Six Suspended in Wake of Missing Secrets at Los Alamos Weapons Lab

Six Suspended in Wake of Missing Secrets at Los Alamos Weapons Lab
FoxNews Tuesday, June 13, 2000
By Michael Y. Park
Six managers at the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico were placed on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of investigations into how two top-secret removable hard drives containing detailed information on U.S. and Russian nukes vanished from a vault at the weapons lab.
Neither lab or Energy Department officials would comment on the action or identify the individuals. The Associated Press reports that among those put on leave was Stephen Younger, head of the nuclear weapons programs. The Clinton administration announced that former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton would conduct a separate investigation into the missing computer drives and make recommendations to the president.
The FBI was conducting a criminal probe. The investigation was expected to focus on some two-dozen individuals who had free access to the highly secured vault where two computer hard drives that contained the nuclear files were kept. Polygraph tests were expected to begin to be administered to some of the Los Alamos scientists within days, Energy Department officials said. The classified nuclear secrets that vanished from Los Alamos National Laboratory are probably not in the hands of spies, federal officials stressed Tuesday. But the FBI, the Department of Energy and lab personnel still haven't figured out what exactly happened to the computer hard drives. The security breach, which went unreported by lab workers for three weeks, was considered serious enough to prompt a congressional inquiry, which convened Tuesday.
Ed Curran, director of the Energy Department's counter-intelligence office, said Monday that "the indicators (for espionage) are just not there." A spy, he said, would have only taken one drive because the information on both was identical. Curran said they were more likely "misused, misplaced or accidentally destroyed." Los Alamos spokesman James Danneskiold repeated those statements Tuesday, but said no possibilities have been ruled out.
The drives, each of which is slightly larger than a deck of cards, were used by the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, which travels to areas where there are suspected nuclear accidents or threats. Danneskiold said he could not confirm what was on the drives except to say that they did not contain intelligence information, as had been previously reported.
The information on the disks likely provided details the NEST team could use to disarm warheads, according to Charles Ferguson, director of the Nuclear Policy Project of the Federation of American Scientists. The hard drives were kept in a secure vault in the New Mexico lab's "X Division," the most-restricted area on the sprawling science center where nuclear-arms designers do their work. About 80 to 90 people had access to the drives, a lab spokesman said. Only 28 people could enter the vault unescorted.
The Data Vanishes
On May 7, lab workers responsible for the disks discovered they had vanished from a suitcase in the vault but did not report the loss to higher-ups at the lab or to security, according to a lab spokesman. Only two days later, the lab and nearby town were surrounded by the flames of a National Park Service blaze gone awry. The lab was evacuated, although the vault was kept under continuous guard.
The day after the workers returned to the lab, on May 23, they searched for the drives to no avail. Finally, on May 31, the workers reported the drives missing. The lab in turn called the Department of Energy, which called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation on May 31 or June 1.
An FBI spokesman, Special Agent Paul Bresson, confirmed to FOXNews.com that the criminal investigation was focusing on the lab and lab personnel. The Energy Department, which notified the FBI as soon as the disks were found missing, said normal lab operations have been suspended to permit staff to assist in the search. Polygraph tests of employees will begin Wednesday.
Nuclear Fallout at the DOE
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee told Fox News the latest breach just confirms his suspicions of weak security at the Department of Energy. "A lot of us have never been satisfied that there's real security at the labs. We've been told that there is security. All these steps have been taken by the secretary and his team but a lot of us on the Intelligence Committee and on the Energy Committee and in the House and the Senate have had our misgivings," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.
"If the inquiry reveals that individuals did not fulfill their responsibilities with respect to this matter, they will face certain and appropriate disciplinary actions," Los Alamos National Laboratory Director John Browne said. A lab spokesman said that if the workers believed the drives were missing, protocol demanded that they should have notified security immediately. Discipline for such a breach could include termination, he said. Browne said the University of California, which nominally runs the laboratory for the government, would conduct its own review of security and safety practices.
The loss of the data might also be regarded as evidence that investigators fingered the wrong man when they arrested Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, whom the government suspects of being involved in a spy scheme. Lee was arrested in December for misuse of secret nuclear data and is awaiting trial. Although under investigation for three years in connection with the alleged loss of U.S. nuclear secrets to China, Lee has not been charged with espionage.
"Maybe people will say they have the wrong man and the right man is still on the premises," said Sir Laurence Martin, a strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Energy Department had previously vowed to increase security at the lab, near the site where the world's first atomic weapon was created.

— The Associated Press and Fox News' Brian Wilson and Sharon Kehnemui contributed to this article