NASA Chief IMPROPERLY DESTROYED TAPES of MEETING!

[KoKo]

NASA Chief Improperly Destroyed Tapes of Meeting, Lawmaker Says

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; A21

NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin held an unusual meeting with the staff of the inspector general who oversees his agency and then ordered that video recordings of the meeting be destroyed, a House panel said yesterday.

In a letter to Griffin, the chairman of the Science and Technology subcommittee on investigations and oversight demanded an explanation from the NASA administrator and accused him of improperly trying to influence the watchdog office's decisions on what it should investigate.
In addition, the letter from Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) said the order to destroy the meeting tapes, which was issued by NASA's chief of staff, "appears on its face to be nothing less than the destruction of evidence."


Griffin's meeting included NASA Inspector General Robert W. Cobb, who has been at the center of a controversy over his close relationship with Griffin's predecessor, Sean O'Keefe, and over his temperamental management style. A report early this month by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which oversees the government's corps of inspectors general, concluded that Cobb had abused his authority in his treatment of his staff and appeared to lack the requisite independence from top NASA officials.

-snip-

Before he was appointed NASA's inspector general in 2002, Cobb spent 15 months as an adviser on ethics and conflicts of interest to then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. Cobb quickly became a target of criticism from NASA whistle-blowers and members of his staff. Some complained that he had dropped investigations of serious safety concerns and that his mercurial behavior drove experienced auditors and investigators from the office.

In his letter, Miller said his staff had been told that five compact discs containing video of the April 10 meeting were delivered for destruction to the office of Michael C. Wholley, NASA's general counsel. The letter said the existence of the discs suggested that the recording may still exist on a NASA server and asked that the contents be handed over to the subcommittee.

Miller also asked for all records regarding Griffin's "determination" that Cobb had not abused his authority, the April 10 meeting and the decision to destroy the video recording. In an April 23 letter to Miller's panel, NASA Assistant Administrator Brian E. Chase wrote that the agency had looked for remaining copies of the video but had not found any.
more.........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602570_pf.html

[bahrbearian]

1. Where does the NASA gets its counsel ,DOJ?

[Ian David]

2. I thought the timing of NASA's press conference about discovering water on Mars was suspicious

Didn't that press conference coincide with some big scandal breaking in the Bush administration?

Someone should look into whether NASA was attempting to help Bush control the news cycle.

That would be a violation of The Hatch Act.

[KoKo]

3. ...

[blogslut]

4. Isn't NASA

One of the agencies that had one of those double-super-secret meetings with KKKarl's (now retired) spokesbot, Scott Jennings? Why yes, NASA is one:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042503046_pf.html

Political Briefings At Agencies Disclosed
White House Calls Meetings Lawful

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 26, 2007; A01

White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday...

<snippers>

...Spokesmen at the departments of Veterans Affairs and Transportation also confirmed that their political appointees received such briefings at their headquarters. Stanzel confirmed that they were also given at the departments of Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Treasury, Education, Agriculture and Energy, as well as NASA, the Small Business Administration, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Not the same meeting as mentioned in the OP article, but an interesting detail nonetheless. Perhaps NASA will have to turn over evidence of all that junk inside its trunk.

I love a good plot twist. :)

[Robbien]

5. NASA and NASA funding were Tom Delay's baby

NASA has been used as a GOP PR tool for the whole six years.