Evening star., 1949-06-06
.Loya|tySuspect
Author
OF Atom Reports
Heorine Demanded
For Officiol Nomed
By HickenIooper

can. of Iowa said today that the
man who drafts top secret atomic
reports TO Congress once was sus-
pended because the FBI question
ed his loyalty.
When Senator Hickenlooper
made this charge at the Joint
Congressional Atomic Energy
Committee investigation of the
Atomic Energy Commission, AEc
Chairman David E. Lilienthal de-
manded that the person involved
be summoned for testimony.
Senator Hickenlooper told his
congressional colleagues that the
Acc employe had been hired orig
inally under an emergency" Sc
curity clearance on August 8. 1947.
1t was not until March. l94S.
that an FB1 check turned up
serious derogatory information
about the individual. Senator
Hickenlooper added.
Hearing Held Last Month.
Senator Hickenlooper said the
person involved was furnished
with a statement OF the charges
against him and suspended in
April. He was given a hearing in
May. the Iowa Senator continued.
before a board OF three Acc en-
ployes. including two scientists
and lawyer.
/ Although "a persons were men
toned in the 50-page FBI report
as giving derogatory information
about the suspended person, Sem
ator Hickenlooper said. only two
of these were called for testimony
and a third was interviewed over
the phone.
He said the board called Is wit
nesses suggested by the suspended
employe and recommended unani-
mously that he be given security
clearance.
This was done in what Senator
Hickenlooper described as a speed
up process on June 18. lS48.
"Safer" to Keep Some.
Before Senator Hickenlooper
brought this up. MIR. Lilienthal
had testified that the Acc is keep
ing some persons with doubtful
records on the payroll because that
seems safer than firing them. He
said some got their jobs when the
Army was running the atomic
projects. N
These people. Mr.. Lilienthal ex-
planned. have acquired certain
knowledge and 1t appears security
would be served better by keeping
them at work than by discharging
and possibly losing track of them.
Senator Hickenlooper led UP to
the case Of the top secret" report
writer by relaing that Mr.. Lilien-
thai came to q meeting Of the
Joint Atomic Energy Committee
last February 2 accompanied by
an armed guard carrying q docu-
ment.
At that time, he said, Chair
man Mcmahon asked Mr.. Lilien-
thai If the document was so i'm
portant 1t had to be delivered by
an armed guard.
Classified As "Top Secret"
Hickenlooper quoted Mr.. Lilien-
thai as replying:
1T is classified as top secret.
Because of its contents. it Is one
Of the hottest documents ever
assembled
Then Senator Hickenlooper
said:
THE man who assembled that
report to the committe. that hot
test of documents, was the man
who had been suspended because
his loyalty was questioned"
The name of the man was not
brought out.
Senator Mcmahon called a halt
to Senator Hickenlooper's method
of presenting his case after
Representative Holifield, Demo-
crat Of California. had protested
vigorously.
Senator Mcmahon said 1t Is
impossible to proceed" in the way
Senator Hickenlooper had en-
barked upon. He added that If
Senator Hickenlooper could not
take up some other matter. then
the committee should recess its
hearings and go into closed door
session to thresh the matter out.
Dangerous Procedure Charged.
Mr.. Holifield called 1t dan
gerous procedure" to throw into
public print" charges which he
said the joint committee had not
been asked to have any formal
action on.
He specifically objected TO Sem
tSee ATOMIC. Page A-51