How Nuke Secrets Left Los Alamos

CBS News Exclusive: Young Archiver Downloaded Weapons Secrets To Thumb Drives

(CBS)  After seven years of security scandals at the nation's premier nuclear weapons research facility, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the latest incident shows security — at least for some — amounts to little more than an honor system.

CBS News has learned how shockingly easy it was for a young employee to walk out of Los Alamos with classified data — data related to decades of U.S. underground nuclear weapons tests.

Underground nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the U.S. for decades in secrecy, the data from the tests kept as closely-guarded national secrets.

It was that data that Jessica Quintana was hired to archive, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. The lab gave her top-secret security clearance when she was just 18. Sources say she also had access to the documents telling how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons.

In August, she was allegedly able to walk out the door with 400 pages of classified documents, contained in "thumb drives" — small portable computer storage devices about the size of a thumb.

CBS News has learned that, at what's supposed to be one of the most secure facilities in the world, nobody even bothered to check Quintana's backpack when she left, that day or any other.

"They just waved," says a source. "There is no oversight."

The documents were found six weeks later by accident in a drug raid on Quintana's roommate at their trailer home. Quintana, now 22, says she never gave the data to anyone.

But the case is baffling watchdogs such as Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who thought security holes had been tightened after the scandals.

"These are secrets that could be valuable for al Qaeda," Markey said. "9/11 was a warning to us. Our enemies want to have access to the most dangerous technologies to hurt our country."

The case also has the FBI scrambling to see if the material got into the wrong hands. Agents have spent about six hours in two interviews with Quintana, so far.

Sources say she worked in a secure office space called a "vault," but monitoring of the super-secret area is so lax that, more than once, she got locked inside and had to pound on the door to get out because nobody even knew she was in there working.

The computers in the vault had working USB ports, which means it was scandalously simple to copy classified documents onto a small, portable storage device.

And as odd as this may seem, Quintana had a higher security clearance than the FBI agents questioning her, so "they couldn't talk (with her) about everything," a source told Attkisson.

Markey says the lab is the opposite of the song "Hotel California" where "you can never leave." At Los Alamos, "You can leave anytime you want. Take whatever you want. We're not even going to be looking at your bags," he says.

The Energy Department inspector general has already weighed in, calling the incident "especially troubling," since taxpayers have spent "tens of millions of dollars" to upgrade security there in recent years.

A spokesman for Los Alamos tells CBS News that after the October raid on Quintana's trailer, many new security measures were installed. These include disabling the ability to download classified materials to unauthorized electronic devices and banning computer memory devices in certain areas. However, an official with the Department of Energy tells CBS News he thought those measures had been taken long ago.

"It is clear that despite almost a decade of repeated warnings and problems regarding the security associated with classified materials, the department has failed time and time again to actually do anything about it," Markey stated in a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman. "It appears that there are significant institutional barriers within the Department and at the Laboratories that have prevented real reforms from moving forward."

Markey, in his letter, posed a series of questions to Bodman and asked for answers by Jan. 5, 2007.

Two billion tax dollars are spent each year to operate the lab.

[my2ndalias]

Why not require them to wear a clean suit or something of that nature? Use the screening that they are suggesting for airports, and definitely disable the flash drive capability.

[aeasus]

Security releys on credibilty. How credible can an 18 y.o. person's history be? I wouldn't think there would be enough history to make such a judgement.
Apparently the problem goes much higher in it's administration!

[bananaamy]

What was she planning on doing with this information, and why did she take it? Drug raid on her roommate; So she has seedy friends too? What happened to the background checks? How does she get a clearance level higher than the FBI, with a druggy rommate.

Something is not right here. This needs to be fixed.

[bluestardad]

There is no security there. The white house leaks classified documents just to influence a news spin! so what is wrong with this? why should we expect more?

[bluestardad]

Found on a drug raid with her room mate in their trailer! what kind of people do our government trust the nations classified documents with? Maybe down the pants of Mark Foley next. *** and get it boys!

[sharncedar]

They've been out to get Los Alamos for years. Remember the fake "security scandal" involving the missing laptop, which was later found not to be missing?

It would be refreshing to live in a sane nation, in which security was judged by the nature of the risks, not by hysteria.

Imagine that, a nation full of sane people. Sounds very romantic and impossible, doesn't it. Instead I live in the nation that pumps 50 bullets into unarmed kids because they "might" pose a risk to someone.

What exactly were these nuclear secrets, or is this like the missing laptop incident, just another big lie. Probably the "nuclear secrets" were just some spreadsheet with the dates of changing toliet paper rolls or something like that.

What exactly are "nuclear secrets" in today's day and age? I thought just about anyone knows how to build an atomic bomb, the mechanism is simple, it is the complex steps such as purifying the uranium or something that is difficult.

is there some new type of nuclear weapon, other than the atom bomb. Or is this nonsense as usual from the insane nation.

[three-o-six]

I hope there are plans to charge Jessica as a spy. Even if security was lax -- she betrayed the trust placed in her when she was hired. Life in prison might deter other from following her act - even if they could.

[pendragon679]

Our tax dollars at work. . .
We spend billions taking down the government of a sovereign nation on the premise that they possessed "weapons of mass destruction" only to have state secrets literally walk out the door on our own shores. The "war on terror" begins at home, folks, not in a Middle-Eastern desert. We need to sew up the holes in our own security fabric.

[tibu987]

DUH!

'Nuff said.

[firststate]

SharnCedar
I often agree with you, but I question some of your specifics here. The whole lapton thing reeks of incompetence at every level. In this case the incompetence rises to investigators being unable to ask a subject important questions because her clearance is higher. Don%u2019t ask, don%u2019t tell makes more sense than can%u2019t ask, can%u2019t tell. These Nu-Ku-Lar secrets were described as data from underground tests. Those years' worth of tests tell what works and what doesn%u2019t and how to make a weapon smaller. We want to keep any crude weapons as bulky as possible, so they are harder to conceal. Anyone wanting a bomb would have answers questions they don%u2019t even know to ask, yet.

The USB drives WERE found in a raid at her home where there was sufficient probable cause for drug activity to get a search warrant, albeit by a roommate. I haven't heard anyone claim that the drives and their data weren't found there. Did she copy and remove data about deactivating locks on weapons? We don%u2019t want to get blown to hell with our bomb with its locks deactivated. Were her actions innocuous? I don%u2019t know, but these answers are important. The basic physics of nuclear weaponry are simple, but details of construction matter. An incorrectly configured implosion can change an atomic blast into a dirty bomb, bad enough but less so.

[love2live1]

I hope they lock this woman up for life! Enough is enough and the incompetance of Los Alamos is staggering!

Who is the nitwit who gave her such high clearance? They should be fired too!

[kjgal]

HumanCitizen

With all that is going on in the world, you're worried about a persons appearance? How about posting a picture of yourself!

God Help Us All!

[pakaal]

Chalk it up to another Bush Administration "get serious about homeland security by not really doing anything" policy. Why is it Homeland Security can give money to help fund a Texas mushroom festival, but they can't keep Los Alamos safe from no-brainer security issues like this?

Oh that's right, I forgot. Gross incompetance is why.

[sandycat2]

Why are you blaming Bush for this Los Alamos mess? The article says that there has been decades of security problems at Los Alamos. That means the problems cross over presidential terms. Some of you people will stoop to anything to blame Bush.

[firststate]

sandycat2
In your zeal to defend Bush & co., this time in your haste to post a response, you have confused some of the facts. that's something most of us have done. The article starts, "After seven years of security scandals ... the Los Alamos National Laboratory, ..." Later, "Underground nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the U.S. for decades in secrecy, the data from the tests kept as closely-guarded national secrets."

I'm sure are aware that 7 years isn't decades. You're also right 1 of the 7 years wasn't Bush. The lady who copied and stole the data got her security clearance about 4 years ago when she was 18. Her entire tenure has been under Bush and his appointments at Homeland Security and Energy.

This administration hasn't followed up on correcting specific security lapses with information that would help any enemy do the worst possible harm. Islamic terrorist are the only people who would harm us. The science of a basic atomic bomb isn't complicated, but the data discussed here would give any enemy information to make a smaller, deadlier Nu-Ku-Lar weapon. They let information that we know can literally help wipe out millions of us at one shot go God knows where and to whom.

Meanwhile the FBI agents can't even ask her pertinent questions because the person whole stole data has a higher security clearance. That's Classic! I admire your spirit, but the administration's record here is indefensible.

[firststate]

janem4
Is the Barbie-news site down?

I would first like to say that I am a republican always have been, and always will be however this does not mean that I agree with what the republicans are doing today, in fact I am disgusted with them. Second of all Jessica Quintana had no idea what she took, nor do any of you. I worked with nuclear weapons my entire career in the Air Force of 21 years and what she took home to "archive" was so outdated that it was of no consequence to anyone unless you know how to turn back the clocks 40 years. Does the word "archive" mean anything to you? don't get me wrong I am not defending her, what she did was against the law. She got complacent like the rest of the government. To deactivate locks on nuclear weapons is not as simple as the term implies. And the media has very much over reacted to this. But to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons takes a sufisticated piece of electronic equipment that you will not find in any one piece of documention anywhere. nor the electronic schematics to build one. Relax America is still safe from trailer trash.

[firststate]

ncolsens
Thanks for the new information about the locks, the way it has been reported was the most worrisome part. Thanks to guys like you, I have never spent time with a nuclear weapon. I understand the term "archive," now we are into any area with which I am familiar. An archive of data produced from test results, any test results would provide information for anyone who follows that can only be gained through the test. These archives allow someone else to pick up from the last data to prevent having to reinvent the wheel every time there is a technical question. In that respect, unless the data wasn't actual test data, its age doesn't equate with uselessness. My question for you is that if all the details for the electronics schematics and production requirements for deactivating those locks were to exist in one place, though not necessarily together, wouldn't that place be somewhere like the secure files in a vault in the National Labs? I'm not asking to be a smar tass, it just seems logical to me, it is the government after all unless energy is different the department has at least a microfiche version of every piece of paper, ever.

[amjp1]

What insanity! Top-secret security clearance given to this woman at age 18!! The idiots who hired her need to be fired for this. Who knows how many other teenagers are working at the Los Alamos facility? How about other DOE facilities? It is high time for Mr. Bodman to explain how unqualified kids can be given sensitive security jobs.

[firststate]

18 years olds can die in Iraq or anywhere they serve in any of the services.

[aeasus]

This is a HOMELAND SECURITY issue. If homeland security is nonfunctioning,the president needs to fix the department he established!!

firststate, as much as I would love to answer your questions I can not due to a non-disclosure statement I signed upon retirement, I can say that the U.S. Department of Energy has nothing to do with it.....Sorry

[mjv2944]

Why not just shut the doors. Do we really need this facility? I suppose we could get the info we need from Pakistan or China or North Korea or Iran as they probably got it from us, and I am sure they would be more than happy to sell it back to us. Now this is a plan that ole Dubya should like.

[bluestardad]

This facility is run by a bunch of local yocals trailer trash and they are given government jobs most people would die for but they use them to buy dope and drugs and eat government cheese and butter waiting on their next checks!

It's not unusual for an 18 year old to get a Top Secret security clearance, although I doubt she was 18 then, it takes 6-8 months to obtain one, even still at the age of 19 it is common practice. There are many questions asked to many people before one can get such a clearance. Such inquiries into departments such as Department of Corrections, DMV, health departments, to name a few. Even your relatives and neighbors are questioned. So I doubt that the girl living with her was there when she obtained the clearance. Security Clearances are not handed out like candy. Despite all that is going on in the world today, this issue is still taken very seriously, don't judge everyone because of a few that did not follow procedure.

[antoniof123]

This has been happening for a very long time. For those of you who do not know you can get the infomration to build a WMD from the public library. You just need to know what you are looking for then all you need is about 8 pounds of Plutonium and there you have it a real WMD. Anyone can do it if you have the time.

[firststate]

ncolsens, I understand your not answering. Thank you for your service and integrity.

antoniof123, nuclear warheads can be classified as WMD's however you will not find information on how to build a nuclear weapon, yes you may find the basic information on how they work, but not actual plans. It's rather like looking information on how your processor works in your computer, the library will tell what it does, how it works, but I doubt you will plans how to build one. I'm sure a lot you have seen the movie Manhatten Project, however it is not quite that simple. So as you can see not all WMD's are nukes, a pipe bomb is considered a WMD

[starlady2]

We should be asking how those *secret* underground nuclear weapons test have irradiated and caused cancer and reck havok with the environment. Where did they nuke Americans? What was the result in the environment? Are there misterious cancer clusters in those areas? We should demand disclosure. Are we being *nuked* to this day in secret? Enquiring minds whant to know.
;(

Starlady2.....it has been disclosed, do some research, you didn't expect someone to hand it to you personally did you?