March 5, 2007
MEMORANDUM
TO: Jim Gibbons
Governor, State of Nevada
FROM: Hussein S. Hussein, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
SUBJECT: WHY IS A STATE EMPLOYEE UNDER SURVEILLANCE BY A STATE AGENCY
FOR MORE TWO YEARS?
Request: This memorandum is a request to our newly elected governor
to protect a state employee (Dr. Hussein Hussein) from a state agency
(Nevada System of Higher Education “NSHE”) and to immediately
order the removal of the long-term surveillance by NSHE against me.
Background: On December 27, 2004, NSHE found itself on the front
page of the Reno Gazette Journal (RGJ). The news was bad for NSHE. The
news exposed rampant animal abuse at the UNR. The RGJ called the series
of articles “Trouble on the Farm”. The news hit the wires and
was republished across the nation in the press. I exposed this animal
abuse to the RGJ. I was “the source”.
Within hours of the release of this news, a surveillance camera was installed
outside of my laboratory and office at the UNR. The surveillance is 24/7
and continues to this day. I don’t know if you have ever been under
such a microscope. It is not very fun.
Why was this one
State employee singled out for 24/7 surveillance for more than two years,
all within hours of being exposed as a whistle blower in the press? Regardless
of the answer to that question, the time has come for this to stop. This
is where I need your help.
The law on spy cameras on campus is clear in at least two regards. One,
criminal activity has to be suspected. Two, the UNR President must approve
it.
Therefore, the UNR
President has concluded I am a criminal in need of surveillance. But all
I am is a State employee who is trying to do his job.
In the last two years, no criminal charges have been brought. I am an
innocent State employee who happens to have blown the whistle on severe
and systemic animal abuse. The surveillance continues almost as persistently
as the animal abuse continues. You may recall the 400 drowned UNR sheep
last winter. This continues, despite UNR having paid taxpayer money to
the USDA for the 56 confirmed violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Are we working as State employees in an Orwellian totalitarian State?
Well, maybe not everyone is, but I am.
I need your help,
Sir.
I have endeavored for two long years to get an answer to the surveillance,
to the spy cameras. No one has any answers.
NSHE State lawyers have no answers. NSHE private lawyers, McDonald Carano Wilson LLP, have no answers.
So, I need your help.
Can you help me?
Thank you very much.
cc: Josh Hicks, Chief
Counsel to the Governor
Catherine Cortez Masto, Attorney General
Barbara Buckley, Assembly Speaker
Sheila Leslie, Assembly Majority Whip
William Raggio, Senate Majority Leader
Maurice Washington, Senate Majority Whip
Dina Titus, Senate Minority Leader
Bob Coffin, Senator
Reno Gazette Journal
Sparks Tribune
Associated Press
Reno News and review
Las Vegas Sun
Las Vegas Review Journal
Nevada Sagebrush
Nevada Appeal
The Chronicle of Higher Education
CNN
New York Times
USA Today
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