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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (20763)	6/14/2000 3:46:00 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

I think Richardson really,really wants to finish out his appointment for obvious reasons. Senate Confirms Gordon to Head Nuclear Security WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate, responding to the disappearance of two computer drives containing secret nuclear data, confirmed an Air Force general on Wednesday to be head of the nation's new nuclear security agency. The Senate voted 97-0 to confirm John Gordon, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to the new post created by Congress in 1999 in response to allegations that China stole U.S. nuclear weapons secrets. Gordon will be the first Energy Department undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the new National Nuclear Security Administration, which began operating on March 1 over the objections of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. Richardson, the target of heated Republican criticism since the disappearance of the computer drives came to light, has argued that putting all nuclear security functions under the new agency would undermine his efforts to protect nuclear secrets. Gordon will be in charge of maintaining the safety and reliability of U.S. nuclear warheads and managing the nuclear labs, including the Los Alamos, New Mexico, lab where the computer drives disappeared. Security at Los Alamos became an issue in 1999 when one of its researchers, Wen Ho Lee, was fired for allegedly copying nuclear weapons secrets and storing them on an unclassified computer network. Senate Republicans said the latest security lapse was a clear example of why Gordon needed to be quickly confirmed, and Democrats agreed on Tuesday night to the vote. ``I do not know a more qualified person,'' said Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which approved Gordon's nomination and sent it to the full Senate in May. ``It is now time for General Gordon to make this new entity work,'' Warner said. Gordon has worked in the past in weapons development, stockpile management and arms control, and was a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories. Democrats agreed to the vote on Gordon after a promise from Republicans that the Senate will vote by early in July on Madelyn Creedon, President Clinton's nominee to be the deputy administrator for defense programs in the new agency. Her nomination has been awaiting Senate approval since April.