jews d

DAVID SACHS

in
the

news analysis

“In private
industry, no one
would stand for
discrimination,
anti-Semitism
and false
accusations.
So, why isn’t the
government held
accountable?”

Will Justice
Ever Come?

— DAVID TENENBAUM

Torment still
plagues Jewish
engineer falsely
accused of
spying for Israel.

I

Sen. McCaskill

Sen. Peters

Secretary Mattis

14

January 4 • 2018

n his 21-year battle for
redress from the U.S. Army,
Southfield resident David
Tenenbaum has enlisted some
very powerful new advocates.
Sen. Claire McCaskill of
Missouri, the ranking Democrat
on the Senate Committee
on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs, and
Michigan Democrat Sen. Gary
Peters, a committee member,
have sent a letter to James
Mattis, the current secretary
of the Department of Defense,
to finally provide closure
and relief for the 60-year-old
Tenenbaum.
For the past 33 years,
Tenenbaum has worked as a
civilian engineer at the U.S.
Army Tank-automotive and
Armaments Command, known
as TACOM, near 11 Mile and
Mound roads in Warren.
During a significant part of
that time, Tenenbaum says he

jn

DAVID SACHS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

was subjected to vile
team, attorney Daniel
anti-Semitism from co-
Harold of Morganroth
workers and from the
& Morganroth in
Army itself.
Southfield. Republican
He recounts how
Sen. Ron Johnson of
he has been harassed,
Wisconsin, the com-
intimidated and
mittee chair, and
accused of spying for
Republican Sen. Chuck
Israel. And, he says, he Daniel Harold
Grassley of Iowa also
was subjected to an
support the cause.
extended and intrusive
David Tenenbaum is
FBI investigation that made his a chemical engineer who is also
life a living hell.
an expert in bio-engineering.
Tenenbaum’s efforts to seek
One reason he was hired at
TACOM was his familiarity
a remedy in the federal court
with Israel and his ability to
system was thwarted by the
government’s unsubstantiated
speak Hebrew with Israeli
claim Tenenbaum’s persecution counterparts.
couldn’t be discussed because
One area of his focus at
work was the survivability of
of “state secrets.”
the troops in combat. He was
As a last resort, Tenenbaum
aware of how susceptible sol-
has convinced Senate
diers riding in Humvees (large,
Homeland Security com-
jeep-like vehicles) were to
mittee members to take up
rocket-propelled grenades, as
his case. And his effort is
was the case in the guerilla war
bipartisan, according to a
in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.
longtime member of his legal

In 1995, on his own initiative,
Tenenbaum began a project to
retro-fit the Humvees to pro-
tect defenseless soldiers riding
in them.
Tenenbaum’s “Light Armor
Survivability Systems” project
included experts from Israel
and Germany — Israel because
of its experience with terrorism
and Germany because of its
expertise with computer mod-
els. As part of his job, he would
speak Hebrew with his Israeli
counterparts and traveled to
the Jewish state.
Everything fell apart, howev-
er, when some of Tenenbaum’s
local co-workers secretly and
falsely accused him of spying
for Israel in 1996. Tenenbaum
later discovered they had been
secretly accusing him of such
spying as early as 1992. He
found out they would observe
him, an Orthodox Jew, carrying
his kosher lunch to work every