The Ambushed Grand Jury to Become Case Study for Undergraduate, Graduate, and Law School Courses at University of California Irvine

The Ambushed Grand Jury has been required reading at several law schools around the country since its initial publication in 2004.  It is also required reading at the School of Ecology at the University of California Irvine. Now, the authors and main players in Ambushed are working with UCI to digitally archive all of the reference and source material used in Ambushed to prove the government cover-up of its nuclear crimes at Rocky Flats.  The digitized archive and Ambushed will be used as a case study around which curricula and course materials for the UCI undergraduate schools, graduate schools, and the law school will be developed. The curricula will then be placed online for use by educators throughout the country.

Former Special Agent Jon Lipsky, who led the historic raid on the nuclear weapons plant, is now a graduate student at UCI and will receive his MA in Criminology, Law and Society in June 2012. Lipsky; and Caron Balkany, Ambushed’s volunteer lawyer, are developing  a high school course outline which, with the digitally archived reference material from Ambushed,  will also be made available nationwide. 

Lipsky noted, “Ambushed and these courses will help people understand that the origins of the nuclear contamination and the cover-up at Rocky Flats both lie with the government, and that the clean-up is also part of the cover-up. This is crucial, because similar things are going on all over the country.”

 Rocky Flats was once considered among the most contaminated places in the United States, largely as a result of decades of environmental crimes committed by the US government and its defense contractors. After undergoing a clean-up which many independent scientists call inadequate, the former nuclear weapons plant is now the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Strangely, the refuge designation resulted in a less protective clean-up standard for Rocky Flats than what may otherwise have been required. Despite the deadly plutonium which the US government admits remains on-site, public access, including hiking, biking, school trips and public education events, will soon commence.

The bomb building mission from Rocky Flats has been moved to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. There are now plans to create a national historic park there, and, after clean-up, public access will be allowed to some designated nuclear facilities on site. It is probable that the government will attempt to lower the clean-up standards at Los Alamos, as well.