I present my testimony today from the perspective of a professional law enforcement officer. I am here to assist you in your inquiry and desire only that you consider that many individuals are concerned with the apathy towards security of our most sensitive nuclear research. This unlike the administrative level of the Department of Energy, who are less concerned with security and more with their own bureaucracies. Unlike many of the security administrators at the Department of Energy, I have been in law enforcement since I was nineteen, and hold my profession’s responsibilities and oath sacred.
I wish to present documents that Wen Ho Lee was not the first Chinese-born individual removing materials from the DOE lab. When Notra Trulock, the Department of Energy’s Director of Intelligence had Wen Ho Lee arrested, he was commended by the highest level of our government. He was promoted, given a raise, and a citation by the Secretary of Energy.
In 1998 as a member of the Special Response Team for the Department of Energy, I arrested a Chinese national attempting to smuggle back onto Lawrence Livermore Lab, with a computer that was not his, along with a tape recorder and a camera. The camera and tape recorder were prohibited items in the lab as they can be used for espionage. The computer was not his. No one had permission to remove it from the lab. The suspect was in possession of an ex-lab employee's security pass. This second Chinese individual’s computer security identification would have permitted him to return to the highly restricted area that contained additional computers and classified information. I detained the employee until, to my shock, I was told to return the computer and the other prohibited articles, and was told to allow the employee to go on his way. No further investigation or arrests were made. When I brought this to the attention of a U.S. Senator, a senior DOE official falsely denied that such an incident had ever occurred at Livermore. In response, I produced a copy of the incident report of the arrest, but no further action was taken by DOE or Congress. To this day DOE has yet to produce the original report.
On another occasion I arrested two people attempting to enter the lab with illegal drugs that were packaged for sale. The men familiar with the procedures with entering the lab, knew exactly which building they were going to and called it by name. It was no surprise that this was not their first time.
I conducted a traffic stop on a man for reckless driving. A check of his license and status showed his he was suspended due to driving under the influence of alcohol convictions. After talking to him he displayed signs and symptoms consistent of a person who was under the influence of illegal stimulant, methamphetamine. The University of California Police Department was called. No investigation was held and he was issued a citation for his license, the rest was ignored, he then went to work as a crane operator in the National Ignition Facility project.
After being approached in official capacity by a mid level DOE official I was asked along with the rest of the SRT at the time to help create and present a “table top” penetration of the lab. Coupled with a general overview of the team. All members participated producing their expertise. At the request of the team I was asked to make the presentation. Before doing so several outside experts verified unclassified parts of the penetration as not only viable but acceptable.
After the presentation a DOE official stated that the penetration was a “great success”. That worked “all the time, and under any condition”. With the amount of time it would take you to make a sandwich with as many people as it would take to fill a mini-van the SRT showed that the lab could be penetrated and items removed.
For reporting these kinds of events I was punished by the Department of Energy. I was treated as a threat to the agency which I had fought so hard to protect. I had a background in law enforcement and operational security. My house was raided by the FBI and other governmental agencies. I was forced to leave, labeled a troublemaker, and told by the head of Safeguards and Security “you do not fit in here”. I was made an example to make sure that no others followed in my foot steps. To this very day, as I speak to you, I feel that pain and persecution.
But as I said earlier I am bound by a higher honor that I swore an oath to. I am not for sale, at any price, and I will not, will not, sell out for any award.
I am here today to help find a remedy for my fellow brothers in the SRT. That one day they will be able to be recognized as police officers acting in official capacity, and not under the tyrannical authority of a contractor whose only interest is self serving. I pray each day that these actions and behaviors stop.
Despite all else, I am here to help the Department of Energy, because I believe that the security of a nation is the most important and it outweighs the petty arguments and antics of the ignorant few. It is time to act as a team and not to self serving interests.
It is with this in mind that I humbly ask for you help and support.
I respectfully await your questions.
Mark R. Danielson became a Police Officer at age 19 for the Calexico Police Department, and was one of the youngest police officers ever to graduate from Riverside Police Academy. He later went to work for Imperial Police Department, where he was the department's Special Response Team leader, firearms instructor, and tactics instructor. He taught at the local college for reserve police officer's, and conducted special operations where he was assigned to DEA, ATF and other various agencies. His tasks included the testing and penetration of Governmental facilities and making assessments. Mark Danielson is a helicopter and fixed wing pilot with several commendations, including being nominated for the Peace Officer's Medal of Valor, and the California Legislature Assembly. In 1998, he began work for the Department of Energy Special Response Team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he was one of the top officers in his class. He participated in exercises at Lawrence Livermore where, as the "bad guy," he successfully "stole" special nuclear materials. He currently works for the Department of Defense Police Department in Los Angeles California as a police officer.