[CTRL] Energy's Nuke Weapons Chief Quits

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

 -Caveat Lector-

Saturday June 26 1:13 PM ET

Energy's Nuke Weapons Chief Quits
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - The Energy Department's top official overseeing the
nation's nuclear weapons programs has resigned because of differences with
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson over the department's organization,
administration sources said Saturday.

Victor Reis, assistant secretary for defense programs, submitted his
resignation in a letter to President Clinton on Friday, said officials who
spoke on condition of anonymity.

Reis could not be reached immediately Saturday.

Reis is one of a number of officials targeted by an internal review into the
mishandling of an espionage investigation involving a Taiwan-born scientist
at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab.

Officials said, however, that Reis cited as the reason for his resignation
his differences with Richardson over creation of a largely autonomous
nuclear weapons agency within the department.

Richardson opposed such an agency, believing it will reduce the energy
secretary's authority and create a ``fiefdom'' largely immune from outside
scrutiny.

``I will not agree to an agency I cannot control,'' Richardson said last
week when asked about pressure in Congress for DOE reorganization following
the espionage and security problems at the labs.

Reis has told Richardson he supports legislation being proposed by three
Republican senators, including Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, to put all
nuclear weapons programs under an agency that would report to Richardson,
but would make its own budget and personnel decisions.

Richardson has suggested streamlining the lines of authority within the
weapons program and raising its profile by making its head an
undersecretary. Security and counterintelligence activities and budget
decision and personnel decision making must remain elsewhere in the
department, he said.

Appointed to his post in 1993 by then-Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, Reis
has been in charge of the nuclear weapons programs during a time when
department security officials complained of lax security and concern about
espionage at the weapons labs.

Some of those officials have told Congress that they were thwarted by senior
Energy Department officials from pressing their case or discussing it with
congressional committees.

Richardson has acknowledged mistakes were made in the investigation,
beginning in 1996, of the Los Alamos scientist.

The department has been criticized particularly for not searching the
scientist's computer early in the investigation and for not removing him
promptly from his sensitive job.

The scientist, Wen Ho Lee, was fired in March for security violations. He
has not been charged with a crime and has denied through his lawyer
providing secrets to China.

An internal review of the handling of the security complaints and the Lee
espionage investigation by Energy Department officials is expected to be
completed within weeks.

Richardson has said some DOE and Los Alamos lab officials will be fired and
disciplined.
--
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with

the song still in them. - Henry David Thoreau

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