General Accounting Office Draft Report, Appendix EE

Table 1: Safeguards and Security Ratings for Los Alamos National Laboratory From 1994 through

A

Reports to the President on the Status of Safeguards and Security at DOE were produced annually by the Office of Safeguards and Security (OSS). Back in the 1980's Chairman Dingell found DOE misleading the President and the National Security Council about the status of security in these reports. In 1996, a critical report was drafted by the Director of OSS, Edward McCallum, but not released by DOE to the President. Finally, the National Security Council demanded its release. Shortly thereafter, McCallum was then put on administrative leave and investigated. The investigation was later dropped. The next year, no report was issued. (Appendix L; Appendix FF)

National Nuclear Security Administration

Different Name, Same Problem

In the wake of the Los Alamos security breach, the Congress reacted by legislatively mandating the reorganization of the nuclear weapons program in DOE by creating a semiautonomous agency reporting to the Secretary National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Even though the Agency was named the National Nuclear Security Administration, security is only one of the many duties entrusted to it.

For example, on June 27, 2001, Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration General Gordon testified before the House Armed Services Committee on the work and budget needs of the NNSA. Out of 44 single-spaced pages of testimony, General Gordon only devoted 1 1⁄2 pages to physical and cyber security. This testimony demonstrates the extraordinary span of General Gordon's responsibilities: there is no way security (and safety for that matter) can compete with nuclear submarines, non-proliferation deals with Russia, and stockpile surety. This hodgepodge is clearly, as General Gordon says, "fragile" if not worse.'

17

The Los Alamos case was a cyber security problem and an alleged counter intelligence issue. There have been no hearings since the early 1990's addressing the myriad of issues involved in physical security. The reorganization did nothing to address the physical security problems. In fact it exacerbated the problems. It was simply a rearrangement of the deck chairs in a bureaucracy that has failed. In a memo from NNSA's Principle Deputy Administrator, Bob Kuckuck even stated, "This reorganization is predominantly a functional realignment - with many employees continuing to perform their current functions." He went on to say that many employees would even "continue to report to their current supervisor." (Appendix GG) Furthermore, several of the new appointments to top NNSA positions were the very same people who oversaw the agency's predecessor, DOE Defense Programs. At that time, Representative John Dingell (D-MI) warned that this was a mistake:

17

"I am gravely concerned about recent proposals to elevate the Department's
dysfunctional weapons bureaucracy to the status of an almost completely
autonomous agency. . .We are concerned that the same bureaucrats, who have

http://www.nnsa.doc.gov/docs/JAG_HASC_Testimony_6-27.pdf - Downloaded September 13, 2001.

refused to implement President Clinton's recent security order and who resisted
reform efforts by both the Bush and Clinton Administrations, would be running
this agency, with even greater latitude and far less oversight than is currently in
place. Allowing these proposals to become law would be tantamount to using
gasoline to extinguish a fire. . .This would indeed be a remarkable act of
political jujitsu where the very institutions responsible for the security
problems at DOE would emerge from scandal not merely intact, but even
more powerful and autonomous than before." (Emphasis added) (Appendix S)

As it has turned out, the Congress has already realized they simply created another unwieldy bureaucracy. In the FY2002 House Appropriations Report, it was observed that, "Congress assumed that creation of the NNSA would lead to efficiencies and streamlined management. However, the result has been an increase in staff at Headquarters and in the field." (Appendix HH)

Lack of Congressional Oversight

In testimony before the House Commerce Committee on April 20, 1999, the GAO stated "we are concerned that, given DOE's past record, it may not be up to the challenge without congressional oversight to hold it accountable for achieving specific goals and objectives for security reform." (Appendix II)

There are two things that move any bureaucracy: one is sustained press attention to a problem and second is congressional oversight. For example, recently there was sustained press attention to the plutonium contamination of workers at a DOE facility at Paducah, Kentucky which finally lead DOE to compensate the injured workers and their families. Over the last 20-30 years, there has never been sustained press attention paid to security debacles at DOE because the Department has been able to hide behind overclassification.

Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee conducted numerous investigations of security lapses. One major problem that Chairman Dingell faced was that he did not have clear jurisdiction over the budget of the nuclear weapons program. He was unable, therefore, to use the most effective threat to the Department - budget cuts.

Despite the efforts of both the GAO and Representative Dingell's Committee, the DOE bureaucracy remained entrenched. According to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, "The panel has found that DOE and the weapons laboratories have a deeply rooted culture of low regard for and, at times, hostility to security issues, which has continually frustrated the efforts of its internal and external critics, notably the GAO and House Energy and Commerce Committee."

9918

18 http://fas.org/sgp/library/pfiab/ - Downloaded September 13, 2001.

The Congressional hearings spurred by the Los Alamos cyber security breaches focused on two specific incidents of security failures, but did not deal with the systemic physical and cyber security problems at the nuclear weapons complex. As this report illustrates, without sustained and intensive scrutiny and oversight, DOE briefings and testimony will not reveal the actual status of security.

Rewards and Punishment Turned On Its Head

Promotions for Security Failures

Whenever a security crisis occurs at DOE, the Secretary usually assures the Congress and the press that the responsible officials will be held accountable. It virtually never happens. As the Rudman report points out, "the lack of accountability... has become endemic throughout the entire Department.' "19 On the other hand, if someone internally raises an issue about security, they are always retaliated against and find themselves without any further security responsibilities. In other words, the reward and punishment system is turned on its head.

For example, Dr. John Browne, the lab director at Los Alamos, was in charge during the Wen Ho Lee case, the hard drive debacle and the force-on-force in October 2000 that would have led to a nuclear detonation. He is still the lab director. Steve Younger, the head of the X Division at Los Alamos where these debacles took place remained in his job, until appointed by President Bush to become the head of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The security director at Los Alamos, Stan Busbaum, is still in his job.

Rocky Flats, which is operated by contractor Kaiser-Hill, had severe security problems in the 1996-98 time frame and again in 1999. In 1997, outgoing Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary became a paid Director of Kaiser and outgoing DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management (overseeing Rocky Flats) Tom Grumbly became Senior Vice President for Kaiser. The current DOE Undersecretary Robert Card was President and CEO of the Kaiser-Hill Company. The DOE Manager of the Rocky Flats Field Office from 1996 to 1999, Jessie Roberson, is now the DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management.

The head of the DOE Office of Security Affairs, Joe Mahaley, who was responsible for security at all the sites, and whose office was involved in many of the following retaliations, was promoted to becoming the new security czar.

Whistleblowers: Shooting the Messenger

"In every investigation concerning problems at the DOE weapons facilities and laboratories, the individuals responsible for the operation of defense programs consistently and repeatedly denied the problems, punished the whistle blowers, and covered up the problems to their superiors and Congress.”

Representative John D. Dingell (D-MI) (Appendix S)

Retaliation at DOE does not necessarily entail attempting to fire federal employees. In the majority of cases in the security area, DOE supervisors attempt to revoke the whistleblower's clearance on trumped-up charges. Then they remove them from any responsibility for oversight of security. On the other hand, contractors often lose their contracts, or their jobs, for blowing the whistle. The frequency of retaliation against nuclear security whistleblowers reached such a crescendo, that in 1999 then-Secretary Richardson sent a memorandum to all DOE and contract employees stating: "Management must also create and foster a work environment that allows free and open expression of security concerns, where workers fear no reprisals or retaliation." (Appendix JJ)

Over the last three years, in the face of Richardson's "zero-tolerance" of retaliation against security whistleblowers, DOE still succeeded in eliminating all of the whistleblowers, or "speed bumps" in the road, as one federal official put it. In fact, months after this “zerotolerance" policy was in effect, when the DOE Inspector General was investigating security failures at Los Alamos, “a number of individuals requested confidentiality. They indicated they feared retaliation for disclosing information to the Office of Inspector General." (Appendix U) Currently, there are few DOE employees left in the bureaucracy with the knowledge or willingness to risk the damage to their careers to raise concerns about the lack of security. Retaliation against whistleblowers has been a clear object lesson to the rest of the bureaucracy.

Going back to the early 1980's, there has been a pattern of retaliation against federal and contractor employees who raise issues about security problems. For example:

A

In 1980, DOE did not like the fact that John Hanatio, a security analyst at DOE
Headquarters, was cooperating with the House Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations. They immediately went after his security clearance and tried to fire him.
Under Subcommittee Chairman John Dingell's (D-MI) protection he is still employed by
DOE but has never been placed in a position of significant responsibility or dealt with
security issues again.

In 1996, Colonel David Ridenour, a former Strategic Air Command missile officer, became the Director of the Safeguard and Security Division at the Rocky Flats Field Office. Immediately upon taking the position, Ridenour was being harassed for trying to do his job of overseeing the security contractor at Rocky Flats. In a letter to then-Energy Secretary Federico Pena, he said "I was instructed by my direct supervisor. . .that my