Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) has introduced legislation to compensate Richard Barlow, the intelligence official fired for telling the truth about Pakistan's nuclear activities.
The press release reads in part,
"Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) introduced legislation today
to compensate Richard Barlow, a former high-level CIA and Office of the
Secretary of Defense (OSD) counter-proliferation intelligence officer.
In the late 1980’s Barlow was essentially forced out of his job after
informing his superiors that Congress was being lied to about
Pakistan's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Within days after
expressing his concerns inside OSD, Mr. Barlow was issued a notice of
termination and his security clearances suspended based on allegations
that he “intended” to blow the whistle to Congress. Despite the fact
that Barlow was cleared of any wrongdoing after several investigations,
he remains unable to collect a government pension. Rep. Maloney's
private relief bill for Barlow (H.R. 6232) would provide him with
financial compensation for the some of the losses he has incurred.
The backstory is atrocious:
"While Barlow was working as an intelligence officer during the late
1980s, the U.S. government was poised to sell new F-16 fighter planes
to Pakistan following the conclusion of the first Afghan war. Barlow
wrote an intelligence assessment for then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney
that showed Pakistan's ability and intent to use F-16s to deliver
nuclear bombs, and concluded that the F-16 sale would violate existing
law prohibiting the sale of military equipment to any country that
possessed nuclear weapons or violated our nuclear export laws. His
assessment was rewritten without his knowledge so that it endorsed the
sale of the F-16s. Barlow learned that OSD officials had lied to
Congress in a hearing about the sale and that others had misled
Congress regarding Pakistan’s nuclear activities. When he raised
objections and submitted corrected truthful testimony inside the
Executive Branch, Barlow was issued a notice of termination, stripped
of his high-level security clearance, and subjected to an intense and
invasive nine month-long retaliatory security investigation into nearly
every aspect of his life. All the allegations were found to have been
fabricated by his superiors, yet they refused to place him back in his
job, or any similar job in OSD. Barlow resigned under duress in 1992."
btw, as is typical in these cases one notes that several past/recent administrations are involved, or to put it better either perpetrated the initial wrong or did not engage in righting it. 'Bush versus Clinton' is a shibboleth. Realistic political analysis, and realistic intelligence work, has to recognize the continuities linking the past three (or more) administrations.
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Kudos to Congresswoman Maloney, supporting Richard Barlow
by
margieburns
on Fri 13 Jun 2008 07:12 AM EDT | Permanent Link
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