisions on the various companies DTRA monitored. When Mr. Auguste balked at approving export licenses for technology that he evaluated as classified ? and the transfer of which would harm national security, he was fired in October 2000.
Judicial Watch represents Mr. Auguste in his ?whistle blower? claims before the Merit Systems Protection Board.
?Carlet Auguste was fired by the Clinton-Gore Administration because he would not approve export licenses for the transfer of sensitive technology to foreign powers. Mr. Auguste should have been hailed as a guardian of our national security, but instead he was removed as an obstacle to the last administration?s subverting of our national defense for campaign contributions,? stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
© Copyright 1997-2002, Judicial Watch, Inc.
Out of the countless other violations of American sovereignty that they perpetrated, I believe this is the "mother" of all Clinton sins, and we will probably never know how deeply it hurt the USA.
May the Clintons rot in h***.
The countires involved might include China but the press release only says "United Arab Emirates, Russia, & Others."
We have a country to save! Come on out, you who can reveal the treacheries. I don't even mind Judicial Watch being involved - though, for once, it surely would be nice for these types of whistle blower cases to go through some other group - just to counter the claims that JW is just a lot of smoke and not much fire.
Clinton sold all our souls for money and power. He's a very sick minded man.
Here's an idea, just an outright ban on exporting first generation, leading edge technology. Wait until it's three generations old before it can be considered for export. There's no reason we need to export top of the line missile technology or fighters or tanks, etc to any other nations, keep that tech inside the US for our national defense. If we always stay ahead of the world, it will greatly reduce the risk of being attacked. It can't eliminate it of course, but seeing as how the US produces the 'best stuff", we would always maintain that crucial technology edge. And there wouldn't be the "need' to always review this or that, as no leading edge would be considered, only the semi-obsolete but still functioning stuff. As in "sure, whoknowswhereistan, buy some phantoms from us, but no getting f-16's or raptors, sorree".
Yes, I know "other countries will just sell the arms", I sez so what, our stuff is still mostly better, and these other countries won't be reverse engineering and using our taxpayer supported R&D money to make weapons with so they can export.
I'll say it again, there's just this lack of common sense patriotism at these high corporate levels-and why should they? They are international corporations mostly, they long ago abandoned being "US" only companies. The impression I get is they could care less about who they sell to. They just see "the war" market internationally. Profits at the expense of national security does not compute.
Another one like that, from a couple of years ago, from
http://thenewamerican.com/tna//1999/01-04-99/insider.htm.
The 20/20 report said at the time this guy was unable to get a job anywhere anywhere close to his line of work. Haven't heard of a followup since and don't know what finally happened to the guy.
THE NEW AMERICAN
January 4, 1999
Table of Contents
Insider Report
Belated Whistleblowing on Clinton’s Chinese Missiles.
ABC TV’s 20/20 broadcast of December 2nd proved that it is possible for network investigative programs to provide some bona fide hard-hitting segments. In a Chris Wallace offering entitled "Lost In Space: Did U.S. Companies Share Technology With China?," the ABC sleuths decided to get serious about one very important aspect of President Clinton’s Chinagate troubles: U.S. missile technology transfers to the Communist dictators in Beijing.
The dramatic centerpiece of the program was Lieutenant Colonel Al Coates, whom Wallace described as "the government’s top cop to protect U.S. secrets during American satellite launches in China." After 29 years in the Air Force, Coates quit to blow the whistle on what he says were ongoing and unchecked releases of sensitive information which have helped the Chinese and compromised American security.
In the past several years, U.S. aerospace companies have increasingly relied on China to launch their commercial satellites. It was Al Coates’ job to monitor these cooperative business arrangements to insure that sensitive information and technology was not leaked to China’s military-industrial complex. He took his job seriously. But his superiors in the Clinton Administration did not. His reports of repeated serious violations of security procedures fell on deaf ears.
"As a routine matter," asked Wallace, "are American companies giving sensitive information to the Chinese?" "I believe they are," said Coates. "They want to get the job done. They don’t consider it helping the Chinese. They consider it getting their payload [into space] and getting their job accomplished." How has this helped Red China? "They have a better capability at striking us," says Coates. "We’re less safe."
How much "less safe" are we? One indication was provided by former Defense Department official Henry Sokolski, who told 20/20, "Our technology has helped the Chinese perfect missiles that are more reliable, more accurate, and more difficult to monitor or track as we try to prevent them from ever penetrating our air space." Sokolski pointed out: "From 1990 to 1996, the Chinese reliability was at 75 percent. That meant one out of four times something exploded or didn’t get on station." But since 1996, he says, the Chinese have had "100 percent reliability, 12 successes, and these successes are successes involving the most sophisticated launchers with the most sophisticated payloads."
What happened in 1996 to spur this dramatic improvement? In February of that year, a Chinese rocket carrying a satellite for Hughes Electronics and Loral Space Technologies exploded after takeoff. A 1997 Defense Department classified report found that scientists from Loral and Hughes had violated security restrictions by giving the Chinese information about what went wrong. As a result, they appear to have solved their most serious launch problems. (See "Treasonous Tradeoff" in our July 6, 1998 issue.) Which means we have helped them immensely in achieving the capability of delivering missiles (with nuclear, biological, or chemical warheads) into our laps.
Commendably, ABC questioned President Clinton’s relationship with Hughes Chairman Michael Armstrong (now CEO at AT&T), a major Clinton donor and champion of the U.S.-China launch partnership. Too bad the network had to wait until the scope of the Clinton impeachment hearings had been limited to the Lewinsky sexcapades to air this important information.
© Copyright 2002 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated
Fair use - for education and discussion purposes only.
I thank Judicial Watch for providing a place for whistleblowers (my personal heros) to achieve redress. God Speed.
Is the Clinton admin crooked ? Duh, of course it is. But this is not the case that will do anything to prove it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.