Comment This reporter is a retard (Score 1) 430
OK.. My home-town is Los Alamos, I grew up there, and have spent 18 years of my life there, and I will be working for LANL this summer.
Everything this reporter said was under false pretenses and complete hogwash. There are more than 60 'TA's (Technical Areas) most of which are not considered 'secure' because they don't house anything of interest. You might find a secratary's office or a building housing lowly college students slaving away for their Ph.D. endowed superiors in these types of buildings. Anything taking place in these types of installations are nothing even remotely 'classified'. TA-33 which he was so anxious to show off his access to is not even used any more.
Furthermore the 'No Tresspassing' sign he was so glib to point out is far from unique, there are about 30k of them spread around the town. These are on the border of all lab property, not lab installations. There are several huge plots of land which the lab owns, and have absolutely nothing within their borders. These plots of land are 'fenced' by these signs. They merely denote the fact that the lands within them are not part of the national forest, and thus not available for recreational use.
TA-33 is nothing special, there are many of these trailers housing support staff, and various other non-important stuff. There are several technical areas 3 feet from the road, with no fence or guard house, in the middle of no-where. Why aren't they protected? There's absolutely nothing worth protecting within them that needs more than a simple lock on the door.
Oh yea: But as Route 4 proceeds along LANL property, these imposing barriers drop to trios or quartets of aging barbed wire, the kind of fences used to keep cows from straying off a farm
Phht.. maybe if he thought about this for a little while he'd enlighten himself with the truth of the matter. ...It looks like barb wire on farms because it's there to keep wild animals off the highway.
I'm deeply offended that someone would write such a short-sighted, and blatantly misleading article. I guarantee the guard that had no gun in his holster is not typical (wouldn't be suprised if it was out of its holster in order to be pointed at this 'reporter'). I tell you from first hand experience. I've been escorted off lab property by guards with M-16's a couple of times in my youth. They don't mess around.
As mentioned before 'LANL' covers a huge area, and many installations of varrying types. Unfortunately this guy didn't chose to photograph anything interesting. I wish I could hop out and take some snapshots of the installations which house important stuff (e.g. The area that houses plutonium (TA-55): two layers of top to bottom razor wire fencing, cameras on every angle, guard towers, armed guards, five swat teams on call 24 hours a day, etc..) but I am not living in Los Alamos at present. Not to mention they don't allow you to photograph anything so I'd have to be sneaky about it.
Anyway, that's the end of my rant. Hopefully this sheds some truth on the issue? ... well at least it makes me feel better :D
Everything this reporter said was under false pretenses and complete hogwash. There are more than 60 'TA's (Technical Areas) most of which are not considered 'secure' because they don't house anything of interest. You might find a secratary's office or a building housing lowly college students slaving away for their Ph.D. endowed superiors in these types of buildings. Anything taking place in these types of installations are nothing even remotely 'classified'. TA-33 which he was so anxious to show off his access to is not even used any more.
Furthermore the 'No Tresspassing' sign he was so glib to point out is far from unique, there are about 30k of them spread around the town. These are on the border of all lab property, not lab installations. There are several huge plots of land which the lab owns, and have absolutely nothing within their borders. These plots of land are 'fenced' by these signs. They merely denote the fact that the lands within them are not part of the national forest, and thus not available for recreational use.
TA-33 is nothing special, there are many of these trailers housing support staff, and various other non-important stuff. There are several technical areas 3 feet from the road, with no fence or guard house, in the middle of no-where. Why aren't they protected? There's absolutely nothing worth protecting within them that needs more than a simple lock on the door.
Oh yea: But as Route 4 proceeds along LANL property, these imposing barriers drop to trios or quartets of aging barbed wire, the kind of fences used to keep cows from straying off a farm
Phht.. maybe if he thought about this for a little while he'd enlighten himself with the truth of the matter.
I'm deeply offended that someone would write such a short-sighted, and blatantly misleading article. I guarantee the guard that had no gun in his holster is not typical (wouldn't be suprised if it was out of its holster in order to be pointed at this 'reporter'). I tell you from first hand experience. I've been escorted off lab property by guards with M-16's a couple of times in my youth. They don't mess around.
As mentioned before 'LANL' covers a huge area, and many installations of varrying types. Unfortunately this guy didn't chose to photograph anything interesting. I wish I could hop out and take some snapshots of the installations which house important stuff (e.g. The area that houses plutonium (TA-55): two layers of top to bottom razor wire fencing, cameras on every angle, guard towers, armed guards, five swat teams on call 24 hours a day, etc..) but I am not living in Los Alamos at present. Not to mention they don't allow you to photograph anything so I'd have to be sneaky about it.
Anyway, that's the end of my rant. Hopefully this sheds some truth on the issue?
