WASHINGTON - Civilian members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board have been put on NASA's payroll so the panel can use government secrecy regulations to withhold testimony about the space shuttle disaster.

Members of the House Space subcommittee, which oversees NASA, said making federal workers of the CAIB's five civilian members undermines the independence and credibility of the board.

"It baffles me why they are doing this," said Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn. "This is inconsistent with the history of these types of investigations."

The action permits the board to guarantee confidentiality for witnesses, such as NASA engineers, who testify before the board in closed sessions.

"This board should seek to restore trust in NASA and the matters its considers should be open unless it is a matter of protecting the privacy of the astronauts' families," Barton said in a statement.

Gordon said he was told that some civilian members of the board offered to work without pay, but that NASA insisted that they be placed on the government payroll so that the board could conduct business in secret.

Steven Aftergood of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists said the CAIB insistence on secrecy suggests that the board is not really independent.

"What they did was hire outsiders and convert them into an internal board," Aftergood told the Orlando Sentinel, which first broke the story. "The upshot is, we don't have an independent investigating board. This means NASA is investigating itself. This defeats the whole purpose of having an independent inquiry."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46959-2003May12.html