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The walls scream, " nobody is taking responsibility for what happened ", and " Perhaps we should put the New York Times in charge of Energy Department Security ".
Three of the United States National Laboratories under suspicion were: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Bruce Taylor, director at Lawrence Livermore, characterized security as, " your highest requirement is to be aware of what is classified ". Paul Robinson, director at Sandia, called it " a neverending struggle ". John Browne, director at Los Alamos, was just recently appointed. ' Where was the trouble ', you ask? Los Alamos ofcourse. All I remember is Senator Frank Murkowski ( R ), at the Chinese espionage at our nuclear laboratories hearing last week, saying, " You spoke out about how to close the barn door, but ofcourse the horse has left the barn ". For the fireworks last month, see: The Mole Exposed? ( 4-13-99 ) .
Pete Dominici ( R ) was our travel agent ( I'll leave it to your imagination, as to what the committee Democrats were ).
He began by calling the Red Chinese acquisition of our nuclear secrets, a " failure of the institutions and of individuals ". He then went through a useful chronology of events leading up to where we are now, with four places in recorded history where the spying could have, or should have, been dealt with. Keep in mind how slow the gears of government grind away.
*1984 - Wen Ho Lee is interviewed and given a polygraph test. He had several questionable responses on the test.
*1985 - The FBI investigated Lee and the polygraph test results were signed off, not fully explained. There was no action taken but a report was written.
*1989 - The Department of Energy was told about the 1984 polygraph test results and the report. Somewhere in the mid 90s the report mysteriously vanishes.
*1997 - Notra Turlock, from Los Alamos, went to the FBI and told them the Department of Energy never passed the information on to Congress.
He added that many other times, crucial " classified things " happened. He finished by calling it a " most agregious espionage situation " and " difficult and deplorable ".
The sick thing is that it took thirteen years, from 1984 to 1997, for the information to make it to the appropriate authorities. Maybe even worse though, is that the Clinton Energy Department did nothing until 1999, after the New York Times printed their expose'.
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell ( R ) hollered, " Holy smoke, we are talking about all our nuclear secret's been stolen ". Well, that just about sums it all up.
- Bongo ( Don't look at me? )
