Richardson: China did steal secrets

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson admitted yesterday that the Chinese government has obtained nuclear secrets during the Clinton administration, despite the president's claims to the contrary.
"There have been damaging security leaks. The Chinese have obtained damaging information . . . during past administrations and the current administration," Mr. Richardson said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The energy secretary's comments contradict President Clinton's statement of March 19. Mr. Clinton was asked about a classified congressional report detailing leaks at the nuclear weapons laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. The initial disclosure of the congressional report, published in the New York Times, said the spying began in the 1980s but was not discovered until 1995.
"To the best of my knowledge, no one has said anything to me about any espionage which occurred by the Chinese against the labs during my presidency," the president said.
According to the New York Times, counterintelligence experts told senior Clinton administration officials in November that China posed an "acute intelligence threat" to the weapons labs.

The counterintelligence report, purportedly distributed to Mr. Richardson and others in the highest echelons of the administration, warned that China was "constantly" penetrating computers at the nuclear weapons labs.
The document revealed that the Energy Department, which has authority over nuclear weapons labs, recorded 324 attacks on its unclassified computer systems from outside the United States between October 1997 and June 1998. China was the worst offender, but there were others as well, the report said.
In the NBC interview yesterday, Mr. Richardson repeatedly said, "Let's not overreact."
"It was serious, but so far there is no evidence that, in the computer transfers from unclassified to classified and vice versa, that there was penetration by the Chinese. We don't know that, but we do know that this should not happen again," he said.
"The point is we are moving to address the [espionage] problems vigorously. . . . We do know that very, very strong counterintelligence and cyber-security measures have taken place . . . and I'm going to announce new measures on security and counterintelligence next week."
Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican and chairman of the intelligence committee, suggested Mr. Richardson was trying to downplay the magnitude of the problem.
"This is probably the most serious espionage we have had in this country in modern times," he said on "Meet the Press."
On "Fox News Sunday," Mr. Shelby said Mr. Richardson keeps assuring him the problems are over now that an FBI official will oversee security at the weapons labs.
"But the problems [at the labs] are so big, this is just the start," Mr. Shelby said. "We've got to have a comprehensive review of the whole lab situation."
On NBC yesterday, Mr. Shelby said his committee's investigation of satellite technology transfers uncovered "very suspicious banking relationships" that would need further investigation. The report on that 10-month probe, released last week, said relevant information has "been turned over to appropriate law enforcement and counterintelligence authorities."
"Millions and millions of dollars" were funneled to a small bank in the United States with ties to "someone who is a very suspicious character that's being investigated" in the probe of campaign fund raising, Mr. Shelby said. "Did a lot of the money get into the political arena? We don't know that yet."
Sen. Bob Kerrey, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, said on "Meet the Press" that he found no evidence of a collusion between Chinese banking efforts and the U.S. political system.
However, Mr. Shelby said he has asked Sen. Phil Gramm, Texas Republican and chairman of the Banking Committee, "to investigate this matter."
Mr. Kerrey said: "I have no doubt there has been Chinese espionage at these nuclear labs. I have no doubt the efforts to reduce the risk of that espionage was sloppy and not well coordinated and as a consequence has been damaging to the people of the United States."
The Chinese government has denied stealing weapons secrets from the United States. And the Taiwan-born Wen Ho Lee, a former scientist at the Los Alamos lab suspected of doing much of the spying, says he is innocent.
Rep. Porter J. Goss, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said the U.S. government has "done a very poor job over the years" in protecting "national security, like weapons labs."
"When we've tried to press it because of congressional oversight . . . we've found that the response has been more bob and weave, duck and hide and cover up, rather than come forward and deal with it," the Florida Republican said on Fox.
But he said he believes "those days are gone," as a result of the release of the report by Mr. Shelby's committee and the pending release of a related report by a House committee chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican.
Mr. Goss said he believes release of the Cox report is "less than two weeks away."
He added: "Their mandate runs out on the 14th of May, and I think it's a question of now printing it and getting it out." Mr. Cox has been in extensive negotiations with the administration over what can and cannot be declassified.
Mr. Goss said on Fox the report should be released "because it will show something very important . . . and that is we have over-focused on commerce and under-focused on national security.
"Another way to say that is we've sold at the expense of national security, and we need to be smarter than that in the future," he said.