The Clinton-Gore National Insecurity Team BY OLIVER NORTH Prince Albert is on his "progress and prosperity tour" asking Americans "are you better off than you were eight years ago?" If "better off" includes America's national security, the answer is, "You have to be kidding!" The day the VEEP began to "re-introduce himself to the American people," shell-shocked Clinton-Gore administration officials dodged questions about how they lost more of America's dwindling supply of nuclear secrets. After a month-long cover-up, it was finally admitted on June 12 that computer hard drives from the Los Alamos National Laboratory's "X Division" -- where nuclear weapons are designed -- have been missing from a vault at the lab since "some time in May." This is the latest embarrassment for Los Alamos, which is still reeling from a string of security lapses, including the arrest of Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee on 59 counts of mishandling nuclear secrets. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, a potential running mate for Internet Al, claims "there is no evidence of espionage" and "the missing computer files may be related to the evacuation of the facility during the recent forest fires." Get the word: "missing" -- as in, "My homework is 'missing.' Maybe the dog ate it." The "missing" multi-gigabyte computer drives contain detailed, highly secret, nuclear weapons data used by the super-sensitive Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) -- an interagency contingent of military and civilian specialists who respond to nuclear accidents and nuclear-related terrorist threats. The data on the hard drives include all the information necessary to disarm all nuclear weapons worldwide. This is, of course, the same kind of data needed to arm or build a nuclear device. That's what's "missing." Security lapses are nothing new for this regime. In the wake of the administration's latest fiasco, Representative Porter Goss (R-FL), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee, told me that "when it comes to security, the Clinton-Gore administration manifests a culture of disdain." He's right, and it's an attitude that pervades not just our nuclear weapons labs but the whole administration. In 1994, over a year after taking office, more than 100 high-level White House staff members still had no security clearances because they never bothered to complete the paperwork for requisite background investigations. They were granted access to highly classified information anyway. By 1996, White House security was so lax that shortly before fleeing the country, Democrat party fund-raiser Charlie Trie smuggled a foreign businessman into the White House using false identification. When the General Accounting Office reported that from January 1993 until June 1996 there were no procedures to control access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (a level of classification higher than Top Secret) within the executive office of the president, White House officials promised to "fix the problem." They didn't. At the State Department, foreign spies are standing in line to rip off America's secrets. In 1998, an unidentified individual posing as a reporter walked out of Secretary of State Maddy Albright's office suite with a stack of classified documents. Last year, the FBI caught a Russian Intelligence Service spy wearing headphones outside the State Department headquarters and discovered a device planted in a secure conference room inside the building. This January, a laptop computer containing top secret information vanished from the department's Bureau of Intelligence & Research. Secretary Albright said she was "outraged." Last year, FBI agent Michael Vatis told Congress that computer hackers broke into the Pentagon's classified computer systems and downloaded "vast quantities of data" containing "sensitive information about essential defense matters." The FBI suspected the Russian Intelligence Service. What did the Clinton-Gore administration do? They asked the Russians to help. Like O.J., the Russians are still looking for those who really did it. But even when the perpetrators of massive security violations are caught -- it hardly matters. According to the CIA's Inspector General, John Deutch, the Clinton-Gore CIA director from 1995-1996, routinely "placed national security information at risk" by processing a "large volume of highly classified information" on his unprotected home computer. After covering up the breach (and failing to notify the FBI as required by law) for more than 18 months, Deutch had his security clearances revoked and was given a letter of reprimand. The abysmal seven-year national security record of the Clinton-Gore Administration should come as no surprise -- nor should their predictable spin: First comes the plea not to "make a partisan issue" out of what is at best, gross incompetence, and at worst, dangerous malfeasance. Then comes the accusation that there's always been espionage (remember the "everyone does it" defense from Monica-gate?). And finally the counter-allegations -- "It is all the fault of the Reagan and Bush administrations." Don't be surprised to hear Bill's and Al's pals tell you that if Reagan and Bush hadn't planted so many trees, the Clinton-Gore administration wouldn't have had to do a "controlled burn" of several thousand acres and 205 houses, thus forcing the evacuation of the Los Alamos lab. If that doesn't wash, they can argue that there's nothing on these missing hard drives that the Communist Chinese didn't already get. ©2000 Creators Syndicate http://www.vote.com/magazine/columns/olivernorth/column2980833.phtml Twiddle Dee, Twiddle dum. Hell, Bet your local 7-11 has better Security. Bard <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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