A call for reason and fairness in the case of
U.S. vs. Walter Anderson

(This is the text of a letter written on behalf of Walt, republished here by author's permission. While many other letters were written and submitted, it was felt that this one in particular best articulated the ideas and feelings of the majority or correspondents.)

March 22, 2007

Your Honour,

I do not envy your task, but ask you listen to a different perspective than that you might have been presented with so far by the prosecution.

To wit:

I first met Walt Anderson around 1989-90 while working with the founders of the International Space University – although I had heard of him from them – as an incredibly generous benefactor. While trying to raise the needed funds for ISU, the founders were living hand-to-mouth, as they poured their lives into the creation of their dream. At this most critical of times, Walt had stepped up and offered them a large sum of money  - with no strings attached, telling them to use it for whatever they deemed necessary. It was a huge leap of faith, based on his belief in the idea and in the people carrying it out. It was the kind of act he would become known for in years to come.

ISU to Walt exemplified the kind of world he wanted to see, one where borders melted and people came together from all over the world to work on a common dream. His first donation was followed by others over time, and he was soon joined by major institutions, wealthy individuals, charitable organizations and governments, who also saw what was possible – but Walt was among the first, and was acknowledged by the Founders (who were extremely close friends of mine – and for whom I was creating the fundraising presentations based on his donations) as being seminal to the ISU’s founding. In fact, they have said that without Walt Anderson there might not be an International Space University.

Now a multi-million dollar brick and mortar institution in Strasbourg, France, ISU has grown to become the world’s premiere space education organization, and hundreds of students from countries as diverse as Nigeria, India, Russia, Japan and the USA have crossed its thresh hold. And true to its founding vision, it has stitched these alumni into a world-wide network of leaders, who are helping lead their own nations and the world into space.

Walt’s life is well reflected in this story. His focus was on growing his businesses and wealth not for himself, but for a greater cause, the cause of humanity, of peace, and a hopeful future for all people, no matter where they came from.

This may sound “airy fairy” or too good to be real, but it is literal truth, and I am sure you have heard this theme reflected in the words of others.

I will not take this time to try and explain why this cause of ours, this grand idea that somehow we can help save this planet, change the relationships of its people to each other and the natural world by reaching outwards into space is so important. I shall not try and convince you that the future of ever greater options we are trying to create for our children rather than the bleak and narrowing chasm of hopelessness we see out there right now is so critical to our survival. Nor will I try and make my friend Walt out as some saint who walked with the golden glow of a Gandhi and led the way to nirvana (after all, you have spoken to him, heard his words, seen that he is by no means a cuddly little guru – to say the least). But I will tell you this, at a time of cynicism, showmanship, waste, insensitivity to others and pure greed, Walt stands out as someone who perhaps was not a Robin Hood, but at least, whatever mistakes he made on his business side, was trying to do the right thing for the people.

Walt didn’t like some aspects of governments, to be sure. He saw them to some degree as vehicles being used to funnel money into weapons of war. He did not like borders. He hated the military industrial complex and those who profiteered from tax-payer largesse in the name of nation, glory, and security. Yet, I often saw him dealing with, and even honouring those in uniform and government who epitomized the concept of public service, and interestingly, as strong as his beliefs were, there were many in public service and the military who also respected him – as any person of true service sees another, and in the field of honourable debate appreciates truth, frankness and honesty.

Walt Anderson arrived in my life at a point where several years into dedicating myself to our cause, I was broke, running on empty, but still fighting. It was well known in the field of space that I stood for a new approach to opening space that would help us move American civilization to the next level – and that of the world as well. And yet I was suffering for it. My critiques of such projects as the NASA space station (which I thought at the time might be a costly dead end and waste of tax payer money – and now has cost the nation almost $100 billion dollars and is about to be cancelled) had cost me financial opportunities, my published editorials and speeches in favour of a common sense pro-frontier and let the people do their job had made me enemies in corporate boardrooms and bureaucracies who saw their rice bowls being threatened. I was so poor that I had returned from testifying to Congress (I have done so 6 times so far on space policy issues) and found an eviction notice on my door, that’s how bad it was.

Yet Walt offered to help. He appreciated that I did not care about money, he saw I was about the bigger Vision, and he stepped up to me, just as he had with my friends at ISU. He helped my organization with free phone services, donations, and anything else he could. He did not ask for anything. He did not ask us not to deal with the government, he did not ask us to put his name out there, nor to include any specific agenda or concepts of his own. He Trusted us. And at that stage it was a Huge and Important thing – as his belief fed our energy. Walt didn’t care that we had very big differences in philosophies, mine being born out of my family’s warrior oriented military and Texas Ranger background, what he saw was someone who was doing the kind of work he wanted to do himself, but couldn’t. So he helped me do it better, and contributed to it the best way he could – the same way he helped so many others.

I know our friends in the Federal government have tried to portray Walt as a high on the hog playboy anarchist set on the overthrow of life as we know it, with no morals nor compunction to steal from the taxpayers, as if he was a mere thief with his hand in Uncle Sam’s wallet or some cold hearted white collar criminal. This image is absurd, a fiction, a picture painted to achieve the goal of punishment by good people who have gotten so caught up in their drive to punish him as a symbol, they have completely ignored the real person within.

Let’s be frank, Walt can be a pain in the ass. He is outspoken. He is cocky and often comes across as arrogant until you know him. But there is a real heart in there, a real guy, who was known by all his friends and employees as someone who would cover your back, someone you could count on in times of trouble, and who would ask for nothing in return. Walt could have lived like a king, but he didn’t. He drove a used PT Cruiser, his condo looked more like a geeky college student’s than some palatial mansion, with unfinished projects, piles of books of all sorts (of which those cited as being somehow anarchistic were a tiny minority, and would fit into any such 1960s science fiction, student of all things philosophical collection) and I recall at one time I think even noticing his bed frame being stacked college like on cinder blocks or somesuch.

I recall staying at a Motel 6 the night of the XPrize a few years ago with him and some friends, I recall meals at burger joints rather than ritzy restaurants, I recall a guy who would rather hang out with the students at ISU rather than the donors and faculty. A guy who showed up at my door in NYC one day in a limo with one of his lower level technicians and his wife, who were stunned and amazed, taking us to a Rolling Stones concert at Yankee Stadium – where we sat high up in basic seats with everyone else eating hot dogs with champagne kept cold by being wrapped in ice in a Gristede’s shopping bag. Walt didn’t care about trying to impress. He was who he was. Yes he had money, yes he enjoyed a good time, but more a just a “guy” than an “impresario”

He isn’t the picture of a criminal one might expect. He didn’t live in mansions, nor flaunt himself, he didn’t throw wild toga parties like some we have heard of who ripped off their own companies and investors. In fact the one or two parties I recall him asking me to help fund he didn’t even attend, and were for the graduating students of ISU.

This leads me to FINDS. I had talked often to Walt about the need to fund several different research and education projects involving space, and he wanted a central vehicle to do so. So we created FINDS. My job was simple, straightforward and great. I was to “FIND” leading edge research and worthy space related projects and conferences to help out with his funds. Period. That was it. I would put lists of such projects as laser powered flight, space solar energy, conferences on the Moon, etc together and bring them to FINDS. He almost never argued, and never tied strings to the giving. We gave the Mars Society its money for their research station in Greenland, we funded prizes for students to develop ways of opening space, we paid for conferences to bring together the world’s experts on the threats of asteroids and comets to the Earth – and to look into ways to use them to reduce our use of this world’s resources. We put on several roundtables in the Senate to educate members of congress on the threat of asteroids, new ways for NASA to operate, and ways to open space at lower cost to the taxpayers. We funded research into helium 3 for use in creating fusion energy at the University of Wisconsin. We funded solar sail projects with Carnegie Mellon University, We put on symposiums to help entrepreneurs to start up businesses and develop viable business plans, we helped support the global celebrations of the world’s first space flight known as Yuri’s Night – which is still going on each year, and even offered a prize for a time for the first amateur rocketeers who could launch a small payload to the edge of space. – Inspiring builders of little Estes rockets to reach ever higher. Nothing was ever asked of these recipients other than that they not waste the money, use it for the work intended and that they publish their results.

I have barely touched on all the things he did or helped to do, including directly working with me to start the personal spaceflight or so called “space tourism” industry now so much in vogue by creating a path for the first such person, Mr. Dennis Tito – to fly in space – and which promises to become a multi-billion dollar industry. Walt has delivered results himself, so many results, in so many ways.

And some of those results have led to projects now opening space. Some of those results have helped create new space firms and ongoing organizations and projects aimed at creating a better future, and some of those results have been to lift a lot of people who share this dream to levels where they are now achieving amazing things, creating products ideas and industries that will revolutionize the future.

I have barely touched on all the things he did or helped to do, including directly working with me to start the personal spaceflight or so called “space tourism” industry now so much in vogue by creating a path for the first such person, Mr. Dennis Tito – to fly in space – and which promises to become a multi-billion dollar industry.

The future.

And that is what this hearing is all about. Not just how to punish the crime committed by Walt, but what to do now. Does this court take the normal course of putting him behind bars for as long as possible at a cost of millions more to the taxpayers of the United States, or does it try a different course – one that keep those taxpayers safe, is a constant reminder to Walt and any others who might consider doing the same thing, and yet helps create new jobs, wealth and brings in restitution of those funds this country is rightly owed?

Walt did wrong. He has admitted it. He broke the law. And for two years has been locked up not in the often cited country club federal prison of other white collar criminals, but in a high security hell hole of a federal jail – without trial.

And now you must decide what to do next, how to punish him further, and the pressures on you must be enormous. I know that this is tax time. Everyone knows that each year at this time someone is publicly pilloried in the name of reminding people to pay their taxes. This is not some big secret your honour. The folks who have worked so long and hard on this prosecution want their pound of flesh, and the IRS wants to let Americans know what happens when you do not play right and pay your taxes. I do not expect in any way that such pressures will affect your verdict, as I have heard you are a fair and decent man. You will try and do what is right, and I honour you for that sir.

But I would ask you to consider all you have heard from those who know Walt, to recall the tone of their voices, the look in their eyes. I would ask you to consider the good works he has done, and that he, unlike so many of the elite rip-off artists we have seen parade across our TV screens in recent times, was not doing this primarily for himself, but to help us all. He was against senseless wars before it was a common theme, he was funding environmental work before it was the in thing, he was supporting science and technology education before the cry went out that our nation was falling behind in these critical areas.

I know he will have to face more time as proscribed to you by the guidelines for such crimes, but I ask you to make this time as minimal as you can. If you need to levy him so that a portion of his future income is given back to the nation, then do so. But don’t waste him. Don’t waste this mind and drive. Get him out there so he can apply his genius to creating the future, creating new jobs, new industries and expanding our tax base while improving the strategic position of this nation at such a critical time in history. As I know in my deepest soul that is just what he will do – he can’t help himself. He will not flee, he will not run away – as that is not and has never been his style (keep in mind he was picked up coming back into the US – even though he knew he was going to be arrested at some point – he told us all it would happen…yet he did not go underground – think about it – as he knew how to, was an expert in it in fact – at least according to the prosecution.) And if you are worried use the high tech means available to you to assure he does not. And make him pay it back – as I feel he can and will over the course of the rest of his life – and much more – and in many ways.

Punishment and mercy, pain and restitution, revenge and common sense.

I urge you to balance them all, to look into your heart and hear what we have all said to you, to leaven the tales of darkness tossed at you by the prosecution with the story of a man who tried to do the right thing the wrong way, and to do the Right Thing yourself.

Thankyou Your Honour,
Rick Norman Tumlinson

Biographical Information

Named one of the world's top "Space Visionaries" and one the top one hundred most influential people in the space field by Space News, Rick Tumlinson is the Co-Founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, which has been called "pound for pound the most effective space organization on Earth." From an old Texas family whose pioneering credits include helping start the Texas Rangers and fighting in the Alamo, Rick has spent his life fighting to open the space frontier. The son of an Air Force Sergeant and his English wife, he was educated primarily in England and Texas. Mr. Tumlinson worked for noted scientist Gerard K. O'Neill at the Space Studies Institute, founded the New York L-5 Society, and was a key player in starting the Lunar Prospector project which discovered hints of water on the Moon. He also helped pass the Space Settlement Act of 1988, testified before President Reagan's National Commission on Space, and was a founding trustee of the X-Prize. Over the years he has been a lead witness in six congressional hearings on the future of NASA, the U.S. space program and space tourism, including testifying before Senator John McCain and the Senate Space and Technology Committee on the Moon, Mars and Beyond program.

To support his activism in his early years, Tumlinson produced the animated videos used to gain funding for the Air Force's DC-X rocket project, the International Space University, the X-33 rocket program and the Air Force's Space Command. He also created the first ever paid political announcement for space, which was featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Not satisfied to just talk, write about and help get funding for projects, Mr. Tumlinson has put his time and money where his mouth is. He co-founded the firm LunaCorp which produced the first ever TV commercial shot on the International Space Station for Radio Shack. He led the team which turned the Mir Space Station into the world's first commercial space facility, and was a co-founder of the space firm MirCorp. (The story is told in the book NASA: Lost in Space.) Along the way he personally signed up Dennis Tito, the world's first "citizen explorer," to fly on the International Space Station, and has assisted in numerous other such projects.

Rick was also Executive Director and co-Founder of the Foundation for the International Non-Governmental Development of Space (FINDS), a foundation which funded breakthrough projects and activities such as Helium 3 research, laser launch studies, and asteroid processing projects. The organization provided the first $100k in seed money for the founding of the Mars Society, operated the Cheap Access to Space Prize and supported such projects as The Watch asteroid search program. FINDS also underwrote and co-sponsored a very successful series of Senate Roundtables on space issues. Rick founded the Permission to Dream project, which has over the years placed dozens of telescopes in the hands of schools and educational groups around the world, from Sri Lanka to Iran and Russia. In 2005 Rick also Co-Founded The Institute for Space Law and Policy, a Washington based think-tank.

A regular contributor to the space industry paper Space News, Tumlinson's writings and quotes have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Washington Post, Reader's Digest and dozens of other publications. He has appeared on the front page of the New York Times, has been featured in two issues of Popular Science and around the world from Britain's conservative Economist to the People's Daily in China. He has appeared on such television programs as ABC's World News Tonight, and Politically Incorrect and appeared as an expert guest on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, CNBC's Open Exchange and is a frequent commentator on CNN. Internationally he has appeared on TV sets from Russia to China's CCTV and the BBC.
In 2004 Rick was one of only 20 guests invited by the White House to hear President Bush announce his plans to return to the Moon and explore Mars. Often a public critic of the agency, last year he joined NASA's prestigious Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, helping behind the scenes to lay out the framework for the first human outpost on the Moon and steps towards putting humans on Mars. He has also been a consultant to the Heinlein Prize Organization, and is starting his own space firm "XTreme Space." His book, "Return to the Moon" was just published and is available at your local bookstore.

Mr. Tumlinson is known as one of the best speakers in the field of space. His stirring and freewheeling talks range from critiques and discussions of current national space policy, to the presentation of a "Frontier" ideology for opening space, to the how and why of returning to the Moon, to a deeply spiritual discussion of our place in the universe, the search for other life and the reasons we are reaching for the stars.

All content on this website is Open Source: All or part can be used so long as links or citation to original materials is given. Web Design by Cyberjox, Ltd., Monroe County, PA