Free Republic

Dr. Phony Ph.D. Special ed director had fake degrees Sunday, April 16, 2006 By Kati Phillips Staff writerThe director of one of the state's worst elementary school special education programs purchased her Ph.D. for about $250 from an Internet diploma mill specializing in metaphysical theology. This is one of three apparently fake credentials on Judith Blakely's resume, the Daily Southtown has learned. Blakely, who earns $75,000 a year as director of student services at Calumet Park School District 132, claims to be a 2000 graduate of the business ethics doctorate program at the American College of Metaphysical Theology, according to...

Bogus degrees offer way to U.S. -- Diploma mill probe reveals half of online credentials were sold to foreigners Foreign nationals, including potential terrorists, could legally gain entry into the United States with fraudulent degrees purchased from Spokane-based diploma mills, documents made public Monday reveal. Half the "degrees" sold by Saint Regis University and other diploma mills were sold to overseas purchasers, a majority of which were for "students" from Saudi Arabia, the documents say. The documents don't give a specific number of degrees sold overseas, but they disclose the operation based in Spokane and North Idaho has "made millions"...

All week, News4 has shown you online diploma mills hand out degrees for cash, and people all over the country are trying to pass them off as real degrees. Now, News4 has learned several teachers in Washington are among them. Last year, the Olympia-based group Evergreen Freedom Foundation surveyed every school district in the state and found six teachers who were using illegitimate degrees.

TORONTO - An anti-terrorism probe that led to the arrest of 19 Pakistani men, including one who took commercial flight training over a nuclear power plant, highlights security holes that should have been plugged after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Ontario officials said. The Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Unit, a federal national security task force, quietly arrested the group of mostly young men last week. The men appear to have used fraudulent student visas to enter Canada or to maintain their residency here. Federal authorities documented a pattern of suspicious behaviour that shows an interest in Ontario's nuclear generators...

TORONTO - Luther Samuel, the man authorities say sold fraudulent school papers allowing members of a possible al-Qaeda sleeper cell to take root in Canada, long felt a duty to bring career training to the city's black community. When he purchased the Ottawa Business College, a private vocational school, in 1997, he quickly moved it from a downtown Ottawa address to a low-rent stretch of Scarborough to be close to the black and ethnic neighbourhoods he knew, former associates said. Within two years, however, his school had degenerated into a mere diploma mill, selling fraudulent documents and allowing 400 foreign...

<p>Following news reports that a senior official at the Homeland Security Department appears to have obtained her academic degrees from an unaccredited diploma mill, several members of Congress are seeking to learn how background checks and security clearances failed to flag the questionable credentials.</p> <p>Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Democratic Caucus’ Homeland Security task force, sent a letter June 4 to HSD secretary Tom Ridge asking for a full investigation.</p>

HSD official obtained Ph.D. from diploma mill By Patience Wait and Wilson P. Dizard III Post Newsweek Tech Media A high-ranking career official in the Homeland Security Department apparently obtained her doctorate from a Wyoming diploma mill. Laura L. Callahan, now senior director in the office of department CIO Steven Cooper, states on her professional biography that she “holds a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from Hamilton University.” Callahan, who is also president of the Association for Federal IRM and a member of the CIO Council, is commonly called by the title “Dr.” Callahan’s resume says she began her civil...