Clinton opened nuclear labs to terrorist-state visitors
'We raised hell about it all the time,' says ex-Energy Dept.
security director
By Paul Sperry
WASHINGTON -- The number of foreign visitors and workers at the
nation's defense labs from sensitive countries, including ones
sponsoring terrorism, exploded under the Clinton
administration, says a former Energy Department security
official who warned against the visits, citing the risk of
nuclear theft and sabotage.
Although Energy's nuclear-weapons labs have cut back sharply on
visitors from such countries, many of the foreign workers are
still assigned there.
It's well known that former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary
rolled out the welcome mat for Chinese nationals.
But in keeping with her "openness policy" -- which was an
outgrowth of President Clinton's "denuclearization" policy,
which called for a global ban on nuclear tests, wholesale
declassification of early nuclear-program secrets and lab-to-
lab foreign collaborations -- O'Leary also extended the
invitation to terrorist-sponsoring Middle Eastern countries.
"Every terrorist country was represented at the labs, either as
post-doctoral workers and students assigned there, or as
visitors," said ret. Col. Edward McCallum, former head of
Energy's Office of Safeguards and Security. "Iran, Iraq, Syria
... you name it, we had them from all of those places."
In an exclusive interview with WorldNetDaily, McCallum revealed
that, over the last decade, "hundreds" of students from
sensitive Middle Eastern countries worked at Energy's labs,
including Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia labs, where
America's nuclear weapons are designed and maintained.
"And we got hundreds of visits from their intelligence agencies
-- that we knew about," he added.
At Los Alamos, which designed most of the warheads in the U.S.
arsenal and stores nuclear materials at its New Mexico
facilities, the number of foreign nationals from sensitive
countries working at the lab soared to 182 in 1999 from 31 in
1992, internal lab records show.
Countries the lab classifies as sensitive are: Iran, Iraq,
India, China, North Korea, Russia, Israel, Taiwan, Pakistan and
Syria.
In 1998 alone, the three major labs, plus Oak Ridge in
Tennessee, hosted more than 10,700 foreign visitors and
academic assignees, some of whom stayed on site for as long as
two years, according to the House Science Committee, which
oversees the labs. Those from sensitive countries totaled more
than 3,100.
"They kicked the doors wide open," McCallum said, despite his
protests. "They were encouraging visitation."
'Flying carpet trips'
He says that in her trade trips to Pakistan, India and Africa,
O'Leary invited scientists to tour the labs.
"When Hazel O'Leary was on her flying carpet trips in the
mid-'90s, one of the pitches she made was, 'Send your
scientists. We have technology to share,'" McCallum said.
And she made sure they got into the labs.
Under the Reagan and Bush administrations, Energy required
background checks on foreign visitors.
But in 1994, O'Leary granted Los Alamos and Sandia exemptions
from the rule. As a result, few background checks were
conducted at those labs, and the number of foreign visits
exploded.
Los Alamos, for example, had 2,714 visitors in two years from
sensitive countries, but only 139 were checked, according to a
1997 congressional report.
The new policy did not sit well with McCallum, a former green
beret.
"We raised hell about it all the time," he said.
He and other security officials worried that the uncontrolled
access to the labs invited not only espionage, but terrorism.
But O'Leary and her aides dismissed their warnings. In one
meeting, McCallum recalls, the former Energy secretary pooh-
poohed the idea of threats from other countries.
"Hazel said to me, and this is a quote, 'Boy, don't you
understand that the Cold War is over, and all these people are
our friends now?'" McCallum said. "And we were talking about
security against terrorists and espionage in the same
conversation."
Phone calls seeking comment from O'Leary were not returned.
After McCallum told Congress about Energy's security problems,
he was punished by former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. He
left the department in 1999.
'Detonate it right there'
With Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorists actively
seeking nuclear materials for weapons, the threat of theft or
sabotage at the labs is now very real, officials note. And that
makes the presence there of individuals from sensitive Middle-
Eastern countries more worrisome.
"I've always felt that if there were an insider at one of the
labs who had access to nuclear materials, it would be tough to
stop them," said Troy Wade, former assistant Energy secretary
for Defense Programs under the Reagan administration, in an
interview with WorldNetDaily.
Nuclear materials are kept at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Sandia and
Livermore, as well as other labs. Having access to the labs
would, of course, make it easier for would-be terrorists to
steal such materials.
It takes less than 50 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium or
highly enriched uranium to craft a crude nuclear device.
"But they don't have to steal it," McCallum said. "All they
have to do is detonate it right there. It's a one-way trip for
an Islamic student or visitor."
According to Wade, now a consultant, Energy issued a warning to
the labs about Middle-Eastern visitors after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
He told WorldNetDaily that the warning was delivered by the
National Nuclear Security Administration, the semiautonomous
Energy agency that Congress forced Richardson to create to
tighten security at the labs.
"After Sept. 11, the NNSA went out to all locations, including
the labs, and told them to be careful about visiting Middle-
Eastern scientists, and scientific meetings that involve people
from the Middle East,'" Wade said.
Wade says he met with NNSA Administrator Gen. John Gordon at
Energy headquarters here on Sept. 11.
Asked about any changes in the visitors policy, Marshall Combs,
director of Energy's Office of Foreign Visits and Assignments,
said, "I'm not going to comment on that."
Los Alamos has received no formal directive from headquarters,
but has independently tightened its screening of visitors, says
Lori Hutchins, project leader of the lab's foreign visits and
assignments program.
"Even though headquarters hasn't issued anything, we've taken
steps on our own to tighten monitoring of visitors from
sensitive countries, on a case-by-case basis, which we felt we
needed to do in light of what happened on Sept. 11," Hutchins
told WorldNetDaily.
Terrorist blacklist
She says requests for visits from any of the seven countries on
State Department's terrorist blacklist -- Syria, Iran, Iraq,
North Korea, Cuba, Libya and Sudan -- have to be OK'd by Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham.
Hutchins says that the lab had already tightened screening of
visitors from sensitive countries starting in October 1999,
after Congress ordered a review of vetting procedures in the
wake of the Cox report and congressional hearings on Chinese
espionage at the labs.
Asked if a Los Alamos physicist would have any chance of
hosting a nuclear scientist from, say, Pakistan right now,
Hutchins replied, "No sir."
"Not without coming through some international agency such as
the IAEA," she added. "That would be the only way it would
happen here."
As WorldNetDaily reported Wednesday, the International Atomic
Energy Agency, a United Nations group that guards against loose
nukes, sponsors foreign nationals, including ones from
terrorist states, to tour U.S. nuclear sites to learn security
procedures.
The controversial international-training course, held every
other spring in Albuquerque, N.M., has come under new fire
since Sept. 11.
"The biggest joke is that the IAEA course participants include
all the world's bad guys, who promptly collect nuclear
information on the facilities that are inspected," said a
former U.S. intelligence official.
But Pakistanis may not need the IAEA to get into the labs.
According to Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar, State
Secretary Colin Powell has invited Pakistan to send its nuclear
scientists to U.S. labs to "see how Americans protect their
weapons."
At Sandia, procedures for foreign interaction have not changed
since Sept. 11, says Rose Perea, a worker in the foreign visits
office.
"Over the years, a variety of Sandia projects in support of its
national-security and nuclear-nonproliferation roles have
involved inviting visitors from foreign countries, including
sensitive countries," said Sandia spokesman Rod Geer. "In fact,
even people from India and Pakistan have been here at the same
time."
Investigating WorldNetDaily?
Hutchins agreed on Tuesday to provide updated figures for Los
Alamos employment of foreign nationals from sensitive
countries, as well as the latest annual figures for foreign
visits.
But on Wednesday, after talking to her superiors, she said she
couldn't give out the numbers, and referred the request to
Energy's headquarters.
Energy also keeps a database on all the foreign visits and
assignments at the labs. The system was set up about a year
ago, and is kept by Combs and his assistant, Nevair Rich, in
the Office of Foreign Visits and Assignments.
But Combs, in turn, referred the request to Energy spokeswoman
Hope Williams, who said she had to check with her boss, Jeanne
Lopatto.
Later, Williams said she couldn't reveal the numbers until
after Lopatto, President Bush's new director of public affairs
at Energy, investigated WorldNetDaily.
"The front office wants more information about your website,"
she said.
After providing the information, Williams called later to say
that Lopatto still refused to give out the information, which
is not classified and otherwise public information.
Lopatto did not return phone calls or answer e-mails.
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