For Immediate Release

March 6, 1999

REP. DICKS URGES CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL
OF COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PROGRAM AT D.O.E.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Security lapses at the U.S. Department of Energy’s weapons laboratories underscore the need for Congress to fund the agency’s request to expand its counterintelligence program, according to the ranking Democratic congressman of a special House investigative panel.

         U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) said Saturday that serious allegations of security lapses at Department of Energy weapons labs should be investigated thoroughly by congressional intelligence oversight committees and that Congress should provide the full amount requested –$31.2 million -- by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in next year’s budget for an expanded counterintelligence program. Dicks is the top Democrat on the special House of Representatives committee investigating technology transfer to China, and he has recently completed eight years on the House Intelligence Committee.

          Without confirming specific allegations contained in today’s edition of the The New York Times, Rep. Dicks said the China committee found counterintelligence efforts at the weapons labs over the last two decades to be ineffective. He said that previous counterintelligence efforts in the 1980s and early 1990s suffered from a lack of administration support and congressional oversight. He noted that the investigative panel has called for a complete assessment of the damage to national security, but he said "the initial assessments were very serious."

          "The President has signed a presidential order --PDD-61– representing a more aggressive approach to counterintelligence, but it is still up to Congress to ensure that it is fully implemented," Dicks said. The congressman applauded the efforts of Energy Secretary Richardson – a former colleague of his on the House Intelligence Committee – in acting decisively since his appointment to assure that the FBI is vigorously pursuing suspects within the department.

          "I believe Secretary Richardson is personally engaged in putting a vigorous counterintelligence program into place, and that he is committed to ‘changing the culture’ of the department’s labs with regard to security consciousness," Dicks said. He also said that "the creation last year of the department’s new counterintelligence office headed by former FBI agent Ed Curran is a major step forward."

          The congressman said he hopes critics will not use these security lapses to undermine the positive relationship between the United States and China. "I still believe the policy of engagement with China over the long term is critically important and it should not be undermined by our own counterintelligence failures of the past," he said.

          Dicks said he remains convinced that China – regardless of recent technological advances – does not pose a military threat to the United States. "After serving for more than 20 years on the defense appropriations subcommittee, I am convinced that we have overwhelming military superiority over the Chinese," he said. He noted that just this week the commander-in-chief of the Pacific, Adm. Dennis Blair, testified before the subcommittee that China would not represent a serious military threat to the U.S. for at least 20 years.

Home >> Newsroom >> Press Releases