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technician who did most of the actual sampling. Dr. Max Level brought his own executive officer who was the mechanical engineer in charge of dismantling the warheads selected for periodic testing and evaluation and the chemical engineer who oversaw the sample collection. Nagib emphasized that his team would not interfere with the dismantling procedure but would only be present as observers of this stage, and they would then guide Max's people to perform the sample collection to ensure that representative samples were collected from all the components of the dismantled warhead. Max did not like being supervised by people who knew nothing about the dismantling and sampling of the unique components, and he avidly rejected the notion of having his team's work criticized or even observed by academic laboratory types who knew nothing of the real world of nuclear weapons. He expressly told Nagib that receiving samples and analyzing them in the laboratory was miles removed from physically handling and disassembling the delicate, highly radioactive components. Nagib said that he was well aware of that and his people would not touch anything or intervene with work and, as he stated before, would only ascertain that the samples collected were truly representative of each component. Max had to accept this as decreed by the Deputy Director, but then raised the point that Nagib had been concerned about and feared – allowing only people with high level security clearance to participate. Nagib played it cool by saying that he would make sure that his staff got the appropriate clearance, worrying that he may fail to get approved which would undermine the whole exercise from his point of view.  
     
    February 21 st , Los Alamos National Laboratory
    It took three weeks but two of Nagib's laboratory staff received the required security clearance and participated in the dismantling and sampling of operational nuclear warheads. The samples they brought were no different than those that had been received by the analytical laboratory in the past. So Nagib was concerned that the whole matter would lead to nothing and it would be hard for him to explain to the Deputy Director what the fuss was all about. He decided that he personally had to get involved and that necessitated upgrading his own security level. He asked Alia, who worked in the Lab's security office, if this could be expedited and she told him she would speak to her boss who was the Head of the Security Office, Colonel (Ret.) Dick Groovey. Her boss agreed to set up a meeting with Nagib and see what could be done.
    Nagib entered the Security Office and was greeted with warm smiles from Alia's colleagues and then ushered into the conference room where the Col. Groovey was seated. The Colonel picked up a thick file that was placed in front of him and looked at Nagib with a stern face. He asked Nagib to repeat his life's story and Nagib did so briefly going over his early years in Palestine and describing at length his life in the USA, emphasizing that he felt privileged to be an American citizen and honored to be able to contribute to the security of his adopted country. The Colonel's expression did not change throughout this whole tirade and he asked Nagib if he still had contact with his relatives in the Palestinian Authority. Nagib said that he exchanged a phone call with his parents on their wedding anniversary and they called him on his birthday. He stressed that they had not attended his wedding or even met his wife. The Colonel stiffly admitted that Alia was a model worker and very dependable and reliable. He concluded the meeting by saying that he would be able to issue the requested clearance if Nagib would successfully pass a polygraph test, to which Nagib promptly agreed.
     
    February 23 rd , Los Alamos National Laboratory
    Nagib sat quietly while the security investigator who was a senior member of the American Polygraph Association hooked him to the polygraph. Nagib had