Nov. 3, 2006
Nuclear Lab Breach Could Be 'Devastating'
CBS News Exclusive: Data Found In Drug Raid Contains Weapons-Design Secrets
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Security Leak At Los Alamos
Sharyl Attkisson reports on another security leak at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Officials say an employee may have removed secret material.
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Lab Security Breach Details
Sharyl Attkisson has details on how classified nuclear weapons documents were stolen from Los Alamos, the main U.S. laboratory for nuclear research.
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Los Alamos Security Breach?
Police conducting a drug raid may have found classified materials taken from the nation's nuclear weapons facility. Sharyl Attkisson reports.
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Officials say there is no evidence the information taken from Los Alamos was sold or transferred to anybody else, but there is no way to be sure right now.
As CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson was the first to report, secret documents apparently taken from the lab were found during a drug raid at a Los Alamos-area home last month. The FBI was called in to investigate.
Multiple sources now tell CBS News that the material includes sensitive weapons-design data.
A federal official who has been briefed on the issue said at least three USB thumb-drives were involved. Those small storage drives contained 408 separate classified documents ranging in importance from Secret National Security Information (pertaining to intelligence) to Secret Restricted Data (pertaining to nuclear weapons).
All of the information came from the classified document video media vault inside the Lab. Federal officials also found 228 pages — printed front and back — of classified documents in the drug trailer during their investigation.
Los Alamos claims to have done a careful and comprehensive analysis of the materials that it believes have been compromised as part of this matter, and has determined that "the majority of the material was classified at the lowest levels and was twenty to thirty years old."
"None of the documents in question were classified Top Secret," read a statement released by the lab. "None of the materials included any of the most sensitive nuclear weapons information."
But one federal official recently briefed on the issue says "It's devastating." If a nuclear weapon were stolen, the information "would tell the terrorists everything they need to do to get a weapon to fire."
Sources say she also had something called Sigma-15 clearance allowing her to access to documents explaining how to deactivate locks on a nuclear weapon.
The woman believed to have taken the information — Jessica Quintana, 22, who owned the trailer — worked in three classified vault rooms across Los Alamos:
She also had top secret "Q-clearance" with access to all the U.S. underground nuclear test data. Quintana has not been arrested or charged. Her attorney says she took the material home to work and then forgot about it.
For example, if a terrorist steals an American nuclear weapon, he could not detonate it due to the special access controls. This woman is authorized to read the reports that tell how to get around those safety controls.
Only the FBI will be able to tell for sure what's on the thumb drives, but British security officials are worried that design plans for Trident nuclear weapons are among the stolen documents. They are making inquiries of U.S. officials. Britain used to test its nuclear weapons in the United States, and data on those tests may have been held at Los Alamos.
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. The Energy Department then 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.
"We are currently taking decisive actions to further enhance our existing security measures that protect classified information employing both administrative and engineering controls," the lab said in a statement.
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See all 98 CommentsFrom today's reports we have seen a Republican Congress bully National Intelligence departments into releasing classified data, finally resorting to a Republican President issuing an executive order forcing the release. The Republican's then post this information, including instructions on how to make an atomic weapon, on the World Wide Web. These documents are in Arabic, by the way... the native language of many groups resorting to terror.
Also today, we find that classified documents have traversed in and out of a nuclear (nu-klee-ur) facility by a person under investigation for drug charges.
I'm not feeling really confident in the Republican stance on terror right now... of course, it's Al Gore's fault because he invented the Internet!
They continually blame everyone except themselves. They're worse than a bad little league coach.
(a) this is "blue" CBS News that's liberally biased unlike the "red" Fox News Network that is Fair & Balanced
(b) they can't read
As long as george keeps saying not on my watch I feel a lot safer
Close Los Alamos. Now. Execute the person who leaked this information (Remember the Rosenbergs?). Set an example. Send a message. Do whatever it takes to change the culture so they take our national security seriously.
Seriously folks, you can't blame our President for everything. There are imperfect human beings, Republican and Democrat alike, who run these facilites and work in our government, some more incompetent than others. Some are simply criminals. Incompetence and criminality fall on the shoulders of the individual, not our president. So the next time you get a speeding ticket or burn the roof of your mouth on hot pizza, blame yourselves, ok?
Harry Truman said the buck stops here
bush says not me it's his fault over there
Harry Truman said if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen
bush it's time for you to quit and get out of the kitchen
You can get 1GB flash drives at Comp USA for about $45 with more than enough memory to store oodles of text. A $10 flash drive would probably be adequate. Somebody had to really know what they were doing because you have to download the data onto the flash drive storage device from a computer. For $50, you can have five copies of all the documents downloaded lickity-split.
They have no idea how many copies were made. A flash drive can be mailed anywhere in the world practically overnight. These drug dealers were probably moonlighting in the sale of top secret data to our ememies. And our enemies probably got if for a few grand, if that.
This is just another cover-up.
1. Implement random searches of personnel entering and leaving the facility.
2. Conduct a multi-discipline vulnerability assessment (have folks emulate bad guys trying to infiltrate the lab, and exfiltrate data) and use the results to focus their security efforts.
3. Implement a paper free environment, no printed documents whatsoever.
4. Eliminate the use of magnetic media (thumb drives, floppies, etc).
5. Pull clearances of personnel violating security rules.
6. Improve Operations Security education of Lab personnel.
The unintended consequence of abusing this terribly awesome scalar technology is being manifested not only in the changes in the interior of the earth, but is also responsible for the increased solar activity as well as what is happening to the other planets. Are you naive enough to believe that it's 'just a coincidence' that all these changes are happening to our solar system just when scalar weapons are being used on a massive scale for the first time?
You don't have to take my word for it. Any fool with only half a brain can easily prove these facts to his or her satisfaction by researching this on the internet:
http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1135042.php/Strong_2012_sunspot_cycle_is_forecast
By Julian Glover
The Guardian UK
Friday 03 November 2006
US allies think Washington threat to world peace. CONSIDER THE RECENT SECURITY BREACH AT LOS ALAMOS!
Only bin Laden feared more in United Kingdom. BUT DON%u2019T WORRY AS HE PROBABLY DID NOT HAVE DIRECT ACCESS TO LOS ALAMOS.
The survey has been carried out by the Guardian in Britain and leading international polls.
It exposes high levels of distrust. In Britain, 69% of those
questioned say they believe US policy has made the world less safe
since 2001, with only 7% thinking action in Iraq and Afghanistan has
increased global security.
The finding is mirrored in America's immediate northern and southern
neighbours, Canada and Mexico, with 62% of Canadians and 57% of
Mexicans saying the world has become more dangerous because of US
policy.
Voters in three of the four countries surveyed also overwhelmingly
reject the decision to invade Iraq, with only Israeli voters in
favour, 59% to 34% against
In Britain 71% of voters now say the invasion was unjustified, a view
shared by 89% of Mexicans and 73% of Canadians. Canada is a Nato
member whose troops are in action in Afghanistan. Neither do voters
think America has helped advance democracy in developing countries,
one of the justifications for deposing Saddam Hussein. Only 11% of
Britons and 28% of Israelis think that has happened.
PROGRAM?
"We are currently taking decisive actions to further enhance our existing security measures that protect classified information employing both administrative and engineering controls," the lab said in a statement.
BUT BUSH'S APPOINTEE, NEGROPONTE, HAS ASSURED US THAT THE DEMOCRATS WILL NOT ALLOW A 5 YEAR PROGRAM OF ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED NUCLEAR DOCUMENTS!
Also, DOE has nothing to do with Bush. It is a government organization and Bush does not run DOE. Congress is the one who makes laws concerning national labs.
So all you people need to learn your facts before you say stupid things. Get actual facts and stop saying stupid things.
Also, DOE has nothing to do with Bush. It is a government organization and Bush does not run DOE. Congress is the one who makes laws concerning national labs.
So all you people need to learn your facts before you say stupid things. Get actual facts and stop saying stupid things.
Also, the DOE is a department of the US government, and while I don't expect George Bush to personally oversee every aspect of the day to day running of the government - no single human possibly could - the President is most certainly the overseer / administrator of government. That's why his branch of office is called "Executive". And like any President, he certainly IS part of the law-making process. That's why we hear so much about "signed into law" and "vetoed" coming in news stories regarding him and legislation coming from Congress.
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That said, a GOP congress has oversight and not once, but twice has had LANL reeking with security scandal and each time left the contract with U of CA. On a matter of this gravity, that is very hard to explain-- no matter how long a security check is supposed to take.
wesley_mouch.
God! I hope you are just joking and don't really believe the completely moronic, idiotic *** you posted here! Do they keep you in a padded room and on heavy meds? Jeezz!! And to think people like you are actually allowed to vote!! scary...
Posted by george2221 at 07:47 PM : Nov 03, 2006"
CORRECTION:
"This is probably just the tip of the" MUSHROOM!
Posted by george2221 at 07:47 PM : Nov 03, 2006"
CORRECTION:
"This is probably just the tip of the" MUSHROOM!
Posted by george2221 at 07:47 PM : Nov 03, 2006"
CORRECTION:
"This is probably just the tip of the" MUSHROOM!
Um, Richard(ha), Giving away nuclear weapons "secrets" may tend to get a little air time. Especially, when on the same day, it comes to light, you've received money froma drug using deviants who profess to be a moral majority, and donations from Tom Noe(R)from Ohio who resigned today.
Richard's played W like a puppet. Poor George, he wasn't in the same league.
I admire your staying the course with blaming Clinton. Guy, he was 6 years ago. It's time to put the blame where it belongs. After your friend W is out, do you have any idea how long we are going to blame him for the world's problems like you do Clinton? Because, um, he's caused a bit of a mess,
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