Southfield man sues U.S. Defense Department over spy claims

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • FEBRUARY 19, 2009

A Detroit-area military engineer accused in 1997 of passing secrets to the Israelis sued the Defense Department, the Army and the people behind the charges today in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of David Tenenbaum, 51, of Southfield said the military deprived him of his constitutional right to hold the military accountable for falsely accusing him of espionage by using the federal government’s state secrets privilege to kill his earlier lawsuit against the government. A federal judge dismissed the earlier lawsuit in 2002.

The latest suit, which seeks more than $200 million in damages, said the military asserted the privilege “in reckless disregard of the fact that no state secrets existed … because there was never any evidence against Tenenbaum.”

There was no immediate comment from the Defense Department.

Tenenbaum was suspected of but never formally charged with espionage involving his job at the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren. But the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General said in a report last July that Tenenbaum was singled out because he is Jewish.

The report said Tenenbaum wore a yarmulke and adhered to strict Jewish dietary rules rather than join coworkers for lunch at restaurants. Colleagues questioned why he was allowed to leave work early on Fridays to prepare for the Jewish Sabbath, the report said.

Coworkers said Tenenbaum spent too much time associating with Israeli contacts, made his own travel arrangements for overseas trips and stayed in hotels away from colleagues, which TACOM officials regarded as telltale signs of spying, the report said.

The FBI looked into the complaints but found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Tenenbaum returned to work in 1998 after a 14-month paid leave of absence. Though his clearance was restored and elevated in 2003 after a 4-year legal battle, he has been relegated to lesser duties and shunned by coworkers, said his lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, of Southfield.

Morganroth told the Free Press last year that a bogus investigation prompted the Army to scrap Tenenbaum's 1995 project to improve the armor on Humvees, a decision that proved fatal to American troops who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in woefully inadequate fighting vehicles.

Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at dashenfelter@freepress.com