DATE=6/15/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=NUCLEAR SECRETS MISSING AT LOS ALAMOS
NUMBER=6-11874
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=

INTRO:  For the second time in a year, important 
information on United States nuclear weapons is 
missing from one of the nation's top secret 
laboratories.

The information, stored on two computer devices, is 
believed to have disappeared from the Los Alamos, New 
Mexico National Laboratory, around the time a huge 
forest fire was threatening the facility.  The missing 
data was  not  reported to top government officials 
for several weeks.  That delay has added to the 
outrage of congressional critics, who say the Energy 
Department, the agency responsible for maintaining the 
nation's nuclear weapons, is unable to safeguard 
nuclear secrets.  Like Congress, the nation's press is 
pretty upset as we hear now from  _____________ in 
today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT:   Less than a year ago, it was discovered that a 
Chinese-born U-S nuclear scientist, Wen Ho Lee, had 
taken highly classified data from his office computer 
at the Los Alamos laboratory and transferred it to his 
home computer.

There was great concern at the time that this 
information might have fallen into the hands of 
foreign countries, but Mr. Lee steadfastly denied 
that.  He was eventually fired from the laboratory, 
and arrested on charges of mishandling classified 
data.

Now the Los Alamos laboratory is involved in another 
serious security breach.  We begin our sampling with 
The Los Angeles Times. 

TEXT: Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's earlier 
assurances that security flaws at the Los Alamos 
National Laboratory had been fixed turn out to be not 
just wrong but ridiculous.  The disappearance of 
secret nuclear data on two computer hard drives from a 
vault at the New Mexico weapons facility reveals 
continuing laxity in safeguarding highly sensitive 
information.   ... The missing hard drives contain 
information about Russian and Chinese nuclear weapons, 
as well as weapons of American allies.   The danger of 
this material falling into the wrong hands is obvious.

TEXT:  The New York Times calls the case "appalling," 
and spells out why the loss is so serious.

VOICE:  The two computer hard drives contained data 
used to respond to nuclear accidents or terrorist 
attacks.  They have been missing from a secure vault 
at the lab since at least early May.  Staff members of 
the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, the group 
responsible for managing the hard drives, became aware 
of their disappearance on May 7th, but there are 
reports that the drives were last seen for certain in 
early April.  ... Incredibly, the lab does not even 
require staff members to sign a log when they remove 
classified material, making it hard to determine when 
or why or by whom material is removed.  That will now 
have to be determined by a federal inquiry after the 
fact.

TEXT:  Ohio's [Akron] Beacon Journal sums up its 
displeasure this way:

VOICE:  The federal government has fundamental duties.  
One is the protection of nuclear secrets.  
Unfortunately, the Department of Energy can't seem to 
meet the task.  Yes, Bill Richardson knows how to 
scare people.

TEXT:  In the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Times 
also targets the Energy Secretary.

VOICE:  Bill Richardson is taking a pounding in 
Congress over the latest security debacle at the Los 
Alamos weapons lab.  Appropriately so.  The department 
is incapable of stopping the theft and exploitation of 
secrets related to development, testing and 
maintenance of America's nuclear arsenal. ... The 
failures fall squarely on Los Alamos where a 
scientific community obviously views security as an 
issue for military weenies and ... spy chasers.  
Inventory, control and audit systems are a joke to the 
Ph.Ds in the lab.  Taxpayers ought to be enraged.  
Security lapses represent genuine threats to national 
security.  Secrets are in circulation that could do 
the nation harm.  

TEXT:  The [New York] Daily News is even more 
critical, writing:

VOICE:  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know 
that something has gone dreadfully wrong with security 
in the most sensitive areas of our government.  Latest 
revelation: Staffers waited more than three weeks to 
report that two computer hard drives containing 
nuclear secrets had vanished from Los Alamos National 
Laboratory. ... Espionage and terrorism remain 
constant threats.  May we never find out how lethal 
such incompetence can prove.

TEXT:  From Charleston, South Carolina, The Post and 
Courier laments:

VOICE:  Once again the Energy Department, and the 
Clinton administration, face a huge and troubling 
unknown growing out of what appears to have been a 
cavalier attitude toward security throughout the 
government.

TEXT:  And in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, the Tribune-
Review says in its headline "Heads should roll...":

VOICE:  And the first should be that of Secretary of 
Energy Bill Richardson.  ... [At] one time [he] had 
been one of the more acceptable members of the 
otherwise undesirable Clinton crowd.  But he has 
performed abysmally in safeguarding our nuclear 
secrets.  ... Bill Richardson needs to resign.

/// OPT ///TEXT:  The Portland [Maine] Press Herald 
says the "breach at [the] nuclear lab presents [a] 
serious threat," while today's Milwaukee [Wisconsin] 
Journal reminds readers this is  not  the first 
security problem.

VOICE:  When the Wen Ho Lee scandal broke last year, a 
contrite Energy Secretary Bill Richardson vowed to 
Congress and the nation that tougher controls would be 
imposed at U-S nuclear weapons labs ... Apparently, 
those promises contained little but the hot air that 
circulates over New Mexico's desert.  [Mr.] Lee is the 
former Los Alamos scientist who was fired in March 
1999 and subsequently charged with mishandling 
government secrets. ... On Monday ... officials 
disclosed that at the same lab where [Mr.] Lee worked, 
two computer hard drives containing detailed nuclear 
weapons data disappeared from a supposedly secure 
vault ...[were perhaps] lost or misplaced when parts 
of the lab were evacuated in May when a forest fire 
threatened.  ... The F-B-I and Energy Department are 
trying to find the missing drives... At least as 
important is the need to bring to Los Alamos something 
it doesn't seem to have: an attitude that genuinely 
respects the need to protect vital information...

TEXT:  On that note, we conclude this sampling of 
editorial comment on the latest security breach at the 
Los Alamos nuclear research laboratory.
  
NEB/ANG/KL  




15-Jun-2000 13:13 PM EDT (15-Jun-2000 1713 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
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