Donald M. Kerr, Jr. served in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration as acting director of the defense programs at the [[Department of Energy]], making him responsible for [[America]]'s nuclear bombs. He directed the secret Nuclear Intelligence Panel (NIP) study into the 1979 [[VELA Satellite]] sighting. Kerr stated that the NIP had no doubt it was a nuclear bomb and believed the [[Jack P. Ruina|Ruina]] panel's mandate was driven by politics "to find a different explanation."[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20.