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Editorials
Friday, June 16, 2000Security lapses
cannot be toleratedLAXITY in security precautions at two key government agencies -- the State Department and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where much nuclear weapons research and development is conducted -- has reached alarming proportions.The issue: The State Department and the Los Alamos National Laboratory have experienced major losses of highly classified information.
The most recent disclosure has to do with Los Alamos, where two computer hard drives filled with nuclear weapons secrets have disappeared. The laboratory suspended six senior scientists in connection with the investigation of the case.
The information reportedly concerns the design of nuclear weapons, particularly crude devices that might be used by a rogue state or terrorists. The drives are to be used by teams that go to a crisis scene and attempt to defuse a nuclear device.
The material disappeared more than a month ago from a locked compartment of a locked bag inside a heavily guarded vault in the main administration building.
Lawmakers who were briefed on the security lapse said the investigation became more difficult because senior officials were not told for three weeks of the loss of the hard drives. Moreover, there was no system in place requiring tracking of the missing devices when they were being used -- an inexplicable procedural failure.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who is facing sharp criticism from congressional Republicans, said he was angry about what appear to be clear violations of security and at the failure to report the incident promptly.
This was only the latest security breach involving Los Alamos. A Los Alamos engineer, Wen Ho Lee, was indicted last December on charges of copying nuclear secrets onto an insecure computer network. Lee has pleaded not guilty to 59 felony counts. The case has caused a furor in the Chinese-American community.
Meanwhile a laptop computer believed to contain sensitive information was reported missing from the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, an agency responsible for handling all top-secret reports at the department. The computer reportedly contained "code word" information, considered the government's most sensitive intelligence information.
Previous security lapses at the State Department included an eavesdropping device planted in a department conference room and the theft of a sheaf of classified documents from the department's executive secretary's office. In December 1999 the FBI arrested a Russian diplomat who was accused of monitoring the eavesdropping device.
Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said, "It is obvious that the department lacks a professional environment that is sensitive to security concerns."
Of course, the CIA and the armed forces have also had their security problems over the years. The need for vigilance in those organizations is obvious, but personnel in the State Department and sensitive research activities such as Los Alamos must be equally vigilant.
Despite the end of the Cold War, the United States still has enemies that might use classified information against this country. There is no room for complacency in such matters.
Press freedom
in RussiaSKEPTICISM about Vladimir Putin's commitment to a free society existed before the onetime KGB officer was elected president of Russia three months ago. Those doubts have turned into outrage following the jailing of the owner of the country's largest independent media company.
Putin's expression of surprise about Vladimir Gusinsky's arrest raises questions about his credibility as well as his attitude toward a free press.
Gusinsky took advantage of economic reforms to rise from a provincial theater director to a successful banker and media baron. He used his influence to help Boris Yeltsin win re-election to the presidency in 1996. However, his NTV television station and Segodnya newspaper have been critical of Russia's war in Chechnya and high-level corruption.
Government intimidation was not absent during the Yeltsin administration. In 1994, Kremlin officials raided Gusinsky's Media-Most offices and forced employees at gunpoint to lay face down in the snow. Gusinsky fled Russia for several months out of what he later said was fear for his life.
Last month, the Kremlin conducted another raid on Media-Most, drawing international attention. President Clinton emphasized the importance of a free press during the recent summit with Putin in Moscow. Clinton granted an interview with NTV, a strong signal in support of an independent media.
On Tuesday, while Putin was on a state visit to Spain, Russia's federal prosecutor -- a Putin appointee -- authorized Gusinsky's arrest and his detainment in an old, overcrowded prison. He is accused of embezzling millions of dollars in government property. Russia's most powerful businessmen joined the media in condemning the arrest, regardless of whether there may be substance behind the allegations of embezzlement.
"In the past few years, there isn't a single businessman who has not broken the law somewhere," said oil tycoon and media baron Boris Berezovsky. The implication is that the prosecutor went after Gusinsky instead of others who had engaged in questionable finances because of Gusinsky's media activities.
That is the disturbing context in which this arrest must be seen. Putin's campaign promise to tackle corruption in Russia was encouraging, but Gusinsky's arrest seems motivated by a disdain for freedom of the press.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
