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from the Why-couldn't-they-say-that-before? dept.
On September 6th, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) made the decision to temporarily vacate the Sunspot Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico as a precautionary measure while addressing a security issue. The facility closed down in an orderly fashion and is now re-opening. The residents that vacated their homes will be returning to the site, and all employees will return to work this week.
AURA has been cooperating with an on-going law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak. During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location.
The decision to vacate was based on the logistical challenges associated with protecting personnel at such a remote location, and the need for expeditious response to the potential threat. AURA determined that moving the small number of on-site staff and residents off the mountain was the most prudent and effective action to ensure their safety.
http://www.aura-astronomy.org/news/news.asp?newsID=389
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:40PM (3 children)
This doesn't really imply "foreign intel assets" though. I sounds more like they were worried about a mass shooting.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jmorris on Monday September 17 2018, @05:52PM (1 child)
But that is just stupid, once identified they take the guy in for questioning, not close down a research facility and deploy a swarm of Feds to secure it.
Remember, anything you read in the media is at least partly false. Either incompetence, intentional misdirection or plain old lies. This story smells of a lot of intentional obfuscation and misdirection. That usually means intelligence op.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:52PM
Well what threat do you think they were concerned about? That the foreign government would try to bomb the place?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:55PM
Actually, I wonder if its involved with hacked/leaked SAP info on the clinton servers. From the OIG report we know there was classified stuff on there, but clinton couldnt be expected to understand there was anything wrong with what she was doing. AFAIK the extra emails on the Anthony Wiener laptop given to the NYSD still hasnt been released at all.. Unfortunately, thats all we really know.
All this anonymous source stuff is too annoying, can't trust it. But this came out about a week before the observatory investigation:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-without-citing-evidence-says-china-hacked-hillary-clintons-emails/2018/08/29/cdbd6c60-ab71-11e8-8a0c-70b618c98d3c_story.html [washingtonpost.com]
https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/11/04/erik-prince-nypd-ready-make-arrests-weiner-case/ [breitbart.com]