Posted on 04/27/2004 9:39:07 AM PDT by JesseHousman
A pair of Chinese diplomats, AWOL from their Los Angeles consulate, sped through a Los Alamos National Laboratory security checkpoint in February.
A lab spokesman declined to speculate Monday on what the diplomats were trying to do, although a Washington newspaper quoted unnamed U.S. government officials as saying the incident may have been intended as a test of LANL's security system.
In any case, the Chinese diplomats witnessed firsthand a speedy reaction by the laboratory's armed guard force. "We have assets that are deployed and will pursue and halt any vehicle that fails to stop at a checkpoint," LANL spokesman Kevin Roark said. "Any vehicle," he reiterated for emphasis.
In this case, the Chinese officials were driving a rented Ford Escort.It passed through the checkpoint on the western end of Pajarito Road "at a high rate of speed" about 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 26, according to a Washington Times report that quotes a leaked LANL incident report.
Roark said the two diplomats, posted to the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, traveled about one-quarter to one-half mile past the temporary security booth, which had no gate blocking the road, before they were stopped. "They were questioned; their car was searched, and they were escorted off the property," he said.
Pajarito Road passes alongside two sensitive laboratory facilities— Technical Areas 18 and 55— that each have a separate fence and security system. TA 18 houses equipment and materials used for criticality experiments to test nuclear chain reactions and TA 55 is home to LANL's plutonium research facility. Roark declined to provide a copy of the incident report, saying that while it is not classified, it contains sensitive information about security personnel and the guard force.
"We just don't give that stuff out," he said. Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pajarito Road was open to the public. Security concerns prompted by the attacks led LANL and government officials in 2002 to permanently close the road to all but LANL employees.
Xiao Mei, a spokeswoman at the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, told the Washington Times that the two Chinese diplomats were visiting New Mexico in preparation for a visit to Santa Fe by a Chinese official.She told the Times that the two diplomats might have been trying to visit the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, located in the opposite direction from where they were headed.
Phone calls by the Journal on Monday to the consulate were not returned.
Brenda Greenberg, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said the Chinese diplomats did not inform the department's Office of Foreign Missions of their visit to Los Alamos, a violation of U.S. rules. She also said they visited Santa Fe.
She said Los Alamos and Santa Fe are considered "nonopen" cities for Chinese diplomats and require U.S. government approval before Chinese diplomats can visit.
After the incident, the State Department issued the Chinese a reminder of their diplomatic travel limitations. Chinese diplomats are barred from traveling beyond a 25-mile radius of their embassy or consulate without prior notification.
"Travel restrictions in the United States are based on reciprocity and national security," Greenberg said. The Washington Times article quoted unnamed U.S. government officials saying that the diplomats were probably on an "intelligence-gathering (mission)" to see how laboratory guards react.
Roark wouldn't speculate on a motive but did say that if the diplomats were testing LANL's reaction, they found out they would quickly get stopped and kicked off the lab grounds.
"We as a national laboratory ... are acutely aware of the fact that there are people and nations out there in the world that might like to gather information on what we are doing," he said. "And that we take very seriously; as seriously as anything we do at the laboratory."
Gov. Bill Richardson, who formerly oversaw LANL as head of the Department of Energy and had frequent talks with Chinese officials as ambassador to the United Nations, said he met with Yang Leichi, the Chinese ambassador, in early February— before the diplomats ran through the security checkpoint at Los Alamos.
"I think it's important that we know who comes in and out of the lab," Richardson said Monday. "On the other hand, we have to be careful we don't stifle legitimate international visits."
Since closing Pajarito Road to public travel, Roark said guard forces have pursued and questioned several people who failed to stop at the checkpoints. "Some of them have been teenagers on a dare. ... Some of them have been lost tourists looking for Bandelier (National Monument)," he said. There have been U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, he said.
What happened with the Chinese diplomats is the same thing that happened to other groups: They got escorted off laboratory property.
"This was not a major event," Roark said of the diplomats' adventure.
Of course it wasn't a major event. All the secrets have been handed over to the PRC by the Clintonistas.
Unfortunately, the people of New Mexico have elected one of the chief culprits as their governor. Madeleine Half-Wit was the Clinton goon who said our nuclear technology must be shared as it's too important and dangerous for just the United States to possess.
gee .. where have I head this before?
WHAT!?!?!?!?!? If I had done that my butt would be in a federal holding pen right now!!! How the heck do you let them go????????? If nothing else, it is an act of war, attempted sabotage, something bad. But, not just some let them go nothing crime! Who is in charge here, Janet Reno?
Diplomatic Immunity. And a violation of that by us might have been what they wanted right now, to distract from all China’s problems with Taiwan and North Korea.
Woulda been funnier if they'da been stopped by Mr Hellfire Missile.
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