Did Army Mis-Use 'National Security' to Cover Up Stoppage of Armor Program

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Nov. 23, 2004 -- The civil rights of Dr. David Tenenbaum and literally every employee of the government are threatened and only the nation's highest court can decide an outcome. On Wednesday, November 24, 2004, the United States Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the unusual case of Dr. David Tenenbaum who has been prevented from suing the individuals who made false, anti-Semitic accusations against him on the basis that discrimination somehow is a matter of national security.

In 1997, the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren, Michigan, discontinued the unclassified program Tenenbaum created in 1995 to upgrade armor and protection on light armor vehicles such as Humvees and trucks. American military deaths in Iraq today, because of improper armor on those vehicles, has caused huge controversy.

The Army cancelled the program when the FBI opened an investigation based on accusations by individuals working at TACOM that Dr. Tenenbaum was an Israeli spy because he is Jewish.

The FBI and Department of Justice proved Tenenbaum's accusers 100 percent wrong in 1998, and in writing stated that no evidence had ever existed against Tenenbaum and that the investigation had been so thorough that if evidence had existed, the FBI would have found it.

Nationally known civil rights attorney, Mayer Morganroth, represents Tenenbaum.

"What has been made tragically clear from numerous depositions and documents," Morganroth said, "is that the only evidence used in targeting Tenenbaum was the fact that he is Jewish."

The government and civilian officials at TACOM acting in conspiratorial harmony terrorized Tenenbaum's family. Tenenbaum's reputation was destroyed and he was forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend his innocence. Tenenbaum fought back by filing suit.

Last May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds of the "state secrets privilege" which makes the excuse of "national security" an unlimited power that the government can use to avoid any lawsuit based not upon traditional military or government secrets, but upon racial, religious or sexual discrimination.

"Sadly," Morganroth said, "the excuse of national security in this instance only adds insult to injury to those soldiers killed, and to Tenenbaum whose only 'crime' was dedicating himself to upgrading the Army's outdated vehicles."