Los Alamos Lab Probe Focuses on 3 Scientists

FBI agents investigating the strange case of lost-then-found nuclear terrorism secrets at Los Alamos National Laboratory are focusing on three weapons scientists who appear to have worked in collusion, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The FBI also determined that two computer hard drives, each containing highly classified data about nuclear terrorism, may have vanished weeks or months earlier than previously believed. Until now, officials have said the drives were inventoried in a Los Alamos vault April 7.

“They were missing before April,” said a U.S. official familiar with the case. He declined to be more specific. Energy Department officials said the hard drives were definitely examined in January as part of Y2K testing.

But officials said human error and arrogance, not espionage, appear to be the culprits in the deepening mystery. “It’s a screw-up and a cover-up,” said another senior official. “It’s not a spy ring.”

A third U.S. official said the three scientists helped write the highly sensitive weapons data on the hard drives and “were so confident that the material was secure in their hands that they got lax.”

The officials said the three scientists under suspicion all gave conflicting answers in interviews, and indicated deception on polygraph tests. “I guess you have to say they’re suspects,” one official said.

Investigators believe--but have not yet proved--that one member of the group took or misplaced the hard drives and then, after the FBI investigation began early this month, asked his colleagues for help in a scheme to avoid being caught.

If federal prosecutors conclude that an illegal conspiracy or cover-up took place, the scientists could be charged with mishandling classified information or other felonies, officials said.

The three scientists work in the lab’s X Division, where the nation’s most advanced nuclear weapons are designed. All three are volunteer members of the lab’s Nuclear Emergency Search Team, a kind of nuclear bomb squad that assists the FBI in cases of nuclear terrorism.

The FBI is also investigating another X Division scientist, not part of the original group, who first reported finding the missing hard drives behind a photocopying machine near the vault last Friday.

Dust on the cases, each about the size of a deck of cards, suggested they were there for days or weeks. That raised hopes--but offered no proof--that the drives were lost and merely overlooked in intense searches of the X Division over the last three weeks.

“Anything’s possible at this point,” one official said. “Right now they’re checking everyone who did the searches. The lab says they turned the place upside-down. Well, do we have anyone who can say for certain that they checked behind the damn Xerox machine?”

The FBI copied the multi-gigabyte hard drives and after checking for fingerprints or any signs of tampering, flew the originals from the lab in New Mexico to Washington on Monday. Experts now are checking for computer viruses or any indication that the files were changed or copied by outsiders. So far, no such evidence has been detected.

“They certainly would appear to be the missing hard drives,” said one official.

The Energy Department first announced June 12 that the hard drives had been missing since at least May 7. Senior officials told Congress that the drives had been inventoried April 7 but that they were missing a month later when two scientists went to remove them from the vault. A fierce wildfire caused the lab to close May 8 for two weeks.

In addition to the cause of the loss, the investigation is seeking to determine why the scientists did not report the breach to lab security or other officials for 24 days. Energy Department rules require reporting security lapses within eight hours. The FBI was not notified until June 2.

T.J. Glauthier, deputy secretary of energy, said in a telephone interview that the lab has tightened security in the X Division in the last two weeks in an effort to prevent a similar lapse in the future.

He said that all “encyclopedic databases” of classified information, like those on the two hard drives, must now be locked in a vault rather than in scientists’ offices.

In addition, he said, the lab ordered that a log be kept of everyone who uses the vault, as well as anything they remove. The lack of a vault log in this case infuriated members of Congress last week and prompted several to acidly suggest that security is stronger in a Wal-Mart, a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet or even the women’s restroom in the Capitol.

“Anyone who goes in and out of the vault now has to sign in and sign out,” Glauthier said. “Plus, if they take anything out, they have to sign it out.”

In addition, he said, the lab has asked the supersecret National Security Agency to provide encryption software for the emergency response team’s computers. The missing hard drives were “plug and play,” and thus usable on any laptop.

Finally, he said, the lab tightened access to the walk-in vault after members of Congress questioned whether it was adequately guarded when the so-called vault lady takes her lunch hour or is otherwise absent.

Now, when a vault custodian leaves, the vault will be locked and the alarm will be set, Glauthier said. Even the scientists and managers who are allowed to use the vault without an escort will need to telephone for authorization, provide a password, open a combination lock and a keypad lock, and have a guard turn off the alarm, he said.

Glauthier also said the Energy Department expects to complete a review later this summer of the University of California’s contract to run the Los Alamos lab. Critics, including many in the Energy Department, say UC management has failed to implement security policies and to conduct proper oversight at the lab.