There will be a series of presentations June 6-8 at the Arvada Center to discuss various aspects of the raid, and I was scheduled to be a panelist. The original schedule was for me to appear with Wes McKinley, the foreman of the Grand Jury that investigated Rocky Flats. I reluctantly agreed to participate when I was reminded I had mentioned in my book, “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked,” that I hoped to have a polite discussion with Mr. McKinley some day. I was disappointed when Mr. McKinley had a scheduling conflict that caused him to withdraw. I became concerned when I was told the final make-up of the panel (titled Secrecy and its Fallout). I expressed my concerns to the organizers and offered that they could replace me. They took me up on my offer.

Secrecy was a constant part of my professional life when I was working in the production areas of Rocky Flats. It had practically nothing to do with my work in the environmental organizations. We were required to have environmental reports reviewed by an “authorized classifier,” but I have not one single memory of an environmental report requiring even the smallest modification before receiving the “unclassified” stamp before distribution on and off-site to anyone interested.

Perhaps it would be useful to review why there was secrecy at the Plant. A quick search of the two words “Enormoz” and “Venona” will give a fair idea of the need. Enormoz was the Soviet code name for the massive spy network within the Manhattan Project that allowed them to detonate their first atomic weapon years ahead of the expected schedule. All of the information on how to build the bomb and some of the materials came from their spies. Venona was the U.S. code name for a project to decipher cables being sent from the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C. to Moscow. A small error by the cable operators allowed the deciphering of between one and two percent of the cables sent in one year. Appendix A of the book “Venona” by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr lists 349 names of Americans and U.S. residents who were identified in the deciphered cables as having a covet relationship with the Soviets. Appendix B lists 139 more people who were not identified by the Venona cables. Appendix C lists foreigners who had been in the U.S. and D lists other Americans who had been targeted for recruitment. (The biggest error by Joe McCarthy was how much he underestimated the extent of Soviet spying.)

The decision to build the Rocky Flats Plant was made during the height of the “Red Scare,” and there was no doubt that the Soviets were and would be interested in what was done there. Of course it wasn’t just the Soviets who were interested; it was just that they were so good at it. Great Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, to name a few countries, were interested in what everyone else was doing. As Seymour M. Hersh writes in describing the development of the Israeli nuclear weapons program in his book “The Sampson Option,” “In the beginning, everything was secret…” That was an accurate description of details about the work in the Rocky Flats production areas. It was not the case in the environmental organizations.

I’m certain those who criticized our mission were pleased that we used secrecy to at least slow nuclear proliferation. However, that didn’t keep the critics from using the term “cloak of secrecy” to inspire suspicion about the Plant and the people who worked there.