NP - Pentagon Intimidation

[David Morris]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/27/politics/27MISS.html

M.I.T. Physicist Says Pentagon Is Trying to Silence Him
By JAMES DAO

ASHINGTON, July 26 - A leading critic of the military's missile defense 
testing program has accused the Pentagon of trying to silence him and 
intimidate his employer, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by 
investigating him for disseminating classified documents.

The case has raised questions about whether a document can be considered 
secret if it is widely available to the public. And it has touched off a 
dispute between the critic, Theodore A. Postol, and M.I.T. over how to 
balance academic freedom with the university's obligations to cooperate with 
Pentagon investigators.

At issue is correspondence between Dr. Postol, a physicist, and the General 
Accounting Office, an investigative branch of Congress, in which he accused 
the Pentagon of using doctored data to defend missile defense technology.

Dr. Postol said his conclusions had been based on an unclassified report, 
which he disseminated over the Internet and can now be downloaded from Web 
sites around the world, including one in Russia.

But after Dr. Postol began distributing the report last year, the Pentagon 
determined that it contained secret information. This month, Defense 
Department investigators asked M.I.T. officials to stop Dr. Postol from 
disseminating that information and to confiscate the document from him.

The university has not done so. But in an e-mail message to Dr. Postol on 
Monday, Charles M. Vest, the university president, said M.I.T. might be 
required to ``move forward with at least the initial steps'' ordered by 
Defense Security Service, a Pentagon agency. Dr. Postol provided a copy of 
that message to The New York Times.

``They are basically threatening M.I.T. that it will lose its contract to 
run this big laboratory if they don't abide by these demands,'' Dr. Postol 
said in an interview.

``While M.I.T. certainly abides by the laws that protect national security, 
we also believe that the legitimate tools of classification of secrets 
should not be misused to limit responsible debate,'' the statement said. 
``Trying to treat widely available public information as `secret' is a 
particular concern.''

Pentagon officials declined to discuss details of their investigation. But 
Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Ballistic Missile Defense 
Organization, argued that the department was obligated to stop Dr. Postol 
from disseminating potentially damaging information, even if it was readily 
available.

``Just because it is made public doesn't mean it's declassified,'' Colonel 
Lehner said.



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