Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Boston Globe
April 21, 2008 IN THE April 15 op-ed "Troubling questions about missile defense," MIT professor Theodore Postol made two allegations about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and both are wrong.
First, the allegation that the MIT Corporation concealed evidence of scientific fraud from Congress is untrue. I am the chairman of the MIT Corporation, the school's governing body, which comprises more than 70 members. The MIT Corporation has not withheld evidence from Congress, or anyone else, regarding Postol's allegations of scientific fraud.
Second, he asserted that MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center, tampered with scientific findings and misled a Senate committee regarding tests of the national missile defense system. More than a year ago, MIT posted the full report of a thorough investigation of Postol's charges regarding Lincoln Laboratory on the school's website. None of the professor's allegations was found substantiated, and the Lincoln Laboratory scientists were publicly exonerated.
We at MIT honor and defend the freedom of our faculty to express their opinions on controversial topics. But with that freedom comes the responsibility to be accurate. Professor Postol's allegations about MIT fail to meet that obligation.
DANA G. MEAD, Chairman, MIT Corporation, Cambridge
April 21, 2008 IN THE April 15 op-ed "Troubling questions about missile defense," MIT professor Theodore Postol made two allegations about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and both are wrong.
First, the allegation that the MIT Corporation concealed evidence of scientific fraud from Congress is untrue. I am the chairman of the MIT Corporation, the school's governing body, which comprises more than 70 members. The MIT Corporation has not withheld evidence from Congress, or anyone else, regarding Postol's allegations of scientific fraud.
Second, he asserted that MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center, tampered with scientific findings and misled a Senate committee regarding tests of the national missile defense system. More than a year ago, MIT posted the full report of a thorough investigation of Postol's charges regarding Lincoln Laboratory on the school's website. None of the professor's allegations was found substantiated, and the Lincoln Laboratory scientists were publicly exonerated.
We at MIT honor and defend the freedom of our faculty to express their opinions on controversial topics. But with that freedom comes the responsibility to be accurate. Professor Postol's allegations about MIT fail to meet that obligation.
DANA G. MEAD, Chairman, MIT Corporation, Cambridge