FAS Pushes for Reinstatement of LANL Scientist
NS&D Monitor
8/29/2014
The Federation of American Scientists is calling on Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to reinstate Los Alamos nonproliferation analyst James Doyle, who was fired earlier this summer in retaliation for a report advocating a world without nuclear weapons. In an Aug. 21 letter to Moniz, FAS President Charles Ferguson said Doyle’s firing “represents an erosion of freedom of expression that could have long-lasting and pernicious consequences” and called on Moniz to see that Doyle is “made whole” and not penalized for participating in a national debate over nuclear weapons policy. “Although the Lab may deny it, it is hard to see this turn of events as anything but tacit retaliation against Doyle for his outspokenness and his embrace of what may be a dissenting view on national nuclear policy,” Ferguson said in his letter.
Los Alamos has said Doyle’s July 8 firing was due to a series of layoffs, but he has said he believed it was linked to a 2013 article that was published in the international journal Survival: Global Politics and Strategy. After being initially cleared by the lab for publication, he was told the article contained classified information. He filed a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Energy, but the complaint and a subsequent appeal was denied. Last week, Doyle appealed a Department of Energy decision to reject his claims that he was unjustly fired.
