Homeland Security honcho
comes under ethical cloud
Former Clinton loyalist accused of faking credentials, threatening employees with jail
Posted: August 7, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Paul Sperry
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON -- "Please be advised I will not tolerate any further derogatory comments from you about my knowledge, qualifications and/or professional competence."
That was former White House computer manager Laura Crabtree Callahan blasting a colleague in an e-mail for questioning her qualifications in 1997.
In hindsight, the computer-networking specialist criticizing Callahan might not have been out of line.
Callahan, now a high-ranking Homeland Security Department official, has been put on leave for misrepresenting her academic qualifications. Turns out the advanced computer degrees she listed on her resume to land the No. 2 information-technology position in the mammoth new department are from a diploma mill.
Her name may sound familiar, particularly to WorldNetDaily readers. Callahan is the same Clinton White House official who worked on a 1996 e-mail server conversion project that resulted in a mysterious server "glitch" that kept more than a million e-mails covered by subpoena from being turned over to investigators in the Lewinsky, Travelgate, Filegate and Chinagate cases.
 Laura Crabtree Callahan testifying before the House Government Reform Committee in the Project X White House e-mail scandal investigation. |
The Clinton loyalist allegedly threatened White House computer contractors with jail if they talked about the lost e-mail fiasco, which was known inside the White House as "Project X."
Several former co-workers questioned not only Callahan's technical qualifications, but also her managerial skills.
"Laura was such a difficult person to deal with that no one would deal with her," said former White House computer manager Kathleen Gallant.
Many, including Gallant, say Callahan was not trustworthy.
Sheryl Hall, another former White House computer manager, called her an "obsequious liar" who bypassed the normal chain of command for career workers and sidled up to political appointees to do their bidding.
A former Labor Department contractor who worked for her says she was a "back-stabber," who made life so "miserable" for User Technology Associates contractors working under her that they routinely left the job.
They say she often made threats against workers, and that the jail threat over "Project X" was not the first.
In 1997, she had security escort a McLean, Va.-based PRC contractor with whom she was at odds off White House grounds after accusing him of sexually harassing her. Gallant says White House Security Chief Chuck Easley found "no proof" of any harassment by the contract programmer.
 Laura Crabtree Callahan |
"Laura was just a reign of terror," said Howard "Chip" Sparks, the White House computer operator who questioned her technical competence.
During her tenure in the Clinton administration, Callahan got a bachelor's degree in computer science (1993), a master's in computer science (1995) and a Ph.D in computer information systems (2000) from a Wyoming diploma mill run out of a former motel. She lists the degrees from non-accredited Hamilton University on her resume.
According to a computer trade journal, the doctorate diploma costs $3,600 and requires completing one course at home. The course, which takes under eight hours to complete, consists of a work book and an open-book exam. The "dissertation" is a 2,000-word paper.
Callahan, who is commonly referred to by the title of "Dr.," was placed on leave in June while officials investigate her academic credentials.
Callahan's office voice mail is still receiving messages. A DHS co-worker says she is still out on leave and has not been terminated.
Her attorney, Ralph L. Lotkin, did not return phone calls.
If allowed to stay, Callahan will be senior director of the office that will oversee disaster management projects, such as Project SafeCom, a communications network linking first responders. She'll be one of the highest-paid officials in the department.
It's not immediately clear who hired her, but she answers to DHS Chief Information Officer Steve Cooper, who is spearheading an ambitious project to integrate and secure the computer systems of all the agencies moved into DHS last year.
The communications system will connect three major operations within the new department: border and transportation security, emergency preparedness and response, and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear counter-measures. Callahan is said to be involved in merging the networks, data centers and telecommunications. She's also involved in electronic-records management, as she was in the White House.
Callahan had a secret clearance when she went to work at DHS.
Either the FBI missed the bogus diplomas in scrubbing Callahan's background for her secret clearance, or it was caught but overlooked by political appointees who hired her, say congressional investigators who alerted the administration to Callahan's sketchy background.
At the same time, however, Callahan has received several awards, including the Federal 100 award in both 2002 and 2003.
And just before her resume flap broke, she was named president of the Association for Federal Information Resources Management, a joint industry-government organization. She's since stepped down.
In addition, she serves as co-chairwoman of the CIO Council's Workforce and Human Capital for Information Technology Committee.
Several Northrop Grumman contractors working on the White House computer system testified in early 2000 that Callahan threatened to jail them if they talked about the "Project X" e-mail scandal even to their spouses. One technician, Robert Haas, said she warned him "there will be a jail cell with your name on it."
Even as the contractors testified in detail how she threatened them, Callahan denied under oath making any such threats. She suggested they "might have an overactive imagination."
The contractors say she not only lied, but put on a demure act during the hearings.
"She's an obsequious liar," said Hall, explaining that Callahan protected White House political appointees caught up in the Clinton scandals.
"She never talks like a chipmunk," Hall said about her Capitol Hill appearance. "Hollering and yelling was her normal mode and here she comes across as Snow White who wouldn't intimidate anyone. That was not Laura Crabtree."
Former White House computer contractor Betty Lambuth agrees.
"She was not Miss Snow White," Lambuth said. "She can really tear into you. We called her the Ice Queen."
Added Gallant: "I didn't trust her."
Sparks recounted a run-in he had with her in 1997. He says he questioned a technical decision she made, and practically pulled back a bloody stump.
"Please be advised I will not tolerate any further derogatory comments from you about my knowledge, qualifications and/or professional competence," Callahan blasted Sparks in a March 3, 1997, e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by WorldNetDaily.
Callahan had to do some quick backpedaling after her House testimony. The day after, she sent an affidavit to the House Government Reform Committee, stating: "I wish to clarify that I did discuss e-mail issues with the Department of Justice attorneys in connection with currently pending civil litigation," referring to a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch Inc. She had denied such contacts at the hearing.
Callahan left the White House under an ethical cloud, only to land a top position elsewhere in the Clinton administration. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman made her deputy chief information officer at her agency, and director of its information technology center.
While there, she oversaw the development of the Privacy Assessment Model, which agencies will use to better protect sensitive personal data managed by the government.
"It's hard for me, having worked with this individual, to believe that she was able to come in there, do what she did, leave the things in the condition that she left them in and then fly right into an SES (senior executive service) position at the Labor Department," Sparks said.
"I mean, there's political favors there," he added. "It's writ large."
House Government Reform Committee investigators say Labor knew Callahan got her degree from a diploma mill, yet still employed her. They found that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management tipped Labor off to her questionable credentials. The panel has asked DHS Inspector General Kent Ervin to investigate.
"We have requested the Homeland Security IG to look at why flags that had been raised about her educational qualifications in her personnel file at the Labor Department were not taken further," said House Government Reform Committee spokesman Dave Marin.
He told WorldNetDaily that the government certainly cannot risk hiring someone with "fraudulent credentials" to head a senior position in an area as "sensitive as homeland security" communications.
Phone calls to Labor were not returned.
But a former Labor contractor said turnover in Callahan's department was high during her management tour there.
"She made things quite miserable over there," said the computer contractor with Arlington, Va.-based User Technology Associates. "People were bailing out. They didn't want to work for her anymore, because she's such a back-stabber."
