My own theory on Lazar’s story, including his eduction
The biggest caveat in Lazar’s story, that everyone seems to pound on, is his eduction background. People say since his education can’t be verified, the buck stops there and the whole story falls apart. After looking at the entire story from a 30,000 foot view, I think there may be a plausible explanation for what happened, including his shaky education claims.
Back in the 1980s, it was a lot easier to lie on resumes, and I believe it was done much more frequently back then. Especially with all records being analogue.
We know Ed Teller was at Los Alamos on the day Bob said he was there, because it was in the same issue of the Los Alamos Monitor talking about Bob’s jet car. So, I don’t think Bob made up meeting Teller. Bob reached out to Teller a few years later with his resume, asking for a job lead. Teller tells Bob that EG&G will call him to set up an interview. Teller is probably pretty high up in the program, being in the Manhattan Project, father of the hydrogen bomb, and setting up national labs. His recommendation alone was probably enough to fast-track Lazar into the program.
Jumping forward, Bob claims that he was replacing a scientist who died after cutting into a reactor. If someone died and needed to be replaced, the program would probably be trying to expedite a replacement for something that important.
Bob says they came back later and said there was a problem with his security clearance.
Therefore (TLDR), I think it’s likely that:
- S-4 needed to quickly replace the scientist who died.
- Teller’s recommendation alone is enough to get Lazar in, given Teller’s likely high up in the program.
- Lazar begins working there provisionally while they check his background.
- They find his education doesn’t check out and stop calling him out.
- This is what leads to him being iced out, maybe along with his wife’s affair.
Bob has even walked back his education claims in recent interviews, saying things like he went to MIT under a government program, not a traditional master’s degree. And that he “did a lot of auditing at both places,” referring to MIT and Cal Tech.
Further, if you see Teller in an interview being asked about Lazar, his reaction is very strange. He doesn’t deny knowing Lazar, he said he’ll just sit in silence if asked about Lazar. I think this weighs in favor of Lazar actually meeting him, and Teller probably just got burned by Bob going public and his background not checking.
