A Los Alamos National Laboratory whistleblower who has uncovered irregularities involving millions of dollars of taxpayer money at the government-backed facility was brutally beaten this past weekend. According to several news reports, auditor Tommy Hook was violently attacked by three or four anonymous assailants, who allegedly ordered him to keep quiet.
Hook was scheduled to testify before Congress later this month, but is now in the hospital.
On Saturday night, Hook went to a Santa Fe bar, ostensibly to meet a person claiming to be a fellow Los Alamos whistleblower, who called that night. Hook's wife, Susan, said her husband did not frequent bars. When the person did not show up, Hook left the bar after consuming two drinks.
In the parking lot, he was yanked out of his car and beaten so badly by three or four men that he had to be taken to intensive care at a local emergency room. Reportedly, Hook did not provoke these men. The men concentrated on kicking his head, and Hook's family feels that the men would have killed him if a club employee hadn't run from the club and stopped the beating.
Congressional staff members were set to arrive Tuesday in Los Alamos to investigate Hook's allegations of malfeasance at the lab. Hook and another whistleblower sued the University of California, which manages Los Alamos, in March, alleging that after they uncovered management failures, university and lab managers tried to make their jobs miserable so they would quit.
Tommy Hook remains hospitalized with severe trauma to his face and head, including a fractured jaw, and a herniated disk. The FBI has been called in to investigate the attack, and Hook is currently under close protective custody.
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