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CRITICS HAD CALLED HIM OPPONENT OF ARMS DESTRUCTION

RICHMOND - Patrick Wakefield, the Pentagon official whom critics call a prominent opponent of chemical neutralization and public involvement in the weapons destruction program, has been placed on administrative leave.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said the move followed an investigation by the inspector general's office for the Department of Defense. The inquiry was completed Aug. 3.

One prominent critic, Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, cheered the news.

"I am pleased that Wakefield is finally out of the way, if only temporarily," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group. "Should he be removed permanently, I believe many of the roadblocks faced by the disposal program will leave with him."

Carpenter said Wakefield's removal was not caused by his oversight of the chemical destruction program, which has been plagued by safety problems and spiraling costs.

Douglas Englund, who has worked for the U.N. Special Commission that was set up to eliminate weapons of mass destruction after the Persian Gulf War, was named Wakefield's interim replacement. Most recently, Englund has worked for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Funding battles have delayed a $2 billion chemical neutralization plant to be built at Blue Grass Army Depot. A treaty gives the United States until April 2012 to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, including the 523 tons of nerve and blister agent at the depot, but local officials doubt the deadline can be made.

Carpenter said it would be inappropriate to comment on the details of Wakefield's administrative leave. But Williams' Berea-based group said it had been told by Col. Mickey Freeland, an aide to Wakefield's supervisor, that the leave was for 30 days and involved Wakefield's conduct, not his performance.

Freeland could not be reached for comment. He told the group that Wakefield can appeal the inspector general's findings within 30 days, and that Undersecretary of Defense Kenneth Krieg would then decide Wakefield's fate.

Madison County activists, with help from elected officials in Washington, battled the Army for years over plans to incinerate the depot's chemical weapons.

Under pressure from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and others, the Army agreed to study alternatives. In 2002, chemical neutralization was selected. An agency called Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives was set up to oversee the process and to keep the public informed here and in Pueblo, Colo.

But it hasn't been easy.

"Wakefield has fought alternative technologies at every turn, he's fought real public involvement at every turn," Williams said. "He's a 'decide, deny, defend' kind of guy."

Williams said Wakefield opposed the creation of ACWA and is thought to have been the moving force behind an effort to study transporting the chemical weapons to incinerator sites instead of building the plant. The Pentagon shelved that idea earlier this year.

U.S. senators in Kentucky and Colorado have been sharply critical of how the chemical destruction program has been run, including recent orders to redesign the Kentucky and Colorado plants to cut costs.

They have asked Undersecretary of Defense Kenneth Krieg to adequately fund the ACWA program, provide an accounting of where money is going, and drop what they called outdated cost estimates for the two plants.

Carpenter, the Pentagon spokesman, said the budget for Fiscal 2007 is still being developed and no final decisions had been made. The other two reports requested by the senators will be completed soon.

McConnell and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, could not be reached for comment yesterday on Wakefield's departure.

Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning said through a spokesman, "Regardless of who is working at the Department of Defense, I will continue to help advocate and push for the safe disposal of chemical weapons at the depot."