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Home Front
Report: Nuclear Labs Vulnerable to Attack
2003-10-07
Security at the nation's nuclear weapons labs is so lax that the facilities have repeatedly failed drills in which mock terrorists captured radioactive material and escaped, according to an article in Vanity Fair magazine. "Some of the facilities would fail year after year," said Rich Levernier, who spent six years running war games for the U.S. government. "In more than 50 percent of our tests at the Los Alamos facility, we got in, captured the plutonium, got out again, and in some cases didn't fire a shot, because we didn't encounter any guards." These failures occurred despite security forces at the Los Alamos National Laboratories and other nuclear facilities knowing the dates of the drills months in advance, according to the story in next month's Vanity Fair.
This is not good.
Why do they still have jobs?
Anson Franklin, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, an arm of the Department of Energy that oversees nuclear-weapons security, said Monday that the department has increased security funding by more than 50 percent to protect against terrorist attacks. "Allegations of a 50 percent failure rate in security tests are simply untrue," Franklin said. The report also says Levernier, a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Energy, was stripped of his security clearance in 2001 after raising security concerns. Levernier has filed a whistleblower lawsuit arguing that he was illegally removed from his duties. Franklin denied that allegation. "We do not punish federal employees who are doing their jobs by pointing out potential weaknesses in safety and security," he said.
Ah, now I see. Grain of salt time.
Posted by:Steve White

#5  Superhose...

As I said, nothing has changed....in DOE or the labs
Posted by: TerrorHunter4Ever   2003-10-7 4:02:20 PM  

#4  I can't believe that Berkley continues to be allowed to run Los Alamos. They recently had to reinstate two detectives hired as internal auditors that were fired because they uncovered out of control theft of materials of all kind by lab employees.
Posted by: Superhose   2003-10-7 12:32:44 PM  

#3  I knew Rich "back when" (i.e., early 90s) when I spent a little time in the DOE. Levernier is a straight arrow. I had not heard that he had his clearance yanked. That's like revoking Mother Teresa's eligibility for sainthood. But the DOE was during my exposure to it the most poorly managed agency in the US government. There were competent people working within it but all were led by sniveling, spineless little pogues who thought leader was something you attached to a fishing line. They spent all day back-biting each other in an effort to protect their own rice bowl. And it appears nothing has changed.
Posted by: TerrorHunter4Ever   2003-10-7 10:30:01 AM  

#2  This is crap. Increasing funding by 50% does not automatically increase security. And they cannot hit 50% even when the know dates months in advance. What kind of shait is this? This lab should be shut down and its management fired as an example.

Sounds like Franklin should be fired and replaced with Levenier.

You are right dot-com. This is important shit!
Posted by: CrazyFool   2003-10-7 9:07:43 AM  

#1  "49.9% sure, but not 50%!", said the spokesliar, Franklin.

Whomever was responsible for canning Levernier should be summarily fired in kind - or shot. The guys in the "Tiger Teams" who test the security of all Federal sites are invaluable. Denial doesn't accomplish shit.

C'mon Dubya, Rummy - get this guy back in the saddle and shitcan the clowns who can't handle the heat nor the assignment - this is important shit, not some idiotic political game. *heavy sigh*
Posted by: .com   2003-10-7 4:29:05 AM  

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