WASHINGTON — Since its earliest days as home of the atomic bomb, Los Alamos has been the sieve through which many of the nation's nuclear secrets have trickled.
The American people were about the only ones who didn't know what all those scientists were doing in the mountains of New Mexico during the Manhattan Project. Certainly, we were to find out too late; the Russians knew exactly what was going on and so probably did the Germans, who were struggling to do the same thing.
During the last few years, the trickle of protected information seems to have become a torrent with the main beneficiary, of course, the Chinese, whose nuclear missile program has made great strides apparently because of all this purloined U.S. technology. But who knows how many other despotic regimes have benefited from the largesse of stolen secrets.
Now, with the latest disclosure of "missing" data, Congress rightly has begun to question whether the Clinton administration in general, and Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson in particular, is capable of putting a stop to the deluge.
The Democratic former New Mexico congressman who is often mentioned as a potential vice presidential nominee is not insensitive to how bad this makes him look.
Richardson's immediate response, as it has been in other recent incidents of this nature, was to close the proverbial barn door after the secrets had galloped away. He immediately suspended six administrators for failing to report the missing tapes for three weeks after the discovery and set up a major investigation.
Richardson announced that somebody would be held accountable for this most serious breach. I certainly hope so. Might I suggest that that somebody be Richardson himself.
There has been an almost cavalier attitude from the White House to the Energy Department about classified information. For several years, the administration had ever so much indication that something was awry in the area of nuclear secrets and failed to take appropriate action.
The Chinese clearly were moving forward in missile development far more rapidly than could be expected under normal circumstances. Complicating the entire matter was the fact federal investigators failed to follow up on obvious computer security breaches.
The fact that Park Service dummies tried to burn down half of New Mexico, including the nuclear lab, has been offered as an explanation for this disaster. It is possible, department experts offer lamely, that in the confusion of trying to secure these vital tapes from the fire, they merely were lost. But if that explanation is correct, then why did it take those in charge three weeks to report the missing tapes to their superiors?
Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service.