US says Oppenheimer was wrongly stripped of security clearance
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has reversed a decades-old decision to revoke the security clearance of Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist called the father of the atomic bomb for his leading role in World War II’s Manhattan Project.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the 1954 decision by the Atomic Energy Commission was made using a “flawed process” that violated the commission’s own regulations.
“As time has passed, more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer was subjected to while the evidence of his loyalty and love of country have only been further affirmed,” Granholm said in a statement Friday.
Oppenheimer, who died in 1967, led the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. The theoretical physicist was later accused of having communist sympathies and his security clearance was revoked following a fourweek, closed-door hearing.
In stripping Oppenheimer of his clearance, the Atomic Energy Commission did not allege that he had revealed or mishandled classified information, nor was his loyalty to the country questioned, according to Granholm’s order. The commission, however, concluded there were “fundamental defects” in his character.
Years later, an Atomic Energy Commission lawyer concluded after an internal review that “the system failed” and a “substantial injustice was done to a loyal American,” according to the secretary’s order.
Granholm said the commission’s decision was driven by a desire among its political leadership to “discredit Oppenheimer in public debates over nuclear weapons policy.”
“Such political motives must have no place in our personnel security process,” she wrote.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont applauded the reversal, saying the 1954 decision followed a “manifestly unjust and unethical hearing that would be resoundingly condemned today.”
Twitter suspensions: Elon Musk said early Saturday that Twitter was reinstating the accounts of several journalists whose accounts were suspended after he had accused them of violating the social media platform’s rules on personal privacy.
Musk said he was restoring most of the accounts, which had been deactivated Thursday, after a majority of respondents in his informal Twitter survey voted that the suspensions should be lifted immediately.
But for at least some of the reporters, including Drew Harwell of The Washington Post and Ryan Mac of The New York Times, the restoration of their accounts appeared to be contingent on them deleting posts that Twitter had flagged as “violating our rules against posting private information.”
Iran arrests actor: Iranian authorities arrested one of the country’s most renowned actors Saturday on charges of spreading falsehoods about nationwide protests that grip the country, state media said.
The report by IRNA said Taraneh Alidoosti, star of the Oscar-winning movie “The
Salesman,” was detained a week after she made a post on Instagram expressing solidarity with the first man recently executed for crimes allegedly committed during the protests.
The announcement is the latest in a series of celebrity arrests that have included footballers, actors and influencers in response to their open display of support for anti-government demonstrations now in their third month
London crowd crush: A woman injured in a crush outside a London concert venue has died, police said Saturday.
London resident Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, was one of eight people hospitalized after being caught in mayhem outside the O2 Brixton Academy on Thursday night, where Nigerian singer Asake was due to perform.
The Metropolitan Police force said Ikumelo died Saturday morning. Two other women, ages 21 and 23,
remain in critical condition.
The police force said emergency services were called after “a large crowd attempted to gain entry without tickets” and they found people suffering from crush injuries.
Polish martyrs: Pope Francis on Saturday declared as martyrs a Polish couple who were executed by German police during World War II for hiding Jews in their farmhouse.
A farmer and beekeeper, Jozef Ulma, and his pregnant wife, Wiktoria, in the Polish town of Markowa hid several members of the Jewish community who were being hunted down during the German occupation of Poland. An informant apparently betrayed them, and the Jews were killed by police in March 1944. The couple were then shot to death along with their six young children, the oldest of whom was 8 years old.
Recognition of martyrdom would permit the
couple to be beatified, the last formal step before possible sainthood. After beatification, a miracle attributed to their intercession would be necessary for eventual canonization, as the Catholic Church’s sainthood process is called.
According to the Vatican, Pope Francis learned about the Ulma family when he visited Poland during a 2016 pilgrimage. At a public audience in 2018, Francis hailed the family as “an example of faithfulness to God and His commandments, of love for neighbor and of respect for human dignity.”
Mountain lion euthanized:
P-22, the celebrated mountain lion that took up residence in the middle of Los Angeles and became a symbol of urban pressures on wildlife, was euthanized Saturday after dangerous changes in his behavior led to examinations that revealed worsening health and injuries likely caused by a car.
Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the decision to euthanize the beloved big cat was made after veterinarians determined he had a skull fracture and chronic illnesses, including a skin infection and diseases of the kidneys and liver.
The aging mountain lion was captured in a residential backyard in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on Dec. 12, a month after killing a Chihuahua on a dog walker’s leash.
An anonymous report that indicated P-22 may have been struck by a vehicle was confirmed by a CT scan that revealed injuries to his head and torso, wildlife officials said.
State authorities determined that the only likely options were euthanasia or confinement in an animal sanctuary — a difficult prospect for a wild cat.
P-22 was believed to be 12 years old, longer-lived than most wild male mountain lions.