New security threat - scientific researchers

By Libby

We all know by now that the Bush administration has been waging an undeclared war on climatology along with all other realms of scientific knowledge but declaring oceanography students to be threats to national security seems a little over the top, even for them.

A German graduate student in oceanography at M.I.T. applied to the Transportation Security Administration for a new ID card allowing him to work around ships and docks. What the student, Wilken-Jon von Appen, received in return was a letter that not only turned him down but added an ominous warning from John M. Busch, a security administration official: “I have determined that you pose a security threat.”

Similar letters have gone to 5,000 applicants across the country who have at least initially been turned down for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, an ID card meant to guard against acts of terrorism, agency officials said Monday.

There's no indication that the letters detail the grounds on which the decision was based other than their status as foreign nationals, even if they hail from US friendly countries. Last I heard Germany and England were still listed as allies but I'd guess the real threat is that their work is likely to prove detrimental to the economic security of US corporations that profit from ecological disruption.

That's our DHS. Keeping us safe from grad students. Meanwhile, despite a flurry of U.S. government initiatives since 9/11 that create the illusion of port security, the vast majority of cargo containers still enter uninspected based mainly on unverified assurances of compliance and air cargo inspections remain negligible.

Comments

[frank]

Did they catch Osama yet?

[Libby Spencer]

Good question Frank.