Ex-Clinton staffer loses Top Secret clearance

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, October 1, 2003 | By Paul Sperry

[JohnHuang2]

WASHINGTON – Though the Homeland Security Department has not terminated a high-ranking department official accused of resume fraud, sources say she's been denied the security clearance she needs to perform her job.

Laura Callahan, the department's deputy chief information officer, was placed on paid leave in June while officials investigate her academic credentials. The advanced degrees she lists on her resume are from a diploma mill.

Callahan's assistant, Jim Shepard, says she is still out on leave and has not been fired.

However, sources say she was denied Top Secret clearance and is appealing the decision. Callahan's lawyer did not return phone calls.

Sources familiar with the case say investigators are also trying to determine when Callahan, a former Clinton official, paid for the phony degrees to see if she back-dated information on her resume and application. She says she got bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees from Hamilton University – a converted motel with three employees in Evanston, Wyo. – in 1993, 1995 and 2000, respectively.

But she didn't mention the Hamilton degrees in March 2000, when she testified in the probe of the Project X e-mail scandal as a White House official. Under oath, she said only that she was "a graduate of Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J.," a junior college.

Her 1992 associates degree is not listed on her official bio, which cites her Ph.D. nine times.

DHS hired Callahan in March from the Labor Department where she held a similar job. She was issued a secret clearance pending a more thorough background investigation.

"That is where the info about the degrees came to light," said one source.

Office of Personnel Management rules list termination of employment among penalties for falsifying academic credentials.

DHS officials did not return phone calls.

[Miss Marple]

The problem with this is that they aren't appointees any more. Clinton began moving loyalists into Civil Service positions in early 2000. Once hired as Civil Service employees, they cannot be fired simply because they are Clinton loyalists.

You have to root them out and catch them in something like this, one person at a time.

This is a real problem in ALL the departments. It is the source of the leaks and rumors at the Pentagon and at State. Ashcroft did some fancy re-assigning in 2002 and has these folks fairly isolated. However, CIA obviously still has Clinton people there (like the odious Valeria Plame) and I am sure there are many more.

I am also sure they are being investigated quietly and watched so that anything at all untoward will give an excuse to get rid of them, like this person.

[mountaineer]

I am also sure they are being investigated quietly and watched so that anything at all untoward will give an excuse to get rid of them, like this person.

I certainly hope so!

[petitfour]

Why do you say this:However, CIA obviously still has Clinton people there (like the odious Valeria Plame) ???? I haven't heard a word from her, and I am reluctant to call her a Clinton person. When did she join the CIA? If she trained with Larry Johnson (if he is telling the truth), then she joined up in the mid 1980s. I would call her a Reagan person based on that alone. So she married a guy who runs his mouth too much and leans left. So did Mary Matalin. As for this ex-Clinton staffer and her HUGE whoppers on her resume, this should be really big news. Clinton's webmaster was compromised from the get-go. I think she was put into her position on purpose. She was blackmailable. She was controllable. And she was a great possible fall girl if needed. This is quite scandalous!