Lucille
04-08-2014, 11:30 AM
Great.
h/t http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/2014/04/08/tuesday-links-29/
Classified design drawings used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons have not been properly and reliably maintained (http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2014/04/drawings-missing/) by nuclear weapons labs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Department of Energy Inspector General said in a report last week.
“NNSA sites could not always locate as-built product definitions or associated drawings for nuclear weapons and components in official records repositories.” At the Pantex Plant, “officials were concerned and surprised at the difficulty in finding as-built product definitions for the nuclear weapons,” the DoE IG report said.
At Los Alamos, the information system “allowed changes to classified nuclear weapons drawings without using an approved change notice. This practice could permit unauthorized changes to weapons drawings.” Questioned about undocumented changes to a particular weapon drawing, “officials were unable to explain why changes were made, but told us that they ‘assumed’ the changes were needed.”
“Over the decades of nuclear weapons development, neither NNSA nor its sites treated the maintenance of original nuclear weapons… information as a priority,” wrote DoE Inspector General Gregory Friedman.
“Not having complete and accurate [weapon production] information can have significant effects on surveillance and safety, and can lead to time-consuming and expensive recovery efforts.” See National Nuclear Security Administration Nuclear Weapons Systems Configuration Management, Audit Report DOE/IG-0902, March 26, 2014.
“NNSA is on a trajectory towards crisis,” said Norman Augustine, the venerable engineer and aerospace executive who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise.
“The ‘NNSA experiment’ involving creation of a semi-autonomous organization [within the Department of Energy] has failed,” he said.
NNSA “has lost credibility and the trust of the national leadership and customers in DOD that it can deliver needed weapons and critical nuclear facilities on schedule and on budget,” Mr. Augustine said. He spoke at a March 26 briefing for the House Armed Services Committee.
http://twowheeledmadwoman.blogspot.com/2014/04/your-tax-dollars-at-inept-work.html
So, the very same Federal Gummint that likes to listen to your phone calls and read your Internet traffic, and had to build a giant server farm in Utah to save copies of it all, can't keep track of the drawings and docs for nuclear weapons. They don't even know who had made changes to the drawings they can find, nor if they're notes for improvement, as-builts or somebody's idle fantasy.
Okay, okay, NNSA is not NSA, but still, you'd think atom bomb plans would rate a little closer attention than, oh, I dunno, frikkin' wiretaps.
I sure wouldn't go shopping in any junk stores around Amarillo; no tellin' what kind of burn-before-reading stuff might be stuffed in the back of the drawers of some surplus file cabinet or desk. ...Yeah, I wish I was joking.
The fed.gov: can't keep its own secrets, wants to know yours. Probably already does know, and doesn't that make you feel ever so much safer?
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2014/04/priorities.html
If only the government applied the same level of scrutiny to the whereabouts of its nuclear weapons blueprints as it does to the contents of our phone conversations or the tax exempt status of various Tea Party-type organizations.
I swear, when it comes to raw milk co-ops and home schooling organizations, the government is like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Robocop, but with matters of actual external security it's suddenly the love child of Inspector Clouseau and Colonel Klink.
h/t http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/2014/04/08/tuesday-links-29/
Classified design drawings used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons have not been properly and reliably maintained (http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2014/04/drawings-missing/) by nuclear weapons labs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Department of Energy Inspector General said in a report last week.
“NNSA sites could not always locate as-built product definitions or associated drawings for nuclear weapons and components in official records repositories.” At the Pantex Plant, “officials were concerned and surprised at the difficulty in finding as-built product definitions for the nuclear weapons,” the DoE IG report said.
At Los Alamos, the information system “allowed changes to classified nuclear weapons drawings without using an approved change notice. This practice could permit unauthorized changes to weapons drawings.” Questioned about undocumented changes to a particular weapon drawing, “officials were unable to explain why changes were made, but told us that they ‘assumed’ the changes were needed.”
“Over the decades of nuclear weapons development, neither NNSA nor its sites treated the maintenance of original nuclear weapons… information as a priority,” wrote DoE Inspector General Gregory Friedman.
“Not having complete and accurate [weapon production] information can have significant effects on surveillance and safety, and can lead to time-consuming and expensive recovery efforts.” See National Nuclear Security Administration Nuclear Weapons Systems Configuration Management, Audit Report DOE/IG-0902, March 26, 2014.
“NNSA is on a trajectory towards crisis,” said Norman Augustine, the venerable engineer and aerospace executive who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise.
“The ‘NNSA experiment’ involving creation of a semi-autonomous organization [within the Department of Energy] has failed,” he said.
NNSA “has lost credibility and the trust of the national leadership and customers in DOD that it can deliver needed weapons and critical nuclear facilities on schedule and on budget,” Mr. Augustine said. He spoke at a March 26 briefing for the House Armed Services Committee.
http://twowheeledmadwoman.blogspot.com/2014/04/your-tax-dollars-at-inept-work.html
So, the very same Federal Gummint that likes to listen to your phone calls and read your Internet traffic, and had to build a giant server farm in Utah to save copies of it all, can't keep track of the drawings and docs for nuclear weapons. They don't even know who had made changes to the drawings they can find, nor if they're notes for improvement, as-builts or somebody's idle fantasy.
Okay, okay, NNSA is not NSA, but still, you'd think atom bomb plans would rate a little closer attention than, oh, I dunno, frikkin' wiretaps.
I sure wouldn't go shopping in any junk stores around Amarillo; no tellin' what kind of burn-before-reading stuff might be stuffed in the back of the drawers of some surplus file cabinet or desk. ...Yeah, I wish I was joking.
The fed.gov: can't keep its own secrets, wants to know yours. Probably already does know, and doesn't that make you feel ever so much safer?
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2014/04/priorities.html
If only the government applied the same level of scrutiny to the whereabouts of its nuclear weapons blueprints as it does to the contents of our phone conversations or the tax exempt status of various Tea Party-type organizations.
I swear, when it comes to raw milk co-ops and home schooling organizations, the government is like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Robocop, but with matters of actual external security it's suddenly the love child of Inspector Clouseau and Colonel Klink.