Nuclear security lapses cost program chief his job (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced Thursday the dismissal of the head of the country's nuclear weapons program because of security breakdowns at facilities including the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico.

Linton Brooks is to submit his resignation as chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration this month, the department said.

Bodman said Brooks, a former ambassador and arms control negotiator, had failed to adequately correct security problems at the NNSA.

"I have decided it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," Bodman said.

Brooks was reprimanded last June for failing to report to Bodman that computers at an NNSA facility in Albuquerque had been breached resulting in the theft of files containing Social Security numbers and other personal data from 1,500 workers.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/04/nuclear.dismissal.ap/index.html

Gosh, it's really a shame that they announced this on a day when everyone's attention is elsewhere! They need to plan these things better!









Oh, yeah ... :sarcasm:

[HuffleClaw]

1. hmmmmm

a paranoid person might see this as an ominous development. seems to me i recall another security-type guy who was 'let go' before 911...

[Nihil]

2. Yes and no.

O'Neill was "let go" for doing his job too well.
This guy doesn't seem to have been quite as awake.

Still, I'd get concerned if he joined a consultancy in my building ...