China And Spying Essay, Research Paper

Is $39 million too much to spend, on rattraps, in the future? Not according to

Senate and House negotiators. In a recent article in the L.A. Times, the Senate

and House reportedly are increasing spending on operations against spying by $20

million. The last rat trapped was caught almost 15 years after a significant

amount of top-secret information was leaked from the U S to China. The U S must

crack down on spying in order to for our safety as a country. The government

must be more enforcing against espionage in the U S. China has blatantly showed

us that we have flaws in our system and need to crack down on spying

opportunities in the U S. Sources from China claim that by 1992 they had figured

out how to make miniature H-bombs similar to our W-88 warhead. This comes after

years of no scientific advances substantial enough to gain this kind of

advancements from China. China?s version of the miniature bomb is nearly

identical to our W-88 that it is obvious that information was stolen on how to

build it. A few of the outer measurements and the width of the trigger casing

are within four-hundredths of an inch of our original version of the miniature

warheads. China has tested a few of these types of bombs and they seem to be as

operative and accurate as ours. If fired from China, they could reach Alaska or

Hawaii with more explosive power than what was dropped on Hiroshima in the end

of WWII. An investigation was started on the leakage of information to China

back in 1995. Wen Ho Lee was the lead suspect, if not the only major suspect for

nearly four years reported Vernon Loeb and Walter Pincus in a Washington Post

article. After not enough evidence could be gathered to put Lee away, a broader

investigation was started. In the end, the clues kept coming back to Lee. In a

follow up article by Loeb from the Washington Post, Lee was said to have

admitted to passing nuclear secrets to China in 1985, while he was working at

the Los Alamos National Laboratory. For his part in China gaining top-secret

bomb making information, Lee was sentenced to 12 months in a halfway house, a

$20,000 fine, and 3000 hours of community service. This type of espionage

normally provokes a life sentence if found guilty. Why was Lee not prosecuted

more severely? Obviously China has gained important information from us about

how to build a bomb. It is also a fact that Lee was involved in leaking some of

that information. What are we going to do about? The government has showed how

they can have a low level of security and pay for it later. The judicial system

has showed how they can let off a major player in putting at risk the lives of

all Americans. Something must change in the future so that the next Hitler does

not get our secrets and use them against us. In an anonymous editorial in the

Los Angeles Times a writer claims that as many as 1000 people could have the

clearance to obtain vital information pertaining to the bombs that China nearly

duplicated from the U S. We must reduce the number of people who have access to

top-secret nuclear information. Is there a valuable reason that 1000 people have

access to information like this? The more people involved the bigger risk we

run. Who is willing to take risks like this? I think that there should be, as

few of people knowledgeable about stuff like this as possible. We need to

increase clearance levels to restrict people from leaking information into the

wrong hands. Another step that must be made to keep the U S on top is to

separate the nuclear department from the Department of Energy. The D.O.E.

governs over everything from warheads to windmills. This Department is too broad

and should not carry the ability to govern over such important matters. In the

latest article by Loeb he claims that nuclear matters are still going to be

inside the D.O.E. and ultimately answerable to the secretary. He says that there

will be more guards at the door but not much changes to be seen. Right now the

nuclear arsenal is in civilian, not military, hands. This does not seem right,

in order to limit other countries from gaining important intelligence. The last

key change that must take place is for more money to be spent on upgrading

security levels. In the L. A. Times article Sen. Pete V. Domenici said that a

bill recently passed that would set aside an increase of $102.2 million for the

D. O. E. That raises their budget to over $4.4 billion to operate the three

major laboratories where top-secret information is kept. With the money finally

there for changes to now take place, we can only wait and see. In a report by

CNN on October 27th, 1999, government officials led by Rep. Fred Upton,

(R-Michigan) plan on visiting the sites where the money has gone for security

changes. Upton thinks that by him and others visiting these sites, that it will

put pressure on them to better protect the nation?s secrets. If real

significant changes were made then they will not get to see very much. Hopefully

they will be told that they do not have the proper clearance to see what changes

were implemented and their access will be denied. The real reason we are at risk

and should be scared by this is because China now holds the power to bomb, as

well as other countries as far away as Russia. From a report released by C-SPAN

the government says ?Chinese strategic nuclear efforts have focused on

developing and deploying a survivable long-range missile force that can hold a

significant portion of the U S and Russian populations at risk in a retaliatory

strike. We must prevent this from happening in the future again. We might have

lucked out that China was the one that ended up with all of this information and

not Iraq. Our government can not allow glitches in our home security systems. By

spending more money for a more sophisticated security system, lowering the

number of people with access, and separating the nuclear department from the

D.O.E. we can prevent this from happening again. These changes must be made

immediately. On May 25,1999 the President spoke on this matter saying, ?The

objective is to ensure that U S national secrets are protected and that our

civilian technology is not diverted for military purposes.? While he is saying

what we all want to hear, it is not necessarily what is going to happen. We need

to follow up on this matter and stay educated on our national security. If it

comes around to the people as voters, we must choose to protect our security at

almost any cost. Our security is our freedom, and if it falls into the wrong

hands we risk losing that. Nobody is willing to risk that.