www.reason.com/0501/fe.ps.cut.shtml
Paul Sperry ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- Laura L Callahan was very proud of her PhD When she received it a few years ago, she promptly rewrote her official biography to highlight the academic accomplishment, referring to it not once or twice but nine time s in a single-page summary of her career. And she never let her employee s at the Labor Department, where she served as deputy chief information officer, forget it, even demanding that they call her Doctor. Callahans management style had always been heavy-handed. Once, while work ing in a previous supervisory role at the Clinton White House, she repor tedly warned computer workers to keep quiet about an embarrassing server glitch that led to the loss of thousands of archived e-mails covered by federal subpoena. One employee was skeptical of Callahans qualifications, however, and bega n quietly asking questions. The answers worried him, especially after Ca llahan was hired in 2003 as the Department of Homeland Securitys deputy chief information officer. His concerns and the resulting investigation ultimately revealed a troubling pattern of rsum fraud at federal agenc ies, including several charged with protecting Americans from terrorism. The scandal raises serious doubts about the governments ability to vet the qualifications of public employees on whom the nations security depe nds. When she was running around telling people to call her Dr. Callahan, I as ked where she got her degree, says Richard Wainwright, a computer specia list who worked for Callahan at Labor for two years. It turns out Callahan got her precious sheepskin from Hamilton University . Not Hamilton College, the highly competitive school in Clinton, New Yo rk, but Hamilton University, the unaccredited fee-for-degree distance le arning center in Evanston, Wyoming, right on the Utah border. Such diplo ma mills frequently use names similar to those of accredited schools. Unbeknown to Callahan, Wainwright had once lived near the small town of E vanston (population: 10,903) and knew it well. As a student at the Unive rsity of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he received his bachelors degree years ago, he had made beer runs to Evanston, less than 60 miles away. H e knew there were no universities there, or at least none worth attendin g Evanston doesnt have much but a few motels and liquor stores, he tell s me. I looked up Hamilton University on the Web and saw it was an old M otel 6, and I knew it was bogus. Click on Campus, and youll find more photos of the converted motel, as well as another small building on the campus, shot from a sharp angle to make it appear large and august. If the other building looks like a church, thats no illusion. Callahans alma mater is run by the Faith in the Order of Nat ure (FION) Fellowship Church, also in Evanston. In fact, the church is h eadquartered at the same address as Hamilton, which was organized as a n onprofit theocentric institution of higher learning in 1976 and claims a religious tax exemption. FION believes all life forms, including bugs and trees, are created equal and should be treated with equal resp ect. We accept all education as equal in Nature, according to the churchs stat ed doctrine. We offer recognition and special designations to those who have achieved higher levels of understanding regardless if obtained natu rally or formally.
Si nce theres little, if any, coursework required, call it education by osm osis. And not to worry, Hamiltons Web site assures future graduates: All transcripts carry the ACPCU seal. What it doesnt mention is that ACPCU is a fake accrediting agency that th e FION church set up to accredit Hamilton. The US Department of Educat ion does not recognize ACPCU as a legitimate accrediting body. The whole correspondence coursewhich includes instr uction on business ethicstakes about five hours to complete. A 2,000-wor d paper (shorter than this article) counts as a dissertation. In short, Callahans diploma isnt worth the paper its written on. Callahan owes her entire academic pedigree to Ham U The b achelors and masters degrees in computer science she lists on her rsum were also bought at the diploma mill. The high-paid senior official was plainly pulling a major scam. I had finally caught Callahan in one of her lies th at she would not be able to get out of, he says of his unpopular boss. Paid Vacation At the time, Callahan had applied for an important high-level position at the Department of Homeland Security. The job was deputy chief informati on officer, similar to the post she held at the Labor Department. But th is new job required integrating and managing some of the nations most se nsitive databases in a time of war. Callahan clearly wasnt qualified, no matter what her rsum said. Wainwright wondered if she could even be t rusted with a top-secret security clearance. After Callahan landed the post in April 2003, Wainwright anonymously tipp ed off a Beltway trade journal about her phony degrees and fraudulent r sum. Government Computer News broke the story about Callahan, triggerin g an 11-month congressional investigation that culminated in government- wide reforms meant to curb the use of diploma mills by federal employees , whose tuition is often financed by taxpayers. She was in a position where she could causedamage to the United States, W ainwright says, speaking publicly for the first time about the case. Curiously, she wasnt forced to r esign until March 26, 2004, after being placed on administrative leavewi th paythe previous June. That means she continued to draw her Department of Homeland Security salary of between $128,000 and $175,000 for nearly 10 months while under a serious ethical cloud. Misrepresenting qualific ations on a rsum, an official bio, or an applicationincluding submitti ng false academic credentialsis grounds for immediate dismissal, accordi ng to federal rules written by the US Office of Personnel Management ( OPM) Homeland Security officials maintained they were awaiting the results of an internal investigation, which, oddly, was led at one point by the Sec ret Service, which does not usually investigate such matters. Wainwright, who was interviewed by OPM investigators who knew her degrees were phony, wonders why it took Homeland Security 10 months to confirm what OPM already knewwhat he found out in a few minutes of online resear ch. Meanwhile, congressional investigators found that red flags about Ca llahans academic credentials had already been raised in her personnel fi le at the Labor Department, according to House Government Reform Committ ee spokesman Dave Marin. In fact, Callahan was twice promoted by the department, even as complaint s about her promoting unqualified cronies and rewarding them with big bo nuses piled up against her at the office of Labors inspector general. A confidential 2001 report issued by Assistant Inspector General John J G etek cited allegations of waste, mismanagement, fraud and abuse against Callahans office. Another Callahan employeeone of the complainants, who claims she retaliated against him in evaluations and raisesgave me a cop y of the report, which concluded that Callahans management practices had led to low morale among her 60 federal employees and 65 contractors. Ca llahan and her lawyer declined repeated requests for comment. Separation of Degrees It turns out that Callahans phony diplomas from Hamilton were backdated. Hamilton boasts on its Web site that it can custom tailor degree program s to meet the needs of busy professionals. Callahans advanced degrees we re required for her Labor promotions as well as her Homeland Security tr ansfer. Her bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees officially were con ferred in 1993, 1995, and 2000, respectively. Yet in March 2000, Callahan made no mention of the 1993 and 1995 diplomas while describing her educational background under oath in testimony bef ore the House Government Reform Committee. They are also missing from he r sworn prepared statement submitted to the panel. Callahan was called to the Hill then to answer charges by four White Hous e computer specialists who sw...
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