DATE=6/13/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=CONGRESS / NUCLEAR SECRETS (L-ONLY) NUMBER=2-263435 BYLINE=PAULA WOLFSON DATELINE=CAPITOL HILL CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: An aggressive search is underway to find two small computer devices that contain U-S nuclear secrets. The computer parts disappeared from an American nuclear weapons laboratory. As V-O-A's Paula Wolfson reports, members of the U-S Congress are angry about the latest security breach. TEXT: The Energy Department's security chief left the search at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory to testify on Capitol Hill. Eugene Habiger (haa' - bigger) immediately found himself on the defensive. One by one, republicans and democrats on a House Commerce Subcommittee voiced their anger and frustration. They want to know how the laboratory could lose track of two computer hard drives that were supposed to be locked in a vault under tight security. They also want to know why it took three weeks for word of the missing equipment to reach Energy Department officials in Washington. Mr. Habiger says the department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are looking for answers. He says he does not know how long it will take. /// HABIGER ACT /// They begin polygraph (lie detector) examinations beginning tomorrow. They are moving very, very aggressively. I cannot give you an end date. /// END ACT //// Mr. Habiger offered a chronology of events. He said the two hard drives were discovered missing on May 7th by lab officials. At the time, wildfires were moving rapidly through the Los Alamos area. /// HABIGER SECOND ACT /// The decision was made to go into the vault late that Sunday night as the fire began to burn out of control. They went into the vault, they inventoried - and you can inventory the hard drives by just feeling them, they are a little bigger than a deck of cards - they could not feel the hard drives in the locked container. /// END ACT /// The Energy Department's security chief said everyone at the laboratory was so concerned with the fire that they held off on a full-scale search. Washington officials were informed on June 1st - one week after the fire was declared under control. /// HABIGER THIRD ACT /// It was life threatening. There was absolutely no activity except security and fire fighting that went on in that period, essentially from the 7th (of May) to the 22nd. /// END ACT /// These particular hard drives were designed for use by a special emergency team, which responds to nuclear accidents and terrorist threats. Under questioning from subcommittee members, Mr. Habiger said he did not believe the disappearance had anything to do with espionage. He said all the evidence so far indicates the computer hard drivers were lost or misplaced. /// HABIGER FOURTH ACT /// It is my judgement, sir, based on my exposure over the past week of working fifteen to sixteen hours a day and being an integral part of the process. /// END ACT /// But the subcommittee was not convinced, and some lawmakers questioned the quality of the investigation. Tennessee Republican Ed Bryant said each time there is a security breach, Department of Energy officials promise to do better. But he said they treat an incident at a national nuclear lab no differently than a local police force would treat a home burglary. /// BRYANT ACT /// Given the nature of what's missing here, it is not a burglary of a home. /// END ACT /// The loss of the computer hard drives is just the latest embarrassment for the Los Alamos laboratory. Last year, a Taiwanese-American scientist who worked at the lab was charged with mishandling nuclear secrets. Win Ho Lee is now in solitary confinement in a New Mexico prison awaiting trial. He has denied the charges. (signed) NEB/PW/KBK 13-Jun-2000 12:53 PM LOC (13-Jun-2000 1653 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .