Falsely Accused of Spying for Israel, Jewish Engineer Seeks Long-Awaited Redemption
David Sachs - Detroit Jewish News/JNS.org - January 17, 2018
Amid his 21-year battle for redress from the US Army, David Tenenbaum has enlisted some powerful new advocates.
Missouri's US Senator Claire McCaskill, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs - and Michigan Democrat Senator Gary Peters, a committee member - have sent a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, urging him to provide closure and relief for the 60-year-old Tenenbaum, a resident Southfield, Michigan. A response is expected soon from the Department of Defense.
For the past 33 years, Tenenbaum has worked as a civilian engineer at the US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM). During a significant part of that time, Tenenbaum says that he was subjected to vile antisemitism from co-workers, and from the Army itself. He recounts how he has been harassed, intimidated and accused of spying for Israel. And, he says, he was subjected to an extended and intrusive FBI investigation that made his life a living hell.
Tenenbaum's effort to seek a remedy in the federal court system was thwarted by the government's unsubstantiated claim that Tenenbaum's persecution couldn't be discussed because of 'state secrets." As a last resort, Tenenbaum has convinced Senate Homeland Security committee members to take up his case. His effort is bipartisan, according to his legal team. Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the committee chair, and Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, also support the cause.
Tenenbaum, a chemical engineer, was hired at TACOM partially because of his familiarity with Israel, and his ability to speak Hebrew with his Israeli counterparts. One area of his focus was the survivability of troops in combat. For instance, he became aware of how susceptible soldiers riding in Humvees were to rocket-propelled grenades. In 1995, Tenenbaum began a project to retro-fit Humvees to protect defenseless soldiers riding in them. His 'Light Armor Survivability Systems" project included experts from Israel and Germany. As part of his job, he spoke Hebrew with his Israeli counterparts, and traveled to the Jewish state.
Everything fell apart, however, when some of Tenenbaum's local coworkers falsely accused him of spying for Israel in 1996. Tenenbaum later discovered that they had been secretly accusing him of such spying as early as 1992. He found out that they would observe him - an Orthodox Jew - carrying his kosher lunch to work daily in a backpack, and they would fantasize that the backpack could be used to smuggle classified documents out of the building. Some coworkers made antisemitic remarks behind his back, and a bag of pork rinds was once placed on his desk. He says that one reason people suspected him of spying for Israel was because he spoke Hebrew - ironically, one of his major qualifications for being hired at TACOM in the first place.
Tenenbaum says that his antagonists at TACOM surreptitiously set him up for false spying charges. Having no legitimate factual reason to have him investigated, they went to a high-level official at the command who suggested having Tenenbaum considered for a higher security level, where he could be interviewed without an attorney present. Tenenbaum likened this to an interrogation.
He was then told to take a lie detector test. The polygraph operator, however, destroyed his notes and then falsely reported Tenenbaum had confessed to spying for Israel, according to Tenenbaum. Based on the coworkers' allegations and the bogus report of a confession, the FBI initiated a full criminal investigation.
It was Shabbat, during lunch time, on February 14, 1997, when FBI agents raided the Tenenbaum house, seizing his computer and stripping the family residence of many personal effects, including drawings made by his then four-year-old daughter. The girl remained terrified for months afterward, Tenenbaum says.
For half a year, FBI agents staked themselves out in front of the Tenenbaum home. To intimidate him, he says, they followed him wherever he went. They leaked misinformation to the news media that he was an spy for Israel. Tenenbaum estimates the government spent millions of dollars in its efforts to investigate him.
The investigation ended a year later. 'I was cleared of everything," Tenenbaum says. 'They said to me I did nothing wrong, and that mine was one of the most investigated cases ever done."
'No one has been held accountable," he adds. 'In fact, many of the instigators have been promoted. In private industry, no one would stand for this discrimination, antisemitism and false accusations. So, why isn't the government held accountable?"
In April 1998, Tenenbaum returned to his job at TACOM. All his projects, however, were canceled, including the one to provide armor for Humvees. This proved ultimately disastrous for the rank-and-file soldiers, Tenenbaum recounts. When military action was taken against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, a new weapon was used against US troops - the improvised explosive device (IED). These IEDs were roadside bombs detonated by booby traps or remote control. As the Humvees drove by, the bombs penetrated the unprotected vehicles.
Thousands of US soldiers were killed or maimed, Tenenbaum says. His project, if not canceled by the Army some seven years earlier, could have provided protection. The Army later did devise alternative protection, but it was too late for many of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2000, attorneys Mayer Morganroth, Jeffrey Morganroth and Daniel Harold joined Tenenbaum's cause. A lawsuit had been previously filed in Federal court in Detroit, but in 2002 the government managed to get the case dismissed. The government claimed that the alleged antisemitic actions against Tenenbaum couldn't be explored because of 'state secrets."
In 2006, then-US Senator Carl Levin of Michigan was instrumental in finally getting Tenenbaum's case investigated by the Department of Defense's Office of the Inspector General. That office issued a report in July 2008 finding discrimination against Tenenbaum based on religion and ethnicity. But despite the best efforts of Inspector General Claude Kicklighter, anti-Tenenbaum elements within his office managed to greatly water down the report, Tenenbaum says.
In 2009, Tenenbaum again sued the Army, seeking money damages and using the inspector general report as evidence. This effort, too, was dismissed.
Tenenbaum says that the report should have been enough to require action, but the Army refused to abide by its own report and provide a remedy. The plea for justice from the senators to the current secretary of defense is perhaps his last avenue of relief.
Tenenbaum remains on the job at TACOM, but says that he has been purposely underutilized and remains a pariah.
'David has to scratch and claw for everything," said attorney Daniel Harold. 'Over the past several years, David has created some programs or tried to create programs. Sometimes he gets the runaround, and the programs are not given the go-ahead. Other times, as soon as they are ready to be successful, they are taken away from him."
Many others have advocated on Tenenbaum's behalf. A 'Justice for Dr. David Tenenbaum" petition can be signed online. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Jewish Community Relations Council/AJC of Metropolitan Detroit, have also expressed their support.
Tenenbaum's cause has also been aided by the Washington, DC-based Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group. Moral support has been provided by Dr. Michael Engleberg of the New York Center for Civil Justice, Tolerance & Values in Woodmere, New York.
In a letter of support for Tenenbaum, Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of the Orthodox organization Agudath Israel of America, says that if the government doesn't make amends with Tenenbaum, 'then the not-so-subtle message is that Jewish Americans, especially Orthodox Jewish Americans, can never be trusted within the Department of Defense. As you can well imagine, this message is devastating."
Attorney Harold says, 'We're hopeful that through the senators we can finally get a remedy to David and bring a formal end to this whole horrible situation."
But for now, Tenenbaum waits for words of redress from his government.
'Thank God we were able to find the right people to help us," he says. 'I feel that there's a lot I can give in terms of work...I don't want to fight to work. I would like to get work done."