Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Religious Discrimination Charged In Pentagon's Investigation of Spy Claims

Today's New York Sun reports on the case of Army tank engineer David Tenenbaum who says that religious discrimination was part of the reason he was targeted in an investigation that initially alleged that he was a spy for Israel. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Tenenbaum because the government did not have sufficient evidence to back up its charges. The Pentagon's Inspector General investigated the case and concluded that "Mr. Tenenbaum experienced religious discrimination when his Judaism was weighed as a significant factor in the decision to submit him for an increase in his security clearance." However the IG's report has not been published and the Pentagon general counsel's office has begun its own investigation that the IG says is designed to undercut the findings of employment discrimination in the IG's report. The Project on Government Oversight has more on the case.