FBI Investigating Deaths and Disappearances of Staff at Secretive Government Laboratories. Here’s What We Know
By Anna Schecter, Daniel Klaidman, Pat Milton, Callie Teitelbaum
The FBI is leading the effort to look for possible connections into the cases of 10 missing or deceased scientists and staff who worked at sensitive nuclear or space technology laboratories, according to senior law enforcement officials.
In a statement Tuesday, the FBI confirmed it is “spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers.”
But those close to the various investigations into the disparate cases have said they see no links between them.
President Trump mentioned concerns about it last week.
“I just left a meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff,” Mr. Trump told reporters Thursday. “Hopefully, coincidence… but some of them were very important people, and we are going to look at it.”
Social media has recently lit up with theories about the disappearances and deaths, which occurred over three years and involved several researchers and other staff with ties to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Speculation has swirled about whether there’s some kind of plot to harm U.S. nuclear or space programs.
Those involved in the various cases, however, have said that what underlies these deaths and disappearances is not a spy-thriller plot, but something more personal and tragic.
The FBI is leading the effort to look for possible connections into the cases of 10 missing or deceased scientists and staff who worked at sensitive nuclear or space technology laboratories, according to senior law enforcement officials.
In a statement Tuesday, the FBI confirmed it is “spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers.”
But those close to the various investigations into the disparate cases have said they see no links between them.
President Trump mentioned concerns about it last week.
“I just left a meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff,” Mr. Trump told reporters Thursday. “Hopefully, coincidence… but some of them were very important people, and we are going to look at it.”
Social media has recently lit up with theories about the disappearances and deaths, which occurred over three years and involved several researchers and other staff with ties to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Speculation has swirled about whether there’s some kind of plot to harm U.S. nuclear or space programs.
Those involved in the various cases, however, have said that what underlies these deaths and disappearances is not a spy-thriller plot, but something more personal and tragic.
William Neil McCasland, 68, a retired Air Force major general, has been missing since February. He was last seen at his home in the Albuquerque area.
McCasland’s disappearance has sparked significant online speculation about potential connections to classified military programs and UFOs because of his past role as the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He’s one of four current or former employees at sensitive sites who’ve gone missing in New Mexico over roughly the last year.
The FBI’s role has evolved since last week, when a well-placed government source told CBS News on April 16 that the FBI was not investigating the disappearances and deaths as part of a suspicious pattern. Rather, the Department of Energy, which oversees NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, was looking into it.
FBI spokesman Ben Williamson described the issue last week as a “developing situation.”
“The FBI is aware and providing all assistance requested,” he said. “Usually what happens is we are not the lead in cases like this unless local authorities request.”
FBI Director Kash Patel signaled the stepped-up involvement on Sunday, telling Fox News, “The FBI is going to be spearheading the effort, collectively with our partners at the Department of Energy and the Department of War.”
In a statement to CBS News, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said the agency is paying attention to fears the cases may be linked.
“NNSA is aware of reports related to employees of our labs, plants, and sites and is looking into the matter,” a spokesperson for NNSA told CBS News.
Current and former Energy Department officials acknowledged the pattern is “eyebrow raising” and that department staff and its contractors at the National Laboratories do indeed risk becoming the targets of foreign espionage. But one former staffer said they have seen no evidence of any link in these cases.
“People do just die. Strokes, heard disease, suicide, mugging, it happens,” the former DOE official said.
The facilities in question combined employ more than 20,000 people, many of whom work in administrative and support roles and do not have access to secret information.
“If you attach ‘nuclear weapons facility’ and some sketchy sounding job title, it could conceal how mundane someone’s job may be,” the former DOE official said.
File photo shows the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
CBS News interviewed several energy security and law enforcement experts. None saw an obvious link between the cases.
“The deaths and missing persons cases are scattered across several years at different and only loosely affiliated organizations,” said Joseph Rodgers, the deputy director of the Project on Nuclear Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If all of the scientists were working on one project or weapons system, then I’d be more suspicious.”
Scott Roecker, vice president for nuclear materials security at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, who worked on nuclear security issues for the U.S. government for more than 15 years, said the current war in Iran may factor into people’s thinking.
“If you were looking at a foreign adversary, Iran might come to mind because of the Iranian nuclear scientists who have been assassinated,” Roecker said.
“But we’re not like Iran. We have thousands of scientists. We have a robust infrastructure. So there would be nothing strategic Iran could achieve by taking out 10 or 20 of our nuclear scientists, as tragic as the individual deaths might be,” Roecker said.
Of the 10 that have garnered speculation online, one scientist disappeared while hiking in California, five died, and four people ranging from a general to an administrative staffer went missing in New Mexico over the past year. One of the five was an MIT professor killed at his doorstep by a former Portuguese classmate who was later determined to be the Brown University mass shooter. Read the Full Article Click Here…
Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deaths-disappearances-scientists-staff-government-labs/