00-06-04          RTO    Sunday morning routine.  …..

            Also, spoke with John GARSTANG about the AES is Ottawa.  He advised that it was the Seawater Wire Tests that were on, not the FIB testing.  He said that apparently Jim BROWN had ‘persuaded’ Jim FOOT that the tests had to be done before he could produce a report.  Apparently on Friday, Vic GERDEN was asking John GARSTANG and even Larry FOGG about it.  John told him that the criminal investigation aside, the identification of magnesium as being in the air at the time of the arcing could lead them in the correct direction as to the cause of the fire.  If the magnesium is legitimate, then something with a lot of it was burning early.  Now we have to find the source, which of course could be either criminal or non-criminal.  John also mentioned the criminal aspect to GERDEN, that this allows them to say that they at least took all necessary avenues of approach that they could short of actually doing a criminal investigation into the matter, which of course is not their mandate.  I asked about the FIB testing, and John was unsure about it being held at all.  He felt that there could now be a question of funding.  He has not had a chance to speak with Jim FOOT as he is in Ottawa. 

            I spoke with Gus SIDLA, and he said only that Jim FOOT and Jim BROWN had discussed the matter, and BROWN had persuaded him to continue with the tests.  He offered nothing else. 

            This makes me believe strongly that the interpretation of the results will be up to Jim BROWN alone, with no input from FOOT, something that I had worried about. When the time comes to re-discuss FIB, I will be able to fall back on the notes of our meeting of 00-05-25 in which Jim FOOT strongly recommended going to the FIB process, that this was the method to use, etc.  It will be hard for him to back out of FIB/TEM now.

(Clarification:)    I totally underestimated the ability of the TSB to control a file and obtain the results that they want regardless of the truth.