John Cramer - Einstein's Bridge

“We need to show this stuff to Jon,” Joe told her. “I know he’ll be interested in helping.” He smiled in anticipation.

LARRY WALKER SCANNED THE INDEX OF ASSOCIATED Press news items on his terminal. This was going to be a slow day for news, even at The Washington Post. Perhaps today he should make a few phone calls to some of his insider sources and see if he could stir up anything.

The telephone beeped. “Walker,” he answered.

“Larry,” said Samantha, the front entrance receptionist, “do you have time to talk to a walk-in? There’s a young lady here who says she wants to talk to a political reporter about some Department of Energy memo.”

“Um, sure,” said Larry, “send her up.” He found an extra chair nearby and brought it back to his desk. As he was putting it down, he saw a pretty young woman in a gray business suit making her way past the rows of newsroom desks.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m Larry Walker. What can I do for you?” He indicated the chair, sat down himself, and selected a new yellow legal pad from his desk drawer. He also put his small tape recorder conspicuously on the desktop and started it.

“I’m Alice Lang,” she said, sitting down. “I’m with a group called the Citizens’ Project for Government Oversight.” She gave him a neatly printed business card.

Larry wedged the card in the top edge of the notepad. “Never heard of your group,” he said. “What do you do?” “We actively support openness in government,” she said. “We’re a nonprofit watchdog group that keeps an eye on the activities of the federal government. We also provide a secure conduit for ‘whistle-blowers’ to provide inside information to the public without endangering their government jobs. That’s what I’m here about today. An internal Department of Energy memorandum has come into our possession which I think will interest you. It’s a communication to Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary from Jasper Siciliano, a DOE field office administrator in Dallas. It’s about the Superconducting Super Collider project in Texas. Siciliano has the title of ‘SSC Project Leader’ within the DOE.”

“Interesting,” said Larry. “That’s the big overbudget accelerator project that the House voted to kill back in June, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” said Alice. “The vote was 280 to 150 to kill the project. They had a similar vote last year, but this time the margin is bigger. The project was saved last year by a favorable Senate vote and some devious maneuvering by the congressional leadership.”

Larry nodded. “What’s going to happen this year? The same thing?”

Alice shrugged. “The Senate vote is coming very soon, and the DOE seems to be getting a little crazy. Siciliano wants to fire the SSC director and do some major revisions of the project’s funding profile, effectively crippling the project but saving his own job.” She handed him a letter-size manila envelope. “It’s all in here.”

Larry placed the envelope on his desk without opening it. “What do you know about this Siciliano person?” he asked.

“I’ve heard plenty about him that you couldn’t print, from the scientists at the SSC. He was elevated to a position of power when Admiral Watkins became Secretary of Energy. The admiral wanted a direct line of information on the SSC, and Siciliano, who was already at the Dallas DOE office, provided it. His empire in the DOE has grown and grown. He now directs ninety-six mean-spirited paper-shuffling bureaucrats, all making life miserable for the scientists and technical people at the SSC project. Roy Schwitters, the SSC director, was recently quoted as calling Siciliano’s operation ‘the revenge of the C students.’”

“Ah yes,” said Larry. “I read that quote in The New York Times. Not very politic of Schwitters to say things like that to the press.”

“He’s a very unhappy man running a troubled project,” said Alice. “We’re trying to help him by ending it.”

Larry chuckled.

“I should mention,” Alice continued, “that this isn’t the first Siciliano memo to come to light. In 1991, with a bit of help from our people, Congress learned of the existence of the string of highly critical and sarcastic reports on the SSC from Siciliano to Admiral Watkins. An oversight subcommittee subpoenaed them. That produced a great uproar within the DOE. First they claimed the reports didn’t exist. Then they admitted they did exist, but withheld them on the basis of ‘executive privilege.’ Finally they allowed committee staff to come to the admiral’s office, read the memoranda, and make notes. But they would not allow copies to be made. One of the staff members told me afterward that it was all a waste of time. The Siciliano memos were full of innuendos, accusations, and venom, but they contained no hard information the committee could use.”

“The admiral has sailed away, and there’s a new Secretary of Energy now,” said Larry. “I saw her on C-SPAN just last night. She said, as I recall, that she was ‘nearly passionate’ about the SSC and that she was planning to switch major contractors for the project. I take it that Mr. Siciliano has made the transition to Ms. O’Leary’s DOE successfully.”

“Oh yes,” said Alice. “O’Leary is as leery of the SSC scientists as the admiral was, and she’s added about thirty more people to Siciliano’s operation in Dallas to provide even more DOE oversight.” She pointed to the envelope on the desk. “Our new Siciliano memo is addressed to her.”

“I see,” said Larry. “This time you’re taking a different route to reveal a damaging memo.”

“Ah… yes,” said Alice carefully. “Our whistle-blower is a person who was working as a temporary clerical helper in Siciliano’s operation. One evening when he was working late, he happened to come across this new memorandum, which happened to have been left on the screen of Siciliano’s very own PC.”

“Wow!” said Larry. “Can you prove that’s where it came from?”

“There’s a floppy disk in the envelope,” said Alice. “It contains an MS Word file for the O’Leary memorandum and files for some other interoffice memoranda and correspondence. Enough to prove its origins, if you need to. There is also a copy of an unreleased GAO report on the SSC project that we delivered to the press last June. That may also interest you as background, although perhaps it’s no longer news.”

Larry opened the envelope and its contents. Finally he looked up and smiled. “This is good stuff,” he said. “Siciliano wants to fre the SSC director and stop the project for a year while they do a ‘complete management overhaul.’ That, I believe, is bureaucratese for a kangaroo court. I can imagine who he would put in charge of that.”

Alice nodded. “The best thing that can be done for the SSC project now is a quick and merciful death.

Larry looked at her closely. “Why is your group so interested in ‘oversight’ for the SSC in particular?” he asked. “Surely there are many bigger and more appropriate targets for oversight in this town.”

“The SSC is only one of several of our projects,” said Alice. “It happens to be coming up for a vote in the Senate soon, so we’re focusing our attention on it just now.”

He nodded, scanning the papers again.

“Do you think you’ll be running a story on this Siciliano memorandum?” she asked.

“Oh yes,” said Larry. “Definitely. I’ll have to call him first and ask for a clarification of the contents of the memorandum. That will serve as a confirmation of its validity, and it may also produce additional information for the story. Is your source still working at Siciliano’s office? My call might compromise his job security.”