| http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,25528,00.html
NASA Agents Serve Warrant; Agency Officials Say They're in Dark Wednesday, May 23, 2001 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A NASA spokesman says the space agency's inspector general's office is keeping quiet about the details of a federal raid on a manufacturing plant in Arkansas -- even to those within the agency. "The inspector general's office has told us to refer all questions to the U.S. attorney," NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said Wednesday. "Even if we knew anything, we couldn't talk, but we don't know anything." On May 17, about two dozen agents raided Greenville Tube Corp., a metal tube manufacturer in Clarksville. Witnesses reported seeing some agents wearing FBI identification and others with NASA identification. Jacobs said the agency's inspector general's office is most active in investigating computer fraud and misappropriations by contractors. "If it was a computer hacker, then not only would the inspector general's office be involved, but it would involve the FBI," Jacobs said. John Corbett, a resident agent in NASA's inspector general's office, confirmed Wednesday that NASA served a warrant on the Clarksville plant and was assisted on the raid by the FBI. Corbett said some products made at Greenville Tube could be used on rocket test stands. He said he was not authorized to discuss the case and referred questions to the U.S. attorney's office in Fort Smith. Bill Cromwell of Fort Smith, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, told Clarksville radio station KXIO that during the "normal" course of an investigation, he would have already released a statement. "It could be several months before we're in a position to make any official comment" on last week's action, Cromwell said. Brian Marshall, a spokesman for the FBI in Little Rock, would only say that it is against department policy to discuss ongoing investigations. Even the office of a key congressman on a committee that oversees space issues was unaware of the investigation. "If there was a raid, then no one is talking," said Janet Poppleton with the office of U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Texas. Hall is the ranking Democrat on the Science, Space and Technology Committee, which deals directly with NASA, Poppleton said. NASA officials from Washington to Huntsville, Ala., are keeping quiet and referring all questions to the U.S. attorney's office at Fort Smith. Vicki Lyons, executive director of the Clarksville-Johnson County Chamber of Commerce, said FBI agents took computers and files from the business, which employs about 225 people. She said the company provides some products to a distributor that sells to NASA. |
