Richardson: No evidence of spying in missing disks

Wednesday, June 21, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- The FBI has found no evidence of espionage or indications that missing computer disks containing nuclear secrets ever left the Los Alamos weapons lab, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said today.

He also told a Senate hearing that a grand jury has been convened to consider the case. Investigators have lifted fingerprints from wrappings of the hard drives, which apparently disappeared in late March and reappeared last week behind a copying machine. The FBI is treating the lab like a crime scene, he said.

"The FBI has now determined that these are the authentic disk drives. ... So far there is no evidence of espionage, nor is there evidence that the drives have ever left the Los Alamos X Division," Richardson told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Richardson said "the working theory" is that the two drives, which contain information on how to dismantle an array of nuclear devices, disappeared "at the tail end of March of this year" -- possibly March 28 -- but that the time has yet to be pinpointed.

The disks were discovered missing from the highly secured vault on May 7 by members of a nuclear emergency response team, but the disappearance was not reported to senior lab managers or the Energy Department for 24 days. Richardson wasn't told until June 1.

"We do not know everything, but we do know more about this case this morning," Richardson said, appearing for the first time on Capitol Hill to discuss the security flap that has prompted some senators to call for his resignation.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., joined the stony-faced panel of 17 senators, most members of the Armed Services Committee, who scolded and grilled Energy Department officials. Bryan is not a member of the committee but was invited because he is vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee. He called the missing hard drives "indefensible."

Bryan blasted the "deeply rooted culture" at the department of academics and scientists who resist security measures.

"In my estimation you have been badly served by some of your subordinates," Bryan told Richardson, softening blows being thrown directly at Richardson by members of the committee.

Republican members of the committee opened the hearing with a blistering attack on Richardson, saying he had broken promises made a year ago to assure that secrets are safe at the nation's weapons labs.

"You've lost all credibility," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told Richardson. He reiterated his view that Richardson ought to resign.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said he would soon introduce legislation directing an examination of whether the nuclear weapons programs, including the labs, should be turned over to an independent agency or the Defense Department.

Richardson acknowledged the seriousness of the disappearance of the hard drives -- even if there was no espionage -- and offered a list of actions he has taken over the past year to beef up security at the labs.

"In two years I've done more on security than has been done in the last 20 years," Richardson said. Until the latest security controversy, he had been held in high regard on Capitol Hill and largely escaped direct criticism stemming from another alleged security breach last year at the Los Alamos lab involving former scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Still, members of both parties showed little sympathy for Richardson this time.

"There's no tolerance for data of this kind to be missing," declared Sen. Paul Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the committee. He said lab scientists were "worried about their own skins" and tried to cover up the loss for weeks.

After interviewing dozens of people and conducting a string of polygraph tests, investigators were still uncertain when the two drives disappeared. The last written record showed them to be in the vault of the high-security "X Division," where nuclear designers work, at the first of the year.

Richardson said the FBI now "puts the loss ... at the tail end of March." He also said that the investigation is focusing on "a handful of X Division employees who have offered conflicting statements to investigators."

"The last actual inventory that gives us a degree of certainty took place as part of the Y2K inventory," Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview Tuesday. "That screams at me and says we've got a procedure problem."