Ain't Security About Pakistani Nukes We Need to be Concerned About

Egads.

Newsmax:

U.S. Accidentally Leaks Map of Nuclear Sites
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 8:50 PM

A 266-page classified document detailing information about United States civilian nuclear sites and programs was accidentally made public by the federal government, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The document was discovered on Monday by an online newsletter that deals in federal secrecy issues. The document – clearly labeled ‘highly confidential’ – includes maps that identify where nuclear weapons fuel is stockpiled, though it contained no information about military nuclear operations, according to the Times.

President Obama sent the document to Congress for review on May 5. The printing office then published it online. It was removed from the Government Printing Office Web site on Tuesday after inquiries from the Times.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a group that tracks nuclear proliferation, told the Times that releasing information on nuclear fuels "can provide thieves or terrorists inside information that can help them seize the material."

The Times had not determined how such a report could be leaked. On its cover, the document attributes its publication to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. But the committee’s spokeswoman told the newspaper it “neither published it nor had control over its publication.”

“The document contains no military information about the nation’s stockpile of nuclear arms, or about the facilities and programs that guard such weapons,” the Times wrote. Instead, it’s an exhaustive listing of the sites that comprise the nation’s civilian nuclear complex, which includes nuclear reactors and highly sensitive sites at weapon laboratories.

Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, revealed the existence of the document Monday in “Secrecy News,” an electronic newsletter he publishes on the Web. Aftergood called the report “a one-stop shop for information on U.S.
nuclear programs.”