Posted on 07/10/2004 9:33:19 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - Two data storage devices containing classified information are missing from Los Alamos National Laboratory, officials said.
Lab spokesman Kevin Roark refused to say Friday if the information could jeopardize national security.
He said the "Classified Removable Electronic Media" were discovered missing from the Weapons Physics Directorate during an inventory check Wednesday. He refused to specify exactly what was missing, but said the items could be products such as CDs or floppy disks.
A search was under way, and lab Director Peter Nanos said he would order a full inquiry into what happened.
"In order to operate effectively, this apparent lack of attention to CREM issues must be dealt with swiftly and decisively," Nanos said.
This is the second such incident in recent months. Classified electronic media was also reported missing in May. That data had been set to be destroyed before it went missing, Roark said at the time.
Roark acknowledged Friday that this situation is different because the items were to be used for an upcoming experiment. He added that Nanos' tone is also different this time.
"What's different in this case is the director is saying this won't stand," Roark said. "If you can't keep track of classified material, then you can't work at Los Alamos anymore."
U.S. Rep. Tom Udall said he was incensed by the latest security failure at the northern New Mexico lab.
"That this is occurring in the current atmosphere of heightened security awareness is intolerable," Udall said.
The University of California has run Los Alamos since the lab was created as the headquarters of the Manhattan Project - the secret effort to create the first atomic bomb - in 1943.
The contract is up for bids after management failures in recent years, including the firing of two investigators who raised allegations of mismanagement, abuse of lab purchasing and financial malfeasance.
ON THE NET
Los Alamos National Laboratory http://www.lanl.gov
ping - you posted similar in May
Look behind the copying machine, thats where they were "found" last time..
I was just going to type "Don't worry, look behind the copy machine"....but, you beat me to it!
Sorry, jwalburg for the duplicate; promise to finish my coffee soon.
ya think we've been infultrated just a wee bit ?
This is getting serous. We should put the Chinese in charge of security.
Probably the missing data is some Fortran code. Probably an intricate piece of software for solving some really ugly system of partial differential equations. I had a colleague some years ago who did research in the sort of thing. He wrote a Fortran program for his dissertation that modeled a melting nuclear reactor core. (His work was unclassified.) He said it took three years to get it to work.
1 -- ""What's different in this case is the director is saying this won't stand," Roark said. "If you can't keep track of classified material, then you can't work at Los Alamos anymore." "
Obviously, a change of policy. Apparently one of the major employment requirements has been the INability to to control classified data.
I never mind duplicate posts. Especially when the story will be better exposed than at 2 a.m. or whenever I found it. Thanks.
I know. Hopefully the third time won't be the charm though!
Hospitals, pharmacies etc. do a pretty good job of keeping track of controlled substances.
Los Alamos doesn't want to be secure.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=affXcwrTvtWU&refer=us
Los Alamos officials described the loss as ``very serious,'' the paper said. Officials said after the earlier two incidents that the missing materials posed no threat to national security.
The University of California system has managed the Los Alamos laboratory for the U.S. government since the Manhattan Project, the operation that developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Recent allegations of fraud and security lapses at the lab prompted the Energy Department to say last year it will require the UC system to compete for the contract for the first time, the paper said.
& ept&
they wont crack down until Seattle is vaporized by a North Korean missle.
It'll show up..........happens all the time ! Look behind the copier ! Probably some rocket scientist is using it to level up his herman miller sheep pen. Bhaaaaaad Bomb Designers! Bhaaaaaaad .
Stay Safe !
It'll show up..........
B4 or after the chinks have three copies?
This sooooo disturbing. I expected it during the Clinton administration. I'm disappointed that it is continuing under our president's watch.
How would GW --realistically, now-- be able to do anything about an institution that is run via UC under the DOE through NNSA-whatsit? The whole federal system is a bloated entity and with thousands of nutty physicicicists running around trying to get grant money, it's gotta come to some critical point at some point... What should GW do, go to Los Alamos and take the bl**dy director's chair himself?
I am surprised that the gov't labs are still standing...
A gov't lab ain't a bank. Or a hospital.
Are you saying it can't be done?
KOBTV's website describes LANL director, Pete Nanos as talking tough.
"Nanos says it was a case of willful disregard of security rules".
It's obvious that much more could be done.
http://kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=12284&cat=HOME
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