[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 21, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H4911-H4912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




LACK OF SECURITY OF NUCLEAR SECRETS AT LOS ALAMOS MUST BE ADDRESSED BY 
                                CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to address something that has 
been in the paper a pretty good bit lately, the Los Alamos nuclear 
secrets that have apparently been missing. The reason I want to do 
this, Mr. Speaker, is because I am very concerned about it, and I just 
want to sort of retrace the steps.
  If my colleagues will remember, during the Clinton administration it 
became apparent that this gentleman named Wen Ho Lee was stealing 
secrets, very important nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos lab. 
Because of a number of, I would say, bureaucratic hesitations, he was 
not investigated for a long time. They finally did investigate him and 
they found out that, I think he had over a thousand illegal entries on 
his computer. At that time Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, moved 
together to try to give the Department of Energy the resources that 
they need to improve security at Los Alamos.
  Well, after a long exercise and a lot more funds had been expended, 1 
year ago, on May 26, 1999, the Secretary of Energy made this statement 
to the United States: ``I can assure the American people that their 
nuclear secrets are now safe.'' A very explicit thing, and it was the 
right thing for the head person to be saying. And we have felt like, 
okay, we went through this very bad period, but we have addressed it.
  Now we find out that two computer disks, which contained information 
on how to disarm nuclear bombs and how to build nuclear bombs, were 
last seen back in January. Now, that was verified April 7. Then on May 
7 it was apparent that they were missing. So we go from this period of 
maybe January, maybe April to May 7 finding out that these two vital 
computer disks on very, very sensitive nuclear secrets are missing. But 
the Secretary of Energy was not informed for 24 more days. As I 
understand it, he is supposed to be notified within 8 hours. He was not 
told from the period of May 7 until June 1, and yet nobody has been 
fired because of that. There is no protocol.
  Apparently, it is easier to get nuclear secrets than it is to take a 
tape out of Blockbuster Video. If my colleagues do not believe me, I 
challenge them, I challenge anybody within the sound of my voice, to go 
to Blockbuster Video, there is one in everyone's neighborhood, to see 
if they can get a tape out. I am certain they will not be able to. Yet 
our sensitive nuclear secrets, I understand from a hearing, are left 
unattended for as long as 2 hours a day while the attendant in this 
vault goes to lunch.
  Now, if my colleagues feel comfortable with Barney Fife guarding our

[[Page H4912]]

nuclear secrets, then this is a great system. But if other Members are 
like me and the majority of Americans, then they are very, very 
concerned. What are we thinking? How do we lose nuclear secrets? They 
show up magically behind a Xerox machine, a Xerox machine that has 
already been searched twice? And everybody is supposed to feel good 
about the fact that they did not leave the building?
  Maybe there was not espionage. We do not know that yet. But what we 
do know is there is total incompetence, and we as Congress cannot have 
much confidence in the way our nuclear secrets are being guarded. I 
think it is incumbent on this Congress to put pressure on the 
Department of Energy and the Secretary of Energy to make some very, 
very drastic changes to get this addressed, because we simply cannot 
misplace nuclear secrets.
  Just think about the time frame: from as long as April 7 to May 7 
they were unaccounted for; and then from May 7 to June 1 no one even 
told the Secretary of Energy they were gone. Yet not one person has 
been fired because of that. This is an outrage. This is scary.
  This is not partisan rhetoric. I am glad to say a number of 
Democrats, including the ranking member of the committee, the gentleman 
from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), has said the Keystone Kops are guarding 
our nuclear secrets. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) has 
passed a letter which has been signed by 50 Democrats saying fire the 
University of California, who is involved in the security of that. I 
probably would have signed that letter, given the opportunity.
  So I am glad to see that this is not getting trapped into some 
situation where it is Republican versus Democrats, because when it 
comes to the security of the United States of America, it does not 
matter what party we are a member of; it only matters that our shores 
are secure and safe. So I just wanted to bring that up, Mr. Speaker.

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