FED WORKER KEPT JOB AFTER THREAT TO SELL NUKES TO PLO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302030001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 10, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT i
Declassified n Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302030001-6
NEW YORK POST
ARTICLE APPEARED -- 10 April 1987
ON PAGE A .
FED WORKER KEPT
JOB AFTER THREAT TO
SELL NUKES TO PLO
By RACHEL FLICK
WASHINGTON ? A Dept of Energy
technician who threatened to sell nu-
clear materials to the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization was allowed to keep
his sensitive job for five years after his
plot was uncovered, the General Ac-
counting Office revealed yesterday.
The technician ? whose identity is
protected by the Privacy Act ? first
came to the agency's attention in 1982
but a bureaucrat lost his file and for-
got about the allegations.
The technician therefore kept his job
and his access to nuclear materials
and documents until he was arrested
in 1985 on charges of carrying a weap-
on.
The technician ? who also has been
accused of rape, robbery, arson, and -
drug dealing ? has now lost his clear-
ance to handle sensitive material but
still works for the Energy Dept.
The Energy Dept. makes nuclear
weapons for defense programs.
The technician was cited as an exam-
ple in a GAO report about security
procedures at the Energy Dept., which
was prepared at the request of Rep.
Mike Synar (D-Okla.).
Synar called the report "scary" and
said it is "axnazing" that "a major espio-
nage case, a major security breach, has
not already happened
at the Dept of Energy.
We're talking about
the very heart of our
national security."
The report said
numerous Energy Dept.
employes are known to
have drug habits ?
which enemy agents
could use to blackmail
them
The security lapse at
the Energy Dept. was
revealed in the same
month in which it was
learned that laxity at
the State Dept. has
hopelessly compro-
mised security at the
U.S. Embassy in Mos-
cow.
Energy Dept.
spokesmen say the
FBI determined in
1981 that the threat to
sell to the PLO was
"part of a scam to
make money" and
that no nuclear ma-
terials were ever
transferred or meant
to be transferred.
"He was one of the
players in a scam. He
did not intend to sell
uranium to the PLO,"
the spokesman said.
The spokesman said
the FBI referred the
charges to the U.& at-
torney, who checked
them out and declined
to prosecute in 1982.
However, an aide to
Syztar said the FBI
also referred the mat-
ter to the Energy
Dept., which lost the
information.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302030001-6