Odds and Ends

Reacting to the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia the Bush administration is saying they pleaded with the Saudis to do something to prevent this happening to no avail.

So does this mean our security is now dependent upon the whims of our 'friends'? Is this not delegating authority to an impeachable extreme?

"As soon as we learned of this particular threat information, we contacted the Saudi government," Robert Jordan said. He said the U.S. government asked the Saudis for such security improvements "on several occasions."

" ... We continue to work with the Saudis on this, but they did not, as of the time of this tragic event, provide the additional security we requested," Jordan said in an interview on CBS' "The Early Show."

Liberal Oasis has one of the best posts I've read on the matter today.

Defense Tech posted in February about how he'd snuck into Los Alamos. He'd probably appreciate the irony of this story [AP]Security Keys Lost at Calif. Nuclear Lab

The missing keys at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are the latest embarrassment to the University of California, which manages the Livermore lab, as well as Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, for the Department of Energy.

Livermore guards discovered the missing keys on April 17. They have yet to be located, lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton said Wednesday.

Houghton said there have been no indications of any attempts to access the lab with the missing keys.

Anyone with the keys would still have to get through other security safeguards, like electronic key card locks and computer-controlled access systems. Still, lab officials changed the locks and promised to investigate.

Meanwhile the GAO released a report on Tuesday that was not complementary.

A lack of money and a central storage site has hampered a government effort to recover thousands of sealed radioactive devices held by hospitals, universities and industry, a congressional report said Tuesday, raising security concerns.

The report by the General Accounting Office said that while more than 5,000 of the devices have been recovered since 1999, almost as many have yet to be picked up, although their owners have notified the government that they are no longer being used.

But the GAO should certainly have some empathy for a government accounting branch that lacks funds for investigations as they've used the same excuse for not investigating Bush's recent photo-op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Well I feel perfectly safe. You?