Three Mile Island Alert testifies to Veteran Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee

Three Mile Island Alert
Harrisburg PA
For Release on September 27, 2010
Contact Scott Portzline 717 232-8863

Three Mile Island Alert’s security consultant Scott D. Portzline presented written testimony today to the PA Senate hearing on the intelligence bulletin contract. Portzline provided actual events of retaliation against activists which exemplify what could occur from the unnecessary publication of the names of activists.

“The price of activism can be quite high in terms of time, effort and money. But when the government includes your name on a list that makes you a suspect, the costs then threaten your patriotism, your good citizenship and your moral obligation to get involved,” said Scott Portzline of Harrisburg PA.

Ironically, while Portzline has received letters of appreciation from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for his “assessments, concerns and suggestions,” Three Mile Island Alert is considered to be an anti-nuclear group rather than a nuclear watchdog group and therefore would have fit the profile of the intelligence bulletin’s groups which could cause trouble.

Mr. Portzline also noted that the overly broad-blanket approach to gathering and disseminating intelligence has distracted the government from containing actual threats to the nation’s infrastructure like the Stuxnet virus. The virus has currently infected approximately 3000 industrial plants in the United States.

In fact, Mr. Portzline reported his concerns to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the week of September 20, 2010, and found the agency's responses to be inadequate. Portzline, who was instrumental in exposing security weaknesses in the NRC's website in 2004, the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory web site in 2007, and the Department of Energy and Department of Commerce websites earlier this year. Portzline compares the NRC's actions against cyber threats to “hitting the snooze button until someone else wakes you up.”

TMI Alert believes that the recent revelations in Pennsylvania serve as a good example of the quest for security over-reaching its moral balance. The government is to be commended for correcting this practice albeit too late for many.