WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is asking the U.S. attorney general whether the Justice Department is planning any action on NASA inspector general findings on lax screening and control of foreign nationals’ access to U.S. technology at the NASA Ames Research Center in California.  The inspector general report covers sensitive technology covered by International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations and the treatment of one individual who received access to sensitive materials, apparently without repercussion.

     “The NASA IG’s report raises strong concerns around the ITAR controls and potentially compromised technology,” Grassley writes in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.  “The concerns regarding this investigation and the answers to the serious questions raised by these circumstances are more important than ever. While the decision to decline prosecution after a four-year investigation may rest with the U.S. Attorney in California, the public is entitled a better explanation than that, in light of the information presented in this IG report.”

     One foreign national in particular was selected by Ames Research Center management to be a visiting scholar and then a contractor at the research center.  Management said the foreign national was to be given “exceptional care” and “unescorted access 24/7” despite the fact that the foreign national had not passed basic security background checks, according to the inspector general report.  The same foreign national worked on projects that the State Department declared were ITAR-related without an ITAR license for the next two years, the report said.   The foreign national falsely claimed not to have transported a NASA laptop with ITAR-sensitive material outside of the United States, the report said.

      The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California declined to prosecute any ITAR violations at the Ames Research Center.  The reasons for declining the prosecution were not made public.

     Grassley’s letter to Holder is available here.  Grassley’s Feb. 27, 2013, letter, with Reps. Lamar Smith and Frank Wolf, to the U.S. attorney for the area including the Ames Research Center is available here.

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