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“SECURITY FAILURE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2931-H2932 on May 11, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SECURITY FAILURE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, in a press conference in March of this year, the President was asked, ``Can you assure the American people that under your watch no valuable nuclear secrets were lost?'' The President answered, ``Can I tell you that there has been no espionage at the lab since I have been President? I can tell you that no one has reported to me that they suspect such a thing has occurred.''
Mr. Speaker, on May 3, The New York Times reported a secret report was given to top Clinton administration officials, including the National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, in November of 1998 that warned, ``China posed an acute intelligence threat to our government's nuclear weapons laboratory and that computer systems at the labs were being constantly penetrated by outsiders.''
If the President stated in a press conference not more than 2 months ago that, ``no one has reported to me that they suspect such a thing'', while the top national security adviser in the Clinton administration received a classified report about Chinese espionage just 6 months ago, are we to assume that the President was never briefed upon this report?
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson acknowledged on Meet the Press this past Sunday that, ``There have been damaging security leaks.'' Obviously, National Security Adviser Samuel Berger was aware of the security leaks of the intelligence report warning the administration.
What is the truth, Mr. Speaker? The administration cannot have it both ways. Either Mr. Berger failed in his responsibility of notifying the President or the President in March misled our Nation about reports of espionage.
The Times further reported that, ``In April of 1996, Energy Department officials briefed Mr. Berger on the case and how it related to China's nuclear strategy. Mr. Berger took no action and did not inform the President of the matter, White House officials have said.'' That is what we believe.
How is Mr. Berger still on the job, Mr. Speaker? There are many troubling issues involved in the suspected spy case emanating from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and I think one of the most troubling is that the suspected Chinese American spy, Wen Ho Lee, was under investigation by the FBI back in 1997. They wanted to monitor Lee's telephone conversations and to access his computer, but the Justice Department denied this request. Why?
This case may be the worst espionage committed against our Nation, and the Justice Department quickly denied our chief policing and policy and domestic counterintelligence agency the tools to conduct a proper investigation. Why?
Intelligence officials privately state that a denial of such a request is extremely rare. It hardly ever happens. Why did it occur in this case, when the evidence indicated that efforts were under way to steal our most classified information about our most deadly nuclear weapons?
What is even more shocking is that the FBI told Energy Department officials in April of 1997 that they could transfer Mr. Lee to a less sensitive job. What did these officials do? They, instead, gave Mr. Lee the job of updating a computerized archives of nuclear secrets. Here we have a suspect possibly passing information about our most secure weapons and the Energy Department places him in charge of their computer upgrades.
In addition, the Energy Department allows Mr. Lee to hire his own personal assistant. The person he happened to hire was a Chinese graduate student who has, since this story has broke, disappeared.
The FBI has determined that in February of this year Lee tried to delete evidence that he had improperly transferred more than 1,000 computer files containing nuclear secrets.
Mr. Speaker, what is going on here? The Justice Department, the Energy Department, the administration all had this evidence. There have been no arrests, and the administration continues to drag its feet in the release of the Cox report.
Have we allowed our judgment of China's conduct to be clouded by our desire for trade with China? Have we allowed the White House to compromise the security of every man, woman and child in our Nation for the desire for more profits? I earnestly pray that this is not true.
Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record the recent AP story from Sunday entitled Richardson Says China Stole Secrets on Clinton Watch.
Richardson: China Stole Secrets on Clinton Watch
Washington--Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Sunday the Chinese government had obtained nuclear secrets during the Clinton presidency--something the administration had previously denied.
Speaking on NBC television's ``Meet the Press'' show, Richardson admitted security breaches had occurred during the Clinton presidency, despite denials by the president.
``There have been damaging security leaks,'' Richardson said. ``The Chinese have obtained damaging information . . . during past administrations and (the) present administration.''
In a March news conference, President Clinton denied the Chinese had secured nuclear secrets during his presidency.
``To the best of my knowledge, no one has said anything to me about any espionage which occurred by the Chinese against the labs, during my presidency,'' Clinton said then, referring to allegations of security breaches at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
But The New York Times reported a week ago that counter-intelligence officials had told the Clinton administration in November that China posed an ``acute intelligence threat'' to nuclear arms labs.
The Times disclosed in March that a scientist at Los Alamos, Wen Ho Lee, was suspected of helping China obtain arms secrets. China has repeatedly denied the charges and the scientist last week rejected the accusations against him.
The Senate intelligence committee said in a report last week that China gained technical information from U.S. companies during satellite launches which will improve its missiles and could threaten the United States.
The report capped a 10-month investigation by the committee into the impact on U.S. national security of advanced satellite technology exports to China.
Senator Richard Shelby, chairman of the intelligence committee, said Sunday, ``This is probably the most serious espionage we have had in this country in modern times.''
Shelby said his committee's investigation uncovered ``very suspicious banking relationships'' which would need further investigation. The Republican from Alabama said millions of dollars were funneled to a small bank in the United States from China, possible as political campaign donations.
Bob Kerrey, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, agreed there had been leaks at the Los Alamos lab.
``I have no doubt there has been Chinese espionage at these nuclear labs,'' the Nebraska senator said. ``I have no doubt the efforts to reduce the risk of that espionage was sloppy and not well coordinated and as a consequence has been damaging to the people of the United States.''
Despite the breaches, Kerrey said, the threat to Americans was not on the scale suggested by Shelby.
``This is a very serious case of espionage, a very serious breach of security at the labs, but its very important for us not to overestimate the threat,'' he said.
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