Scientists sue NASA, Caltech over deep new background checks

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and engineers sued NASA and the California Institute of Technology on Thursday, challenging extensive new background checks that the space exploration center and other federal agencies began requiring in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by 28 plaintiffs. Many have worked on such projects as the Mars rovers, the Galileo probe to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn, but none are involved in classified work, according to the suit. It seeks class-action status to represent similar JPL employees.

... A 2004 Homeland Security presidential directive mandated new security badges for millions of federal workers and contractors. In order to receive new "smart" badges for access to buildings and computers, they must fill out a form online about employment history, past residences and any illegal drug use. The requirements apply to everyone from janitors to visiting professors.

... NASA calls on employees to permit investigators to delve into medical, financial and past employment records, and to question friends and acquaintances about everything from their finances to sex lives, according to the suit. The requirements apply to everyone from janitors to visiting professors.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/30/america/NA-GEN-US-NASA-Background-Checks.php

[JDPriestly]

1. There goes the creativity of NASA and Cal Tech's JTPL

What world class scientist is going to want the government peering into his personal life like this? Not many, I'll bet. The investigation sounds like something that George W. Bush could not pass.

[electron_blue]

2. oh for crap's sake.

I vaguely remember hearing about this a few years ago but forgot totally about it. I hope the plaintiffs win.

[aquart]

3. Gosh, an invitation to future blackmail.

[soothsayer]

4. works for Skull and Bones...!

[LibDemAlways]

5. The degree to which people's privacy is routinely

invaded these days is truly disturbing. I have a family member who sells ATM machines to casinos. Her bosses have mandated that she be subjected to a yearly, invasive security screening. She has to fill out a multi-page questionnaire and open her financial records. Last year they questioned several individual purchases of costume jewelry she made.

With regard to NASA and JPL, who the hell cares who the janitor sleeps with or what his medical issues are. I'm glad the employees are fighting back.

We're living in the age of Big Brother, and he's probably watching you, and more than likely for absolutely no good reason.

[tom_paine]

9. Yes, during the Middle Phase of Transition from Free Nation to BushPutinist

suddenly the consequences of past inaction begin to be felty by the Imperial Subjects of Amerika, who had thought they/we were free but now, and still only relatively small amounts, are just beginning to feel what the iron fist of BushPutinism has wrought.

Trickle Down only works for Immorality (witness all the Loyal Bushie deviant sex scandals involving kids, police stings, etc.) and for Tyranny.

And NOW, and ONLY now, do we just begin to taste the bitter brew that BushPutinism has in store for us.

VIPR Teams and Behavior Detection Officers and Halliburton Homeland Security Camps, oh my!

Remember, this thing is only 40% finished, and my greatest fear is that even a 2008 Democratic Presidential Victory, if they refuse to DeBushify and to eradicate the neo-totalitarian infrastructure created by signing statements and Imperial Orders, then it will be but a brief pause until the next Royal or Loyal Bushie sits upon the throne and finishes the job.

Now we reap the rewards that our apathy and gullibility as a people have foisted on us. This is not a good time to be a Commoner in Amerika.

[Peace Patriot]

12. Great post, Tom_Paine! Very scary stuff. I tend to think the remedy is...

DEMOCRACY, since they hate it so much. Get rid of the "trade secret," proprietary voting machines, and let the people decide!!!!

It's working in South America. Could work here, too.

In Venezuela, for instance, they use electronic voting, but it is an open source code system--anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated--and they handcount FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of the votes as a check on machine fraud. Thus, Venezuela is able to elect a real representative of the people who attends to their interests, and a similar national legislature, while here we get El Stupido for president, and a so-called 'Democratic' Congress that not only ESCALATE the heinous, unjust war in Iraq, they gift Bush and Cheney with MORE spying powers. Our vote counting system--which got fast-tracked into place under the radar of the American people, with the full complicity of the Democratic Party leadership--now features "trade secret," proprietary programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually NO audit/recount controls. Seems like a no-brain to me WHY they would put such an egregiously non-transparent, undemocratic, unamerican, STALINIST vote counting system in place. Also, it seems very clear to me that the political establishment is AFRAID OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Also, I have been tracking this business of what the American people think and who they are--as opposed to this delusionary country that the war profiteering corporate news monopolies create, and that Bushites play to--and I am convinced that the fascists' ONLY propaganda victory has been to make the great, peace-minded, justice-minded, progressive American majority FEEL LIKE a minority. They have been able to make us feel demoralized and disempowered, but they have not been able to change our core beliefs as a people.

Therefore, democracy is the answer. And we must have, as our priority no. 1, restoring our right to vote, in order to implement democratic change, reform and renewal. I think we still have a window of opportunity to do so, at the state/local level, before the fascist boot gets all laced up. The election reform movement is right on the verge of snowballing at the state/local level--especially with the events in California recently. That's where our future is being decided--not in Congress (where virtually no member can prove that he/she was really elected), but down at your local registrar's office, and in state elections offices, where ordinary people and many new election integrity groups are increasingly challenging vote counting that no one can see and that almost no one understands (high tech, "trade secret" gobble-de-gook).

Personally, it is my conviction that the fascist coup we are suffering occurred in Oct. 2002 (same month as the Iraq War Resolution), with the passage of the so-called "Help America Vote Act" ($3.9 billion to fast-track these election theft machines all over the country in time for the 2004 election).

[aggiesal]

13. "... El Stupido for president ..." LOL n/t

[kurth]

6. No loyalty oath?

[Canuckistanian]

7. I'm applying to a high-tech space company

And although I already have a Level II security clearance (NATO Secret), they're asking me for my technical school diploma (now 15 years old) AND my High School Diploma (now 20 years old), in addition to 3 references.

I've never seen that level of security clearance before.

[entanglement]

8. "Many of the plaintiffs elected to work only on non-classified work expressly so their research

can be subject to peer review, (and) they can collaborate with the best scientists worldwide and publish their results". So we're talking about highly intrusive background checks for people doing non-classified work - many of whom have been employed for decades with JPL without ever being told their job would involve such a check.

[conspirator]

10. I think this is normal due to the coming space race for moon and mars resources

They don't want anyone selling secrets to the russians or chinese

[KansDem]

11. Until Bush goes after the *real* terrorists on 9/11, the Saudis,...

...all this "security since 9/11" is just a load of rubbish.