US cracks whip on 6 Alamos Lab men

Washington, June 14: Embarrassed over disappearance of some of the sensitive nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos national laboratory, US a...

Washington, June 14: Embarrassed over disappearance of some of the sensitive nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos national laboratory, US authorites have sent six administrative employees of the facility on "paid leave" while a presidential inquiry panel was set up to probe into the incident.

According to a laboratory spokesman, several of the facility’s managers were put on paid leave yesterday pending an investigation by an outside board appointed by the University of California, which runs the laboratory.

He, however, said the move was not punitive and is intended to give

investigators more open access to employees.

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Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced the appointment of a Presidential Commission headed by former Senator Howard Baker and former Chairman of the House International Relations Committee Lee Hamilton to probe the incident.

The nuclear secrets contained in hard drives in the laboratory, already at the centre of alleged Chinese espionage, disappeared from a vault.

The drives reportedly contained information on how to disarm and dismantle US, Russian and other country’s nuclear devices. The secrets were to be used by the emergency response team in case of a nuclear bomb threat or accident.

The classified information was stored in two computer hard drives, kept in a suitcase that was locked in a vault at the laboratory.

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The Energy Department said that it was informed about the incident on June 1 by the laboratory following which the department launched a joint probe with FBI.

General Eugene E Habiger, Energy Department Security chief, said the joint investigation with FBI is focusing, for now, on 28 members of the department’s nuclear emergency search team of specialists equipped to respond to nuclear weapons accidents and terrorist incidents.

Senator John W Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told the Senate Richardson himself "will have to be held accountable."

Republican members of Congress said Richardson, a possible Democratic vice-presidential candidate, had told the Congress last year that there would be "zero tolerance" for security failure following allegations of China leaking out nuclear secrets from the facility.

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While the Clinton administration and the Energy Department have come under criticism following the latest nuke file missing incident, laboratory officials also owe explanation as to why three weeks had elapsed between the discovery of the disappearance of the drives on May seven and the notification on May 31 by the facility’s director, John Browne, on their disappearance.