The Los Alamos National Laboratory, the nation"s most important nuclear weapons lab, lost another hard disk drive filled with classified information, once again throwing a spotlight on lab officials who have been trying to re-emerge from years of scandals and mismangement. The latest episode came to light Thursday, after Los Alamos admitted that, since a Monday inventory check, its custodians hadn"t been able to find a "classified removable electronic media," or CREM -- disks and drives inscribed with the country"s secrets.
A Los Alamos press release played down the incident, calling it "a single accounting discrepancy (that) in no way constitutes a compromise of national security." Los Alamos has tens of thousands of removable hard drives, discs and memory sticks. When one can"t be found, it"s usually because of something innocent, like "administrative errors" or outdated machinery. But lab critics were hearing none of it. "Can"t they ever get anything right?" said Los Alamos security consultant-turned-whistleblower Glenn Walp. "They take the same old corporate line: "It"s not us, it"s the system." How refreshing it would be if someone at that place would have the backbone to admit they screwed up."