Strangers in the Night

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 4, 1999 | by John Elvin

New security guidelines for Department of Energy, or DOE, employees, including scientists involved in nuclear-weapons development, permit "one-night stands" with foreigners to go unreported to security officials provided there is no prospect of "close and continuing contact." In the event of further sexual encounters, the incidents must be reported.

The new rule, among reactions to security breaches that appear to have given U.S. nuclear secrets to China, applies to sexual contact with persons from 25 countries, including China, Russia, India, Israel and Pakistan. The rule apparently evoked a few flippant questions from the press.

The Electronic Telegraph, a British Website with an appetite for juicy U.S. government scandal stories, quoted Edward Curran, DOE's director of counterintelligence, as saying: "You can ridicule it if you like, but we had to define what constitutes `contacts' because the scientists said they could not do it for themselves."