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Report: China benefited from stolen nuclear secrets
May 20, 1999 WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 20) -- Using U.S. technology, including stolen secrets, China has been able to make substantial gains in modernizing its own nuclear weapons program, according to those who have seen a long-awaited congressional report that may be released on Thursday. The 700-page report by a special House committee will be made public following months of negotiations with the Clinton administration over how much of it should remain classified.
According to people familiar with it, the report concludes that there is little question that China has obtained critical information about an array of U.S. warheads through theft from U.S. nuclear weapons labs as well as meticulous scanning of publicly available information.
Meantime, a senior intelligence officer for the Energy Department told a Senate hearing Thursday of repeated attempts in early 1997 to bring his concerns about espionage and lax security at weapons labs to then-Energy Secretary Federico Pena, but said he was repeatedly thwarted by senior department officials. Notra Trulock, DOE's director of the office of intelligence from 1994 into early 1998, said his concerns -- many of which have since been acknowledged -- were viewed with skepticism and "outright denial" as the views of a group of "Cold War warriors." The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee also heard from Ed Curran, the FBI official appointed to consolidate and lead the Energy Department's counterintelligence efforts Curran acknowledged that in the past there had been "no accountability" and inadequate support from the department's top officials to intelligence and security matters. But Curran said things have changed since then and that he has always been given direct access to the energy secretary. In related developments Thursday: • A separate, closed, hearing was scheduled by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. It was looking into national security matters relating to the investigation of Wen Ho Lee, a physicist suspected of stealing military secrets for China at the DOE's Los Alamos Nucleará Laboratory in New Mexico. • Attorney General Janet Reno announced that she has selected a veteran prosecutor, Randy Bellows, to head a four-member Justice Department team to see if Justice or the FBI made any mistakes in investigating spy allegations against Lee. Security at weapons labs has been the subject of intense scrutiny since early March when Lee was fired from Los Alamos. He has not been charged with a crime and through his lawyer has denied providing nuclear secrets to China or anyone else. Chinese officials also have denied that the country stole secrets. • The director of the Los Alamos laboratory says the facility has been devastated by allegations of espionage and will take years to regain the nation's trust. "It's certainly not going to happen in a year," Jon Browne told the Albuquerque Journal. "I think you're talking about time frames in the three- to five-year range of sustained performance in security."
In the year it spent preparing its report, the special House committee, headed by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-California, heard extensive testimony concerning the investigation surrounding Lee. But the declassified version of the panel's report provides little additional information about the Los Alamos investigation, said officials familiar with the document. Nevertheless, the report sharply criticizes security and counterintelligence activities at three weapons research labs -- Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, and Lawrence Livermore in California -- saying it has led to the loss of secrets to China under both Republican and Democratic administrations, spanning more than two decades. And the report maintains the security problems persist today and adequate counterintelligence measures are unlikely to be in place before 2000, according to officials who summarized the findings but did not want to be identified. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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MORE STORIES:Thursday, May 20, 1999
• Transcript: Senate Democrats, Gore celebrate 'gun-show loophole' vote • Roll call on gun background checks • Clinton praises Columbine students for keeping faith • Senators pass $15 billion spending bill for Kosovo, storm victims, farmers • Report: China benefited from stolen nuclear secrets • Congress considers how to keep kids from Web's dark side • House vote sends missile defense bill to president • Mrs. Dole logs on for Web site chat • Nebraska Legislature passes nation's first moratorium on executions • President renominates Shelton as Joint Chiefs chairman • House committee to schedule Social Security hearings • Private school tax breaks measure clears Senate panel • Clinton education plan denounced • Alexander keeps going despite polls • Forbes' New Hampshire campaign manager resigns • Brother of presidential candidate sought by police | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
