[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6232 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6232

        For the relief of Richard M. Barlow of Bozeman, Montana.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 10, 2008

   Mrs. Maloney of New York introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
        For the relief of Richard M. Barlow of Bozeman, Montana.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. RELIEF OF RICHARD M. BARLOW OF BOZEMAN, MONTANA.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Richard Barlow was a counter-proliferation intelligence 
        officer with expertise in Pakistan nuclear issues.
            (2) From 1980-82, Mr. Barlow served as the action officer 
        for Pakistan proliferation matters at the Arms Control and 
        Disarmament Agency.
            (3) In 1985, Mr. Barlow joined the Central Intelligence 
        Agency, becoming a recognized issue expert on Pakistan's 
        clandestine nuclear purchasing networks and its weapons 
        programs.
            (4) After serving as a Special Agent with the Customs 
        Service, Mr. Barlow then joined the Office of the Secretary of 
        Defense starting in 1989, where he continued to investigate 
        Pakistan's nuclear weapons network headed by A. Q. Khan.
            (5) Mr. Barlow was instrumental in the 1987 arrest and 
        later conviction of 2 agents in Pakistan's nuclear weapons 
        development program headed by A. Q. Khan, for which he received 
        an award for exceptional accomplishment from the Director of 
        the Central Intelligence Agency and numerous commendations from 
        senior State Department and law enforcement officials.
            (6) In addition, Mr. Barlow received a prestigious 
        commendation from the State Department's Legal Advisor for 
        assistance to President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State 
        George P. Schultz for triggering the Solarz Amendment relating 
        to termination of military and economic aid to Pakistan for 
        exporting nuclear weapons technology.
            (7) In a classified hearing following the arrests of the 
        Pakistani agents, Mr. Barlow, as the Central Intelligence 
        Agency's top expert, testified truthfully to the Subcommittee 
        on Asian Pacific Affairs of the Committee on International 
        Relations of the House of Representatives, then known as the 
        House Foreign Affairs Committee, that the arrested Pakistanis 
        were agents of the Pakistani government, and revealed that 
        Pakistan had continued to regularly violate United States 
        nuclear export laws.
            (8) Mr. Barlow's actions revealed that certain Executive 
        Branch officials had been withholding this information from the 
        Congressional committees.
            (9) In 1989, Mr. Barlow joined the Office of the Secretary 
        of Defense in the Office of Non-proliferation where he 
        continued to investigate Pakistani proliferation networks.
            (10) In April 1989, Mr. Barlow received an outstanding 
        performance review from his Department of Defense supervisors, 
        and in June 1989 he was promoted.
            (11) During the spring and early summer of 1989, Mr. Barlow 
        told his supervisors on a number of occasions that he had 
        serious concerns that Executive Branch officials were 
        concealing intelligence about Pakistan's nuclear program from 
        Congress and were obstructing pending criminal investigations 
        into Pakistan's procurement efforts in order to avoid 
        triggering the Pressler and Solarz Amendments and to obtain 
        approval for a proposed $1,400,000,000 sale of F-16 jets to 
        Pakistan.
            (12) On August 2, 1989, Mr. Barlow raised concerns about 
        false testimony given by senior officials to the Congress on 
        Pakistan's nuclear capabilities to the Subcommittee on Asian 
        Pacific Affairs of the Committee on International Relations of 
        the House.
            (13) On August 4, 1989, several weeks after being promoted, 
        Richard Barlow was handed a notice of pending termination.
            (14) On August 8, 1989, Mr. Barlow's security clearances 
        were suspended for reasons that were classified and not 
        revealed to him.
            (15) On August 26, 1989, Mr. Barlow, under threat of 
        firing, was offered a series of menial, temporary assignments 
        by Department of Defense personnel and security officials 
        concerned about possible retaliation against him as a 
        Congressional whistleblower by senior officials in the Office 
        of the Secretary of Defense.
            (16) Mr. Barlow then underwent a 9-month long security 
        investigation involving numerous allegations levied against him 
        by his superiors in the Office of Secretary of Defense, all of 
        which were found to be false.
            (17) In March of 1990, Mr. Barlow then had his security 
        clearance restored and remained in a series of temporary 
        assignments until February 1992, when he then resigned under 
        duress.
            (18) At the time of his separation from government service, 
        Mr. Barlow had completed 8 years of government service.
            (19) Mr. Barlow's temporary loss of his security clearance 
        and personnel actions against him damaged his reputation and 
        left him unable to find suitable employment inside the 
        Government.
            (20) For the next 15 years, Mr. Barlow continued to serve 
        his country as a consultant to the intelligence and law 
        enforcement communities working on complex counterintelligence 
        and counter-proliferation operations without the benefits he 
        would have had if he had continued as a Federal employee.
            (21) In 1998, a Private Relief Bill (S. 2274, 105th 
        Congress) was introduced to provide compensation to Mr. Barlow. 
        On October 5, 1998, the Senate passed S. Res. 256, which 
        referred the bill to the Court of Federal Claims instructing 
        the court to advise the Congress as to ``the nature, extent, 
        and character of the claim for compensation referred to in such 
        bill as a legal or equitable claim against the United States or 
        a gratuity''.
            (22) With Senate Resolution 256, the Senate recognized the 
        importance of protecting Federal employees who inform Congress 
        of Executive Branch distortions of the truth and other 
        wrongdoing.
            (23) On March 6, 2000, the Government filed a protective 
        order under the state secrets privilege for documents requested 
        under discovery by Mr. Barlow relating to the Pakistan nuclear 
        program.
            (24) The documents denied under the state secret privilege 
        were documents that Mr. Barlow had official access to prior to 
        the loss of clearance.
            (25) The documents denied under the state secrets privilege 
        were subpoenaed by Mr. Barlow to substantiate the allegations 
        he originally made regarding his claim of false testimony of 
        Government officials to Congress on the Pakistan nuclear 
        weapons program and the actions taken against him.
            (26) The evidence withheld from the Court as a result of 
        the state secrets privilege included significant, sworn 
        statements from a number of senior intelligence, Department of 
        State, and Department of Defense officials corroborating Mr. 
        Barlow's charges of Executive Branch wrongdoing.
            (27) As a result of the use of the state secrets privilege, 
        Mr. Barlow and the United States Court of Federal Claims did 
        not have access to evidence and information necessary to 
        evaluate the key information relating to the merits of Mr. 
        Barlow's case and accurately report its findings to the Senate.
            (28) Since Mr. Barlow's separation from government service 
        in 1992, five Senate and five House committees have intervened 
        in support of Mr. Barlow's case on a bipartisan basis, and 
        investigations by the Central Intelligence Agency, State 
        Department Inspectors General, and the Government 
        Accountability Office have corroborated Mr. Barlow's findings 
        or found that personnel actions were taken against him in 
        reprisal.
            (29) Richard Barlow is recognized for his patriotism and 
        service to his country.
    (b) Compensation of Certain Losses.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall pay, 
        out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to 
        Richard M. Barlow of Bozeman, Montana, the sum of $1,900,000 
        for the losses incurred by Richard M. Barlow relating to and as 
        a direct consequence of personnel and security actions taken by 
        the Department of Defense beginning on August 4th, 1989.
            (2) No inference of liability.--Nothing in this section 
        shall be construed as an inference of liability on the part of 
        the United States.
            (3) No agents and attorneys fees.--None of the payment 
        authorized by this section may be paid to or received by any 
        agent or attorney for any services rendered in connection with 
        obtaining such payment. Any person who violates this subsection 
        shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be subject to a fine 
        in the amount provided in title 18, United States Code.
            (4) Non-taxability of payment.--The payment authorized by 
        this section is in partial reimbursement for losses incurred by 
        Richard Barlow as a result of the personnel actions taken by 
        the Department of Defense and is not subject to Federal, State, 
        or local income taxation.
                                 <all>