The Great 21st Century Scientific Watergate

Documentation of Censorship by the Los Alamos National Laboratory arXiv Staff

(now at Cornell Univ.)

The following documents are available in straight HTML, and as HTML documents containing JPEG images of the original documents.

3/16/01 First letter from Attorney Threadgill to Dr. Browne, Director, LANL.
Attorney Threadgill requests that Dr. Robert V. Gentry's papers be reposted. He points out that the LANL arXiv, after deleting the papers, set up arbitrary requirements that did not previously exist.
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3/21/01 Letter from Frank Dickson of LANL in response to Attorney Threadgill.
Frank Dickson states that they ought to be able to get back to Attorney Threadgill in two weeks regarding the matter of discrimination against Dr. Gentry.
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4/18/01 Second letter from Attorney Threadgill to Dr. Browne, Director, LANL.
After not hearing anything for four weeks, Attorney Threadgill writes this second letter.
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6/18/01 Letter from Christine Chandler, Attorney for LANL, in response to Attorney Threadgill.
Ms. Chandler repeats the same arbitrary requirements, but makes no attempt to cite any evidence that such requirements existed before Dr. Gentry's papers were deleted. Presumably, she could cite none because there is none.
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7/27/01 Fax from Attorney Threadgill to Spencer Abraham, Dr. Browne, et. al. with copies to VIPs and religious leaders.
Attorney Threadgill outlines the censorship and discrimination perpetrated against Dr. Gentry. In particular, he demonstrates how the requirements being imposed upon Dr. Gentry by the arXiv are arbitrary and didn't exist before.
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8/27/01 Letter from Christine Chandler in response to Attorney Threadgill.
Ms. Chandler denies any discrimination, but admits that some papers not meeting the arXiv's requirements do get posted.
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8/31/01 Letter from Attorney Threadgill to Dr. Gentry.
Attorney Threadgill reports that Congressman Bartlett, U.S. Representative from Maryland, went to LANL on behalf of Dr. Gentry.
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12/30/01 Fax from Dr. Gentry to Dr. Rita Colwell, Director, National Science Foundation.
Dr. Gentry reports to Dr. Colwell that National Science Foundation funds may have been misused by the LANL arXiv. Included is a comprehensive analysis of the situation, and the requirements now being imposed upon him.
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1/02/02 Fax from Dr. Gentry to Dr. Richard Atkinson, President, University of California.
Dr. Gentry sent to Dr. Atkinson a copy of his fax to Dr. Colwell, with this brief note attached.
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3/15/02 Letter from Ronald Nelson in response to Dr. Robert V. Gentry.
Ronald Nelson informs Dr. Gentry that the arXiv has been moved to Cornell, and so is no longer under LANL or UCal control.
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2/14/02 Letter from John Duncan, U.S. Representative from Tennessee, to Dr. Gentry.
Representative Duncan responds to the copy he received of the fax to Dr. Colwell, and states that he has contacted the National Science Foundation on Dr. Gentry's behalf.
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3/27/02 Fax from Dr. Gentry to Dr. Hunter Ripley Rawlings, III, President, Cornell University.
Dr. Gentry requests a reply regarding resolution of the matter within the next two weeks, so that he can revise his paper describing the suppression of his results by the LANL arXiv staff. This paper will be presented at the April meeting of the American Physical Society in Albuquerque.
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3/28/02 Letter from Aaron Manka on behalf of Rita Colwell in response to Dr. Gentry.
Dr. Manka states that the matter is closed, and no further action will be taken. Like Ms. Chandler, he cites no supporting evidence to substantiate the pre-existence of the arXiv's requirements.
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3/29/02 Email from Dr. Ed Weissman in response to Dr. Gentry.
Dr. Weismann informs Dr. Gentry that Cornell is beginning to work on a formal policy statement regarding the use of the arXiv. This presumably means that the arXiv has had no such formal policy statement up till now.
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3/31/02 Email from Dr. Gentry in response to Dr. Weissman.
Dr. Gentry expresses appreciation for his conversations with Dr. Weissman, and for Cornell's work on a policy statement for the arXiv, which has "long been badly needed."
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4/3/02 Fax from Dr. Gentry to Dr. Ed Weissman.
Dr. Gentry sends a copy of the National Academy of Sciences' Affirmation of Freedom of Inquiry and Expression, a document he signed in 1976.
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11/3/06 Letter from the Rutherford Institute to Cornell University.
Douglass McKusick enquires as to why the arXiv is violating its own policies by refusing without explanation to allow Dr. Gentry to post scientific papers. Those who had already successfully posted papers were supposed to be able to post additional papers.
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11/20/06 Letter from Cornell University to the Rutherford Institute.
Cornell University responds that since it is a private university, it can do whatever it wants to. While the letter referred to "academic standards," it failed to state how Dr. Gentry's papers refuting the big bang did not meet those standards.
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© 2009