Associated Press – June 26, 2008
PITTSBURGH – A Muslim nuclear physicist on Thursday accused the U.S. Department of Energy of revoking his security clearance in retaliation for his criticism of the government’s treatment of Muslims.
Moniem El-Ganayni, 57, an Egyptian who moved to the United States in 1980, had worked at the Bettis Laboratory in the Pittsburgh-suburb of West Mifflin for 18 years.
He was fired after the DOE revoked his security clearance, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on his behalf. The ACLU is an organization that advocates individual rights.
El-Ganayni is not necessarily looking to overturn the revocation. Instead, he is demanding that he be allowed to contest it before a “nonpolitical, neutral arbiter as mandated by DOE regulations,” a right that he lost when the department cited national security as the reason for the revocation.
During his years in Pittsburgh, El-Ganayni has been active in Pittsburgh’s Muslim community and helped establish one of the area’s first mosques.
The department did not immediately return calls for comment.
Bettis Laboratory is dedicated to working on the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, a joint Navy-Energy Department program responsible for nearly all aspects of U.S. nuclear-powered warships.
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