-Caveat Lector-
Los Alamos Lab Employees Won't Be Indicted in Security Lapse
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 19, 2001 ; Page A09
After a seven-month FBI investigation, the government has decided
not to file any criminal charges against employees at Los Alamos
National Laboratory in connection with the temporary
disappearance of two computer hard drives containing nuclear
weapons secrets, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said yesterday.
The hard drives, each about the size of a pack of cigarettes,
went missing for several weeks last spring from a vault at the
weapons lab in New Mexico. Although they later were found behind
a photocopier inside the lab, their temporary loss added to a
political furor over security lapses.
Richardson and other senior officials have argued in recent
months, however, that the crackdown on security -- including
orders to give polygraph exams to thousands of scientists -- was
in danger of going too far and harming the ability of employees
to do their jobs. The end of the FBI investigation is a major
step toward normalcy at Los Alamos.
Similarly, Richardson yesterday extended the Energy Department's
contract with the University of California to operate the Los
Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories for three
years beyond the previous contract's ending date of Sept. 30,
2002.
Some members of Congress had criticized the university for
failing to enforce security rules and had urged the Energy
Department to put the contract up for competitive bidding. The
university has run Los Alamos for more than 50 years, ever since
the Manhattan Project led to the original atomic bomb.
"We're better off with a much improved University of California
contract than with a defense contractor running the labs,"
Richardson argued yesterday in a telephone interview from Los
Angeles. "We have put in new strong safeguards that give the
energy secretary the right to take direct disciplinary actions
where needed, and if it were not the university running the
place, we would have a huge flight of scientists from there."
The hard drives, which were reported missing from Los Alamos on
May 31, contain information that a rapid-response team could use
to disarm a nuclear weapon in the event of an accident or
terrorist threat.
Investigators have long suspected that one or more lab employees
misplaced the drives and then, instead of admitting a mistake,
placed them behind the photocopier.
At least four Los Alamos employees were subjects of the
investigation, primarily because the FBI suspected they had told
inaccurate stories or because they showed deception on polygraph
tests and refused to testify before a grand jury, according to
government sources.
Ultimately, however, the FBI "was unable to determine
responsibility for the disappearance . . . and found no
evidence that the classified information contained on the hard
drives had been compromised," the Energy Department said in a
statement.
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