Privatization Can't Keep Secure Information Private

Security problems persist at Los Alamos National Lab. Several years ago the federal government contracted out management of the lab to a private consortium known as LANS in an effort to address long running security failures.

Guess who spilled national security secrets this time? The people hired to improve security! According to the Associated Press:

"Officials with the contractor that runs Los Alamos National Laboratory sent top-secret data regarding nuclear weapons through open e-mail networks, the latest potentially dangerous security breach to come to light at the birthplace of the atomic bomb. Apparently, open e-mail networks were used by several LANS officials to share classified information relating to the characteristics of nuclear material in nuclear weapons."

The government contracted with LANS in 2005 for management services. The partnership officially began June 1, 2006. The e-mail breach was reported on January 19th, 2007.

A nearly identical partnership just bid successfully to manage Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This site recently won the design contest for the modern replacement warhead. Will they do any better keeping nuclear weapon secrets at this site than they did at Los Alamos?

It's a "Mad Mad World"

Is anyone else concerned about people proposing solutions that sound crazy? U.S. Presidential candidate Rep. Duncan Hunter said he would use tactical nuclear weapons to take out Iran's nuclear enrichment capabilities. The chief of the worldwide nuclear watchdog agency called any type of attack on Iran "an act of madness". Would using nukes ratchet up the level of insanity?

Leaders in Israel debated the "Samson option" of nuking themselves should they ever be overrun by their neighbors. If the Jewish state can't have the land, it won't be worth having. Of course Israel doesn't admit they have nuclear weapons which makes the discussion even more bizarre.

Two years ago Rep. Tom Tancredo suggesting bombing Mecca after the next fundamentalist Muslim terror attack. What's the fixation with using nuclear weapons? Is the U.S. heavy hand of non-nuclear armaments not enough to get the masses in line?

Who will be the next Slim Pickens riding a nuclear weapon to its preferred destination? Will it be Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, George W. Bush, or Ehud Olmert? And what will the other nuclear powers do once the genie is unleashed from the bottle? Will India, Pakistan, Great Britain, France, Russia or China do anything in response? It's a genie worth keeping in the bottle for all of time.