Serious Security Breach at Los Alamos

[katty]

cont'd: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/03/national/main2151021.shtml

Serious Security Breach At Los Alamos
CBS News Exclusive: Data Found In Drug Raid Contains Weapons-Design Secrets


New Details Emerge In Los Alamos Case
Top Nuke Lab Data Leak Apparently Discovered During Drug Bust; Officials Search For Ties

Drug Bust Leads To Los Alamos Docs
FBI Probes Apparent Classified Data Leak At The Nuclear Lab

Nov. 3, 2006


(CBS/AP) The recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory was very serious, with sensitive materials being taken out of the facility — possibly including information on how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons, officials tell CBS News.

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.

[Poll_Blind]

1. For more details on this story, see thread link inside...

here.

  Another curious affair in a time of many curious affairs.

PB

[katty]

2. yes, indeed, thanks

[BootinUp]

3. Holy Crap!

Didn't the RWingnuts excoriate Clinton for Security lapses at Los Alamos?

This woman will be locked up the rest of her life, what a dumb fuck.

[mike_c]

4. so far I think this is much ado about nothing....

Just the usual national lab security paranoia. Likely someone just brought home the usual office flotsam that we all have accumulating in our briefcases.

[Poll_Blind]

7. I think it could go either way. I checked the local papers....

...the Craigslist for that area, listened to one or two of the community radio stations just to see if I could squeeze anything more out from the locals, as it were. Nothing. I did find a great streaming radio station in Albuquerque, though!

Anyway, normally something like this would be much lower on my radar except for the meth dealing which potentially ties motive to the removal of documents. It could be another Wen Ho Lee affair, though, which would be shameful.

BTW, don't Bechtel and some university run Los Alamos now? I'm glad to see Bechtel in the mix. :sarcasm:

PB

[BootinUp]

9. So a meth user wouldn't be trying to sell that stuff?

I think you are greatly underestimating the possible ramifications.

[mike_c]

12. I don't think so....

Look, the way paperwork at a national lab like LA is treated, virtually EVERYTHING is considered "secret" unless it's expressly prepared for release. The specific nature of these papers has never been reported, only that "secret papers from Los Alamos" were found with a "meth user" who was, incidentally, a scientist at the lab. I point that last bit out because I'm a scientist too, I know LOTS of fellow scientists that either use drugs recreationally pretty casually or they did in the past, and none of those folks are slavering tooth rotted tweakers in the sense that you're probably expecting.

My guess is that this person got busted and when her house was searched the cops found papers that were identifiably from LA or dealt with technical matters. They knew where the woman worked, so they called LA security who immediately said "yes, those are secret papers" and then came and took them. The thing is, they might very well be nothing more sinister than memos about keeping the glassware clean in the laboratories. Seriously. Until someone reveals something other than that they were "secret papers" I'm not going to get very excited about this story.

[Hugin]

5. At least they didn't post it on the Internets!

Like the Intelligence Services did.

in Arabic for the terraist's convenience.

[whistle]

6. Again? Who is in charge there? Oh shit, it figures....

:wtf:

<snip>
Same University To Run Los Alamos
Univ. Of California, Bechtel Corp. Win Contract For Lab Management
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Dec. 21, 2005

(AP) Despite a string of security lapses and allegations of fraud and mismanagement, the University of California has been awarded the contract to continue managing the Los Alamos laboratory that built the atom bomb, the Energy Department said Wednesday.

Because of the scandals at Los Alamos, the government contract to run the nation's pre-eminent nuclear lab had been put out to bid this year for the first time in the lab's 63-year history.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced that a partnership of UC and the engineering giant Bechtel Corp. had prevailed over a rival team made up of the University of Texas and the defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

The contract is for $512 million over seven years, with a provision to extend it to 20 years.

"This is a new contract with a new team, marking a new approach to the management of Los Alamos. It is not a continuation of the previous contract," Bodman said at a news conference in Washington.

The university has run the lab since it was created in the New Mexico desert in 1943 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the A-bomb. But because of bitter complaints in Congress about security lapses and poor management, the contract was put up for competitive bidding.

This time, the university teamed up with Bechtel to give itself more managerial expertise.
<More>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/21/national/main1154609.shtml

[Poll_Blind]

8. You just gotta love it when Bechtel gets in on the action! n/t

PB

[chill_wind]

10. Let me be the first to K&R. nt

[ProgressiveEconomist]

11. ABC World News Tonight covered the Iraq WMD website nuke

secret exposure, which is more serious because thousands could have already seen the bomb-building instructions. Did CBS Evening News cover this, or did they just lead with their own sotry about the new Wen Ho Lee scapegoat?

I'm glad at least one other network has not used this Los Alamos story to block the political nuke secret Republican exposure scandal. Not yet, anyway.

[BootinUp]

13. seen? I think they could have downloaded the stuff

or at least taken screen captures. You are correct that is a bigger story. But this story worries me becuase if this person was trying to sell secret materials we have no idea how much has been compromised.

[HuffleClaw]

14. "information on how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons"

fear-mongering or real? who's to know?