    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 11 (Monday, March 22, 1999)]
    [Page 463]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Statement Announcing a Review of Security at the Department of Energy
    Weapons Labs

    March 18, 1999

        Today I have asked the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory
    Board, chaired by Warren Rudman, to undertake a review of the security
    threat at the Department of Energy's weapons labs and the adequacy of
    the measures that have been taken to address it. The Board is a
    bipartisan, independent advisory body responsible, among other things,
    for assessing the quality and adequacy of our counterintelligence
    efforts.
        I have asked the Board to address the nature of the present
    counterintelligence security threat, the way in which it has evolved
    over the last two decades and the steps we have taken to counter it, as
    well as to recommend any additional steps that may be needed. I have
    asked the Board to deliver its completed report to the Congress, and to
    the fullest extent possible consistent with our national security, to
    release an unclassified version to the public.
        I am determined to do all that is necessary to protect our sensitive
    national security I formation and to prevent its diversion to foreign
    countries. Last year I signed Presidential Decision Directive 61 to
    strengthen security and counterintelligence at the labs, and since 1995,
    we have increased the Department of Energy's counterintelligence budget
    fifteenfold, from $2 to $31 million.