We applaud Defense Secretary Gates for holding top Air Force officials accountable for flying across the country with unauthorized nuclear weapons and leaving them unsecured on the tarmac at Barksdale Air Force Base, and for mistakenly sending nuclear weapon fuses to Taiwan. However, equally bad, if not worse, was the recent security test at Minot Air Force Base, where they found that terrorists could easily have stolen cruise missile nuclear warheads as well as other targets. Nobody was held accountable for that debacle. Security was lax at Minot despite the training and cleaning-house that took place in response to the Barksdale loose nukes incident.
In addition, a recent test of security at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) demonstrated that mock-terrorists were able to steal highly enriched uranium and plutonium. In another scenario, mock-terrorists were able to detonate the material into an explosion that would have potentially been the size of the Hiroshima bomb. This security test was actually weaker than it should have been, as DOE gave LLNL a waiver for meeting the more stringent 2005 Design Basis Threat. No one--DOE Secretary Bodman or others at DOE or the Lab--was held accountable for this failure to protect the 7 million people living within a 50 mile radius of LLNL. POGO came up with a report three weeks before this disastrous test, saying this could happen and making recommendations to improve the situation.
-- Peter Stockton
Comments