Just when we thought there couldn't be any more bad news, now this...
[url]www.worldnetdaily.com[/url]
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.
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"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."
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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"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. [/b]