New Details Emerge In Los Alamos Case

(CBS/AP)  Authorities in northern New Mexico are looking for ties among three people involved in an apparent security breach of the Los Alamos National Laboratory that surfaced during a home search spurred by a domestic violence incident.

Los Alamos police answered a call at Royal Crest mobile home park last Tuesday about a possible fight between a man and a woman, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. When officials arrived, they said they saw methamphetamine paraphernalia and began seizing evidence.

According to records filed by the Los Alamos Police Department, police confiscated three USB port computer memory sticks. Sources tell CBS News that those memory sticks — small portable computer storage devices — are believed to contain classified information from the nation's top nuclear weapons lab.

Officials arrested a 20-year old man on drug charges along with his girlfriend and the female owner of the trailer. Officials are also checking out reports that one of the women may have had secret clearance to work at the lab in the so-called Dynamic Experiments Program.

Police alerted the FBI to the secret documents, which agents traced back to a woman linked to the drug dealer, officials said. The woman is a contract employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.

The official would not describe the documents except to say that they appeared to contain classified material and were stored on a computer file.

Sources tell CBS News the documents were found on a computer flash drive — the very type of memory device banned from the lab two years ago. At that time, the Energy Department prohibited all devices that can be easily copied, Attkisson reports.

FBI special agent Bill Elwell in Albuquerque, N.M., confirmed that a search warrant was executed on Friday night, but he refused to discuss details.

"We do have an investigation with regard to the matter, but our standard is we do not discuss pending investigations," Elwell said.

A lab spokesman declined to comment.

Los Alamos has a history of high-profile security problems in the past decade, with the most notable the case of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. After years of accusations, Lee pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to one count of mishandling nuclear secrets at the lab.

In 2004, the lab was essentially shut down after an inventory showed that two computer disks containing nuclear secrets were missing. A year later the lab concluded that it was just a mistake and the disks never existed.

But the incident highlighted sloppy inventory control and security failures at the nuclear weapons lab. And the Energy Department began moving toward a five-year program to create a so-called diskless environment at Los Alamos to prevent any classified material being carried outside the lab.

Even though Los Alamos is now under new management, Danielle Brian, executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight said the lab has not done much to clean up its act.

"The problem is when you actually have those materials that are supposed to be protected inside the lab and you find them outside the lab in the hands of criminals — that should worry everybody," Brian said.

The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque were "evaluating the information obtained as a result of the search warrant," Elwell said.

The federal charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.

[bomarsh810]

Employees removing information against corporate or government policy/law will continue unabated until laws against these actions are stiffened considerably and more importantly, ENFORCED to the fullest extent. In cases concerning our national secrets, these types of acts are treasonous and need to be treated as such.

Current and past events show that this is not a political party issue. Top elected officials from both of our major parties have been equally criminally negligent in this area.

In an era when people are in some cases strip searched just to board an aircraft for a commercial flight, it is infuriating that at minimum, the same steps are not taken to ensure that the technology to wipe out entire regions of the country does not fall into the hands of those that would like to use it to do so.

[theman261]

Veils~
Since you are obviously a flaming democrat, u obviosly hate the patriot act, the very thing that the every since democrat in government is fighting. The one thing that can attempt to put a stop to this kind of security breach. Democrats complain that the Patriot Act infringes on there privacy but then turn around and complain that the government doesnt know about these kinds of thing. Pick one or the other because you cant have both......simple math

[bluestardad]

Next it will be the Dog took the disk. This place has lost classified material so much. Under Regan, Clinton, Bush 1 and now baby bush. it looks like they will quit hiring people to try to fill a quota and start hiring people that are capable of doing the security job.

[mjv2944]

Hell, we can't secure our borders let alone little ole Los Alamos. Looks like the gov. is looking after very sensitive material in its usual way, poorly. Contract day labor in a highly sensitive area, they should fire who ever is in charge of HR. I'm surprise that they don't out source to China, NK or Iran, I'm sure it would save a lot of money and that is the conservative repub way, look around the country and you can see the jobs leaving.

[veils-2009]

theman261 -
Eloquently spoken, like our current president. Your words said so much.

[theman261]

For all u democrats who think you know what ur talking about READ THIS:
1. THE DISK IS OLD, not the new companies fault, they have only been there for about 8 months
2. WE ARE TRYING TO STOP PEOPLE FROM STEALING STUFF: But since you guys are all so smart, how do u stop people from stealing things that we already stolen before you got there....HMMMMMM maybe John Carey can awnser that one for u...
3. THE NEW COMPANY COMES FROM THE LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LAB, the best nuclear and lasar lab in the country and have lasers that are worth more than every democrat in americas life.
4. KNOW YOUR *** BEFORE U SAY ANYTHING.......so ****

[bluestardad]

Wasn't this place broken in to under Regan and Clinton too?

[catt42701]

Just a year and a possible $100,000 fine for getting secret information from a place that is doing nuclear research. That would make it worth while to steal and sell it. I think the penalty should be a little harder as far as jail time goes. The money part would be easy because they could have money from what they have sold already.

[cbsnewsfan4]

Flash drives and portable external drives that connect to USB ports (and IPODS) have created the newest security threats, aside from the human factor of course.


[e-mail]

[cbsnewsfan4]

Flash drives and portable external drives that connect to USB ports (and IPODS) have created the newest security threats, aside from the human factor of course.


[e-mail]