Not surpisingly, his brother was a Islamic Convert, who was arrested with him.

Philippines to Deport Two U.S. Brothers Men Suspected of Having Links to Terrorism; One Worked at Nuclear Lab By HRVOJE HRANJSKI, AP MANILA, Philippines (Dec. 30) - Philippine authorities said Tuesday they were set to deport two American brothers arrested for suspected links to terrorism and for allegedly meeting charity groups believed to be al-Qaida fronts in the country. One of the men, Michael Ray Stubbs, worked as a heating and air conditioning technician at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - a major nuclear weapons lab outside San Francisco - for about 10 years ending in 2000. Officials said the FBI was looking into whether he had access to sensitive information. Michael Ray Stubbs, 55, and his brother James, 56, a convert to Islam, were arrested on immigration violation charges Dec. 13 in the town of Tanza in Cavite province, 21 miles southwest of Manila, the Bureau of Immigration said. The brothers denied any wrongdoing when they appeared at a news conference in handcuffs. Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo told reporters Tuesday that James Stubbs met with members of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group, as well as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front separatist movement, two groups loosely linked by Philippine officials to al-Qaida. ''These are all fabricated lies,'' James Stubbs shouted as Domingo addressed the news conference. An irritated Domingo responded: ''This is the Philippine government. They're violating immigration laws and they're being charged and they are going through immigration proceedings.'' The brothers, born in Missouri, would be deported to the United States as ''undesirable aliens ... based on intelligence reports that they were seen meeting with known leaders of various terrorist cells in the country with links to al-Qaida,'' the immigration bureau said. Domingo said they were under surveillance before their arrest. The two had tourist visas but also carried documents indicating they were soliciting funds for the construction of Muslim schools and mosques, Domingo said. She said there was no evidence linking the two to any past or planned terrorist plots, but said James Stubbs allegedly called for the overthrow of the U.S. government in statements to local authorities. James Stubbs said he has a Filipino wife and was in the Philippines because she was pregnant. A naval intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials were concerned that Michael Ray Stubbs may have passed sensitive information from Livermore to his brother. Susan Houghton, a spokeswoman for the Livermore lab, confirmed that Michael Ray Stubbs used to work there for about 10 years until 2000. ''We are aware of what the Philippines officials did,'' she said. ''We have been working closely with the FBI on this issue since he was arrested in the Philippines a few weeks ago.'' She said Stubbs' clearance was terminated after he left on medical leave in March 2000. The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the allegations. Spokeswoman Karen Kelley said she understood the brothers retained legal council to address the charges. According to Philippine military intelligence reports, James Stubbs left his job as a teacher in California to study Arabic in Sudan. He met in May with several charity groups suspected of being al-Qaida fronts and founded by Mahmoud Afif Abdeljalil - believed to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law. Abdeljalil was arrested in September in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga on charges of having an expired visa. After he was interrogated, he was ordered deported. The charities were not immediately identified, but the immigration bureau said they were used to channel funds to al-Qaida cells in the Philippines. 12/30/03 07:42 EST Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Tread lightly in the P.I. boys, they use torture and they hand down the death penalty.

Another good catch from the Filipino security services.  They stopped Khalid Sheihk Mohammed's plot to assassinate the Pope and bomb a dozen airliners simultaneously back in the 1990's.

I am still trying to decide if we just uncovered a security breech at Livermore...

...or if we just rescued two moron con-artists who thought they were going to scam Al Qaida out of some cash by overstating the one brothers importance at LLNL. And they would be dead if they found out all he did was fix airconditioning.

Or could a HVAC guy get access to some labs under the guise of doing repair work?

[Travolta]Yeah!  Isn't it cool?[/Travolta][8D]

People working in the HVAC Shop at LLNL do not normally have access to classified information.

While they don't have access to it, he may have had workspace access to repair the HVAC systems in sensitive areas.  He may also have spotted and co-opted someone who does have access.  

It also wouldn't be too hard to swipe a CD or other softcopy when an opportunity presents itself.

The first thing they'll need to do is find out what spaces he had access to, do an inventory to look for anything unaccounted for and determine if he had any close contacts with current or former co-workers for starters.

It's actually a pretty good job to have if you are interested in espionage, because you probably will have access to most, if not all spaces that have HVAC ducting and controls. Not to mention the phone list for everyone in the building.

Not to mention, if actual security was as poorly enforced at Lawrence Livermore as it was at Los Alamos during the same time period. As was revealed during the Wen Ho Lee investigation.

Actually, before any crafts people are allowed in a classified area to work, all classified material has to be locked up or removed from the area.  While the system is not foolproof, inadvertant access to classified material is unlikely.  As far as access to the phone list, every employee at LLNL is given their own copy of the phone list and office location of everyone at the lab.  It's called a telephone book and is not considered sensitive.

Can we refuse to let them come home?  Let them rot over there.

That is the way its supposed to work, but in the time period this guy worked there, 90-2000, was security at LLNL as laxly enforced as their sister lab in Los Alamos during the same time frame? Where sensative materials were left out overnight, door locks had been disabled, ect. because the researchers thought following procedure was a nuscence.