Former Los Alamos lab physicist says FBI searched his home as part of possible spy probe

Ex-Los Alamos lab physicist says home searched

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Federal agents seized computers, papers, books and electronic equipment from the home of a former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear scientist, who last year sought to work on a fusion project with Venezuela but believes the U.S. government is wrongly targeting him as a spy.

P. Leonardo Mascheroni told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday from his home that four FBI agents searched his home for 13 hours on Monday. The agents, he said, led him to believe they were investigating him for espionage.

“I am not a spy,” Mascheroni said. “If I were a spy, a long time ago I would have gone away from the United States with all my knowledge. Instead, I stay in my house all the time and am working all the time and presenting all the time to Congress. Is that what a spy does?”

FBI spokesman Darrin Jones confirmed the agency is pursuing an “ongoing investigation” in Los Alamos, but declined further comment Wednesday. No charges have been filed against Mascheroni.

Meanwhile, Mascheroni’s wife, Marjorie, a technical writer at the lab, was placed on administrative leave Monday while the lab conducts an internal investigation, according to the lab.

P. Leonardo Mascheroni joined the northern New Mexico lab in 1979, and worked in its X Division, which designs nuclear weapons, until 1987. He was laid off in 1988.

Lab spokeswoman Lisa Rosendorf said he lost his job during layoffs that were prompted by budget cuts, but his supporters at the time said he was blackballed by the lab.

Mascheroni, who is from Argentina but became a U.S. citizen in 1972, said he believes the current investigation stems from his longtime criticism of the U.S. government’s nuclear program and, more specifically, from a recent meeting he had with a man claiming to be a representative from the Venezuelan government.

He said he supports a hydrogen-fluoride laser to generate fusion, the energy source of the sun. That type of energy, he says, is cleaner, not radioactive and would produce a more reliable nuclear weapons stockpile.

After the government and national labs took the U.S. nuclear program in a different direction, Mascheroni said he worked for three decades — first within the U.S. Department of Energy and the labs and then with Congress — to get a national hearing on his scientific proposals.

He said that in the fall of 2007, he approached the Venezuelan government — along with physics departments at universities in England and France — to see about a job to pursue his work. He was contacted in February 2008 by a man who said he represented the Venezuelan government and wanted to learn about starting a weapons program.

The two met twice at a Los Alamos hotel for a total of 90 minutes, Mascheroni said.

“I never passed information which I consider classified to a reporter or to Congress or to anybody,” Mascheroni said. “The information I passed is information I got from the Internet.”

Mascheroni said he provided the man with a CD containing unclassified information widely available on the Internet. He said he hoped the Venezuelan government would hire him to work on his hydrogen-fluoride laser fusion project in New Mexico, which would help him prove his case to Congress.

He asked that $400,000 be deposited into his Los Alamos bank account, but he was never paid.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez’s government has said it hopes to develop a nuclear energy program for peaceful uses with help from Russia. Chavez also has said Iran is helping his country locate uranium deposits, but insists Venezuela has no intentions of developing atomic weapons.

During a televised address in Venezuela late Wednesday, Chavez scoffed at speculation that Mascheroni is an agent of his government, calling the FBI’s investigation part of a broader effort to raise suspicions regarding Venezuela’s nuclear ambitions.

“It’s part of a campaign against us,” Chavez said during a cabinet meeting.

Rosendorf said she could not provide further details about the lab’s investigation of his wife. She said Marjorie Mascheroni — who has “Q” clearance, the highest clearance level that gives her access to classified information — has had her badge pulled and does not have access to the lab.

“There are a number of questions that have been raised and we don’t have all the facts and we’re doing our own internal investigation,” Rosendorf said.

Associated Press reporter Christopher Toothaker contributed from Venezuela