Agence France Presse US officials on Tuesday acknowledged that human error could have caused the disappearance of classified data from a top nuclear research laboratory, exposing the vulnerability of the country's most sensitive information.
June 13, 2000
Classified US Nuclear Data Could be Missing Due to Human Error
by Leon Bruneau"In my judgement, they were lost or misplaced," said General Eugene Habiger, director of security and emergency operations at the Defense Department.
The US Energy Department said Tuesday it had launched an investigation into the disappearance of electronically-stored classified data from the Los Alamos nuclear research laboratory in New Mexico.
"At this point, there is no evidence that suggests espionage is involved in this incident," said Ed Curran, the head of the energy department's office of counterintelligence.
A joint probe by the Energy Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was under way, officials said.
"This is an extremely serious matter and we are taking swift action to deal with it," said John Browne, the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
"If the inquiry reveals that individuals did not fulfill their responsibilities with respect to this matter, they will face certain and appropriate disciplinary actions," Browne said.
The classified information was stored in two computer hard drives that were inside a suitcase, locked in a vault at the laboratory, leading US dailies said Tuesday, quoting energy department officials.
The hard drives provided information on how to disarm and dismantle US, Russian and other nuclear devices, which was to be used by emergency response teams in case of a nuclear bomb threat or accident, media reports said.
Authorities are searching computers, safes, and storage areas where highly classified information, such as that relating to nuclear weapons development, is kept.
Access to the areas is severely restricted, and everyone with access is being questioned, federal authorities said in a statement.
Although the Los Alamos lab, birthplace of the first US atom bomb, officially informed the Energy Department about the incident on June 1, the disks' disappearance was first noticed almost three weeks earlier -- a fact that has infuriated members of Congress here.
Habiger explained the delay on a massive wildfire in the area in mid-May which forced thousands to evacuate the laboratory as well as the nearby town, but admitted to the Commerce sub-committee on oversight and investigations Tuesday that the lab's procedure was flawed.
"This is not a good scenario. Someone should have informed us much before," he said.
The lab is under particular scrutiny since it was also the place of work of a Taiwanese-born US nuclear physicist, accused last year of spying for China.
"It is alarming that, despite the alleged focus on security over the last year, it appears the department of Energy and its labs still have a long way to go before the American public can or should feel confident that our nuclear secrets are safe in their hands," committee president Tom Bliley said.
"The security of the US classified information system is vulnerable," agreed Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists which groups together some 3,000 scientists.
"The common feature of all these incidents is that it involves large amounts of sensitive data in a very compact electronic form ... and this suggests that our security policies are still designed in part to protect paper documents and they are significantly less effective in protecting electronic information."
The White House said Tuesday that the disappearance of highly classified data from the US nuclear research laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico was "serious," according to spokesman Joe Lockhart.
"Obviously the President views this as a serious matter," Lockhart said, adding it was being investigated by the laboratory and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
"There's a number of troubling questions raised by this, but I think we need to let the investigation take place before we try to reach any conclusion about these issues," he said.
Lockhart said that Clinton had "confidence" in Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, whose department oversees the laboratories.
"We've done an enormous amount as far as changing the security culture at the Department of Energy, at the labs," he said. "But I think we have to wait and see and get some of these questions answered to see what more we may have to do."
The classified information was stored in two computer hard drives that were inside a suitcase, locked in a vault at the Los Alamos laboratory, leading US dailies said Tuesday, quoting energy department officials.
The hard drives provided information on how to disarm and dismantle US, Russian and other nuclear devices, which was to be used by emergency response teams in case of a nuclear bomb threat or accident, media reports said.
The Los Alamos lab, birthplace of the first US atom bomb, officially informed the Energy Department about the incident on June 1, however the disks' disappearance was first noticed almost three weeks earlier.
The incident comes in the wake of increased scrutiny since it was also the place of work of a Taiwanese-born US nuclear physicist, accused last year of spying for China.
Copyright 2000 Agence France Presse