By Gordon Thomas, Sunday Express
Sunday, October 29, 2006
THE secrets of Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent are feared stolen, the Sunday Express can reveal.
It is claimed they disappeared from a high-security base in the US.
CIa and FBI agents launched an inquiry after top-secret material was found under a mattress in a caravan near the base during a drugs raid.
Security services fear the material includes details of Britain's Trident submarine-launched missiles, as well as other nuclear weapons.
Under a pact negotiated during the Cold War, British secrets are kept at the base. The caravan was used by a known dealer who sold drugs to staff at the base in New Mexico.
Shocked agents uncovered computer drives under the mattress. These were traced to a rogue technician at the complex.
Both the woman technician and the drug dealer have been arrested.
Last night the director of the Los alamos base, Michael anastasio, said: "Unfortunately, my ability to discuss the details of this matter is constrained due to the nature of the situation. What I can say is that this is a serious matter, and we are taking immediate steps to address it.
"First, we are fully co-operating with the FBI and we intend to do everything possible to guard against any criminal activity.
"Second, in conjunction with the FBI, we began, and will continue, to pursue the facts surrounding this incident in order to fully assess necessary immediate and long-term actions. We have already taken a number of steps to address potential security risks."
a Los alamos police spokesman said: "The stolen classified documents were found during a drug raid. The woman holds a responsible position in the facility."
Senior British intelligence sources said the nuclear data would be "priceless to a terrorist group like al Qaeda".
MI6 and the CIa – both involved in the FBI-led investigation – want to know if the woman stole the material to feed a drug habit, or if she was working for a terror group or a foreign intelligence service.
They also want to know how she smuggled the hard drives past such tight security.
Nuclear weapons expert Professor Paul Rogers, of Bradford University, said: "The relationship between the US and the British has always been very close. In the days of nuclear testing our tests were done in america. It would be more than likely this information was being held at Los alamos."
David Dastych, a veteran CIa specialist in nuclear terrorism, said: "The theft is a very serious threat to the security of both Britain and the United States. "
"For a long time we have known that Los alamos has been a prime target for Osama Bin Laden or the Chinese secret intelligence service. The loss of the material could well be a major intelligence disaster."
The sprawling Los alamos complex is the core of america's own nuclear defences. There are scores of laboratories for developing weapons systems.
One scientist there described them yesterday "as so unthinkable that few of us who work here will even contemplate the power they can unleash".
Senior intelligence officers in London and Washington fear it was a professionally organised theft.
Discs stored at the base's vaults contain, among much else, details of Britain's nuclear weapons and their current positions.
The discs are designed to fit into laptop computers carried by members of america's Nuclear Emergency Search Team. The members are on permanent standby to fly to the scene of any nuclear incident within the US.
an official of the Vienna-based International atomic Energy agency said: "The missing discs contain detailed technical information on how to disarm and dismantle nuclear devices so they could be easily transported. By the same token the data would also enable the weapons to be reactivated."
From his prison cell, self-confessed drug user Justin Stone, 20, who was arrested in the caravan, denied he was acting for terrorists, claiming: "I was basically at the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't know who to sell that kind of information to."
Last night the Foreign Office declined to comment.
The Ministry of Defence said: "There is no suggestion that details of the UK's independent nuclear deterrent was recovered by the FBI."
Gordon Thomas 2006
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