Test data missing (Los Alamos National Laboratory Cover-up nuclear weapons)

WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | 8/20/2004 | Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough

[watchout]

Test data missing

U.S. intelligence officials say the missing classified data at Los Alamos National Laboratory is related to secret nuclear tests conducted by computer simulation.

The data is considered extremely sensitive because it is used in the maintenance and development of nuclear weapons. It is contained on several computer disks that were stored in a top-secret facility at Los Alamos, N.M.

The disks were last used in April. When lab researchers went to use them in July, they were gone from a secure vault within the X Division.

Los Alamos is currently studying the possibility of a nuclear warhead that can burrow through rock before detonating. Sen. Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico Republican, came to the embattled lab's defense last week when he said the missing data may have been misplaced — not stolen.

"It may be that what we have here is a false positive — the system says something is missing when it is not," Mr. Domenici said. "Just as if it were a medical test, it is better to find out the inventory was wrong than that the disks were actually missing.

But this entire situation only reinforces that we need to improve the inventory system." Other officials said there are fears that a foreign intelligence service may have been behind the theft.

Los Alamos spokesman Kevin Roarke declined to comment on the nature of the information on the missile disks.

"It's an ongoing investigation," he said. U.S. nuclear weapons labs have been targeted for years for secrets, the intelligence officials said.

In the 1990s, the U.S. intelligence community determined that China obtained secret information through espionage on about every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal.

[watchout]

Pro-China NSC? Washington China hands who are hard-liners on Beijing are quietly voicing their concern about the recent appointment of CIA analyst Dennis Wilder to be the top China specialist on the National Security Council staff. Mr. Wilder is viewed by conservatives as one of the most liberal CIA analysts on China. He is seen as a major player in enforcing the "China-is-not-a-threat" political line within the intelligence and policy communities. NSC spokesman Sean McCormack said he is unaware of conservative criticism of Mr. Wilder. "He's a career professional and we think he's the right man for the job," he said.

[martin_fierro]

In response, Bill Richardson very earnestly sucked his thumb.

[Chaguito]

A story came out about a week ago that a previous missing data flap was over data that was not missing at all. Now this. I find the timing very suspicious. Somebody wants to minimize this.

[watchout]

Nuclear data missing in N.M. Friday, August 20, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) An inventory has found another case of missing data involving nuclear weapons, this time at the Energy Department’s regional office in Albuquerque, N.M., the department disclosed Thursday. The Energy Department said that an ‘‘accounting discrepancy’’ involving three copies of a ‘‘controlled removable electronic media’’ — or CREM — was found at the regional office as part of the nationwide inventory of such devices.

The inventory was ordered a month ago after two CREM data devices were reported missing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, also in New Mexico. The Albuquerque facility, part of the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, coordinates activities with the Los Alamos weapons lab. Bryan Wilkes, an NNSA spokesman, said that the inventory discovered three copies of a single CREM unaccounted for.

He declined to elaborate further except to say the device contained information involving nuclear weapons. NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks said that all classified work involving the computer data storage devices has been halted at the Albuquerque office, pending completion of the investigation.

‘‘I am disappointed that we have found another case of lax procedures in protecting classified information,’’ said Brooks in a statement. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on July 23 ordered that work involving CREM — disks or other removable computer storage devices — be halted at all the government’s nuclear weapons facilities until inventories of the devices are conducted and new security procedures put in place.

The missing device at the Albuquerque office was discovered as part of that inventory, said Wilkes. Meanwhile, investigators, despite extensive searches, have yet to find the two CREM devices that were reported missing at the Los Alamos laboratory in the New Mexico mountains 100 miles north of Albuquerque.

The investigation into that incident was continuing. No one was suggesting that the classified information — either at Los Alamos or in the DOE regional office — had been stolen or that the disappearances involved espionage. However, DOE officials have been concerned about lax procedures and security involving the handing of such devices.

‘‘I expect NNSA employees, both federal and contractor, to adhere to the highest standards of performance’’ when using such data in removable computer devices, said Brooks. Aside from this latest case, the nationwide CREM inventory review so far has produced no incidents or discrepancies, said Wilkes. Many of the sites including the Savannah River nuclear facility in South Carolina, the Y-12 facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex facility in Texas have resumed normal operations, according to the department.

Concerns over security and safety at the nuclear weapons lab came to a head in July, after two computer disks containing classified information were reported missing at the Los Alamos lab.

Almost all work at the lab was shut down and 23 employees were suspended as a result of the investigation into the security lapses. ------------------------------------------ National Nuclear Security Administration--www.nnsa.doe.gov Los Alamos National Laboratory--www.lanl.gov

[antidisestablishment]

No one was suggesting that the classified information — either at Los Alamos or in the DOE regional office — had been stolen or that the disappearances involved espionage.

The pointy heads are going to be the death of our country. The academic "we are the world" mentality that has run the labs this past decade has got to be rooted up and destroyed. Yes, Virginia, there really is a China, North Korea, and even a Russia!

[watchout]

If you from the U.N you get into Los Alamos National Laboratory FREE