Secret Nuclear Weapons Data Missing from Los Alamos Lab
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON, June 12 -- Investigators at Los Alamos National
Laboratory have discovered that computer hard drives containing
nuclear weapons data and other highly sensitive material stored
in a vault at the laboratory have disappeared, according to
several United States Government officials.
The hard drives were stored in locked containers inside a vault
in the nuclear weapons division of the national laboratory.
Officials reported that the hard drives were missing on June 1
after officials went to search for them following the forest
fires in the area. The containers remained in the vault, but the
hard drives were gone.
The material, stored in the vault of the laboratory's X Division,
where nuclear weapons are designed, contained what officials
described as nuclear weapons data used by the government's
Nuclear Emergency Search Team, or NEST, which responds to nuclear
accidents and nuclear-related threats from terrorists. The
material includes all the data on American nuclear weapons that
the team needs to render nuclear devices safe in emergencies.
In addition, the missing material included intelligence
information concerning the Russian nuclear weapons program, law
enforcement officials said.
The Energy Department's new security czar, Eugene E. Habiger,
conducted an intensive search and investigation at Los Alamos but
did not find the data, officials said. He has written a secret
report on the matter, and the F.B.I. has been brought in to
assist with the investigation. Officials said they remained
uncertain whether the data has been misplaced or stolen.
The breach is so significant that Los Alamos is now planning to
issue a public statement about the matter today.
Officials said that the disappearance of the nuclear weapons data
represents a major embarrassment for a laboratory that has
already spent the past year under scrutiny for lax security in
connection with the Wen Ho Lee case. Dr. Lee was a scientist at
Los Alamos who was fired in March 1999 for security violations
after being the subject of a counter-intelligence investigation
that looked into evidence that China had stolen American nuclear
secrets.
Dr. Lee was never charged with espionage, but after he was
dismissed, investigators accused him of downloading and copying
vast amounts of secret nuclear weapons data from a secure
computer at Los Alamos into an unclassified computer network and
onto portable tapes. Dr. Lee was arrested last December on
charges of mishandling classified material, and is now in jail
awaiting trial. He is contesting the charges.
The discovery of Dr. Lee's unauthorized downloads last April
prompted Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to order a shutdown of
the lab's computer systems, while mandating security training
sessions for Los Alamos employees. Congress later passed
legislation creating a new nuclear weapons agency within the
Energy Department to oversee Los Alamos and the nation's other
nuclear weapons laboratories.
Gen. John A. Gordon of the Air Force, who has been serving as the
deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has been
nominated to head the new National Nuclear Security
Administration.
The new security breach is believed to have occurred long after
Dr. Lee was dismissed, officials said.
Energy Department officials said they notified the F.B.I. as soon
as they discovered that the material was missing. But some law
enforcement officials say that officials at the lab downplayed
the fact that the data was missing from the vault, and assumed
that the hard drives would turn up somewhere else in the lab. The
officials are said to have assumed that the material was in use
somewhere in the lab by Los Alamos scientists. But an extensive
search has failed to turn up the data. Officials say that some
employees have already been interviewed in connection with the
disappearance, and some of them will be asked to take polygraph
exams this week.
The fact that the missing data included intelligence reports has
led law enforcement officials to become skeptical that the
material was simply misplaced.
One senior energy department official stressed that it is too
soon to determine if the disappearance is anything more than an
internal foul-up. The fact that many lab employees dispersed
around the country after the forest fire has complicated the
investigation. "This could still be a situation where the hard
drives could be misplaced or lost in the labs," the official
said. "In my opinion it is premature to call this a security
breach."
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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