"Devastating" Security Breach at Los Alamos -- Access Codes to Activate Stolen A-Bombs

[Dems Will Win]

As Dr. Dean has diagnosed: You can't trust Republicans with our National Security. Now they've apparently let the Access Codes for Nuclear bomb activation get loose from Los Alamos. The documents might have been sold to raise cash for a meth buy.

And the security breach might have included design plans for the British Trident nuclear warhead.

Not good.

Add that to cutting $6 mil to sniff liquid bombs, cut $$ to protect NY and DC, inspect only 2% of our port traffic, screw up the TSA royally, make the Air Marshals a joke by making them board with the crew, cut $$ to First Responders compared to what is needed, turn Homeland Security into 50-state Pork Strategy, destroy FEMA, let Dubai Ports World purchase key port operations, not find Osama Bin Laden and let Pakistan make peace with him and the Taliban, invade Iraq and lose Afghanistan, and let 9-11 happen in the first place by at least not even having a meeting about terrorism for 8 months.

Republicans Tough on Terror? That is now an OXYMORAN.

Nuclear Lab Breach Could Be 'Devastating'
CBS News Exclusive: Data Found In Drug Raid Contains Weapons-Design Secrets

(CBS) 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.

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).

...

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:


Safeguards and Security (relating to strategic nuclear material control and accountability)

- X-Division (top secret)

- Physics P-Division.

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.

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

A Los Alamos National Laboratory watchdog group, Nuclear Watch, in a release said the security breach could be the most serious in the lab's history.

Here this should make you feel better:

"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.

We need to add Congressional control on Tuesday!

Edited: Fixed OXYMORON typo to OXYMORAN

If you want the Corporate media to succeed in covering up this story, DO NOT REMEMBER TO RECOMMEND FOR GREATEST. Thank you.

[NanceGreggs]

1. Typo alert!

"Republicans Tough on Terror? That is now an OXYMORAN."

[Dems Will Win]

3. Fixed it! Thanks!

[friendlyuser]

29. still incorrect

Sorry to nitpick but...the correct spelling according to the American Heritage Dictionary is: OXYMORON. What I see still posted is "oxymoran."

[Beam Me Up]

30. L O L And your first post, too. Welcome to DU! n/t

[Octafish]

31. Depends on what your definition of 'moron' is.

In all seriousness: A hearty welcome to DU, friendlyuser!

[AntiFascist]

37. I kind of like "oxymoran" it seems fitting with the all the corruption...

coming to the surface. Many republicans are becoming stupidly contradictory.

[eviltwin2525]

38. egad

it ISN'T the "oxy" part that's the problem. "Moron" is spelled "m-o-r-o-n." I want to pull out my hair every time I see "moran," which ISN'T EVEN A WORD. And about every third post here on DU appears to contain a "moran." Just makes us look dumb. We're supposed to be the smarter ones, no?

[NorthernSpy]

40. "moran" is an inside joke at DU...

"Moran" is a reference to a now-infamous photograph of a bushbot holding a sign that reads, "GET A BRAIN MORANS!". We all enjoyed that picture very much, and many of us have been writing MORANS instead of morons ever since.

Another inside joke you'll encounter is the exclamation, "Are you series? This is HUGH!!!!111!!!1!". This is said to allude to a post made at Free Republic by a particularly excitable freeper who presumably meant to write, "Are you serious? This HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!".

[cool user name]

44. If I can weigh in ...

I think it's funny the way it's spelled but if anyone can put 'moran' in quotations to note the differnce, that would be super.

I just don't want to look stupid - being and looking are two differnt things. :D

[AntiFascist]

51. um, its meant to be a joke, like morels instead of morals....

welcome to DU, it takes some getting used to.

[newyawker99]

49. Hi friendlyuser!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[acmejack]

13. History has proven it is just plain old bullshit!

Hard to be nice about willful incompetence. I am convinced we have witnessed treason of the worst sort, secrets successfully safeguarded over a half century have been serially compromised for personal gain.

I would demand justice, but for some reason, the fabled criminal investigative agencies of this Country are still trying to find the person or group responsible for sending deadly biological weapons through the mail to some of the most important Legislators in the land, six years after the fact. Agents from only one source, tightly controlled and accessible by only a tightly controlled group of carefully screened personnel. Totally unsolvable!

I really doubt they could get to the bottom of this more complex crime. Oh well, we'll never know who is at the bottom unless we happen to survive the "Terrorist" detonation and hear who takes credit for it. That is if we aren't rounded up, it may be laid at the door of a group of "disaffected liberals".

[BattyDem]

2. WTF?

:wtf:

First they post plans for making a nuclear bomb on the Internet for the whole world to see ... and now the access codes to pre-existing nuclear bombs are out there, too?

Is it just me or is it beginning to look like they WANT another country to nuke us? :grr: :scared: :nuke:

[melody]

9. That thought had crossed my mind, too n/t

[Beam Me Up]

32. They need a justification to use tactical nukes on the global stage.

What is it about this that is not clear?

[BadgerKid]

50. But then who will be around to buy

all their oil? :sarcasm:

[DUgosh]

4. So if they can't have us, nobody can

Because we wont be here anymore.

[DRoseDARs]

5. Why is this lab still open? Hasn't its security failed like 50 times in the past decade?

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with these people? :wtf:

[Dems Will Win]

6. Don't worry -- they are adding Administrative and Engineering Controls!

[DRoseDARs]

8. Polarized sheets on all the screens and child-safety locks on all the cabinets. n/t

[autorank]

7. We're reaching the end of the "tear down" - what will voters think of security and *?

Not much after this. Haggard and then this are a great jab-right cross combination. Bush is going down, for the count. He ought to take this seriously but he's too ego involved. Who cares, there will just get another major story that tears away at any remaining public confidence.

Great post, as always...you're so on target with these election season posts.

[Dems Will Win]

10. Thanks, we need to get this out there - Even though it is on CBS

and many other outlets already. Time for the Echo chamber!

This just in!

A Los Alamos National Laboratory watchdog group, Nuclear Watch, in a release said the security breach could be the most serious in the lab's history.

[autorank]

14. I'm on my way...sharing the wealth....thanks again! n/t

[berni_mccoy]

11. I'm REALLY starting to believe the REPUKES WANT US TO BE ATTACKED WITH A NUKE

Why else all these security "breaches". This is more like intentional disregard for our nuclear secrets.

[survivor999]

12. I bet they were sold.

[Felinity]

15. Who is this chick?

How in the hell does a 22 year old get this kind of clearance. I would think someone would have to be a PhD/Scientist to get this kind of access.

Anybody heard of background checks? Look at where she lives, and who she's hanging out with.

And why the fuck is she not in custody? They trained machine guns on a housewife who flipped *ush the bird, but this woman is on the loose?

OMFG

[spuddonna]

16. That's what I just asked too...

Is she even in the country anymore? Holy crap...

[brer cat]

18. My thinking exactly.

I certainly don't have a beef with young people getting responsible jobs, but jeez don't they have to have some years of experience before getting that kind of security clearance?

[sunnystarr]

19. My thoughts exactly

A 22 year old who lived in a trailer??? And she had this kind of clearance??? OMFG and to think that this administration is so busy trying to find out who leaked something to the NYT and to have any staffer who may have had access to info fired! But the President can leak plans to a nuclear bomb to terrorists and rogue nations and they can give that kind of security clearance into the hands of a 22 year old ditz in a trailer. No one can make this stuff up! If we had heard any of this during the Clinton era what would we have said?

[cool user name]

22. Incredible, isn't it?

[TahitiNut]

17. As a Senior Research Scientist for 5 years at Hanford, I'm not surprised at all.

"Security" is a cruel, corrupt joke. The "security" guy at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories was in the pocket of corrupt management, spending more time covering up the waste, fraud, and abuse of a clique - a right-wing "boys club" - than doing shit about "security." He was nothing but an enforcer and back-stabber. With about an 85 IQ, what he lacked in intelligence he made up for in "faith" - being part of the Religious Right at Hanford. It's a despicable culture.

[Joanne98]

47. That story needs it's own thread!

[Mojekearthe]

20. The ENTIRE criminal republican party must be held accountable

...for such an incredibly stupid and planet-threatening act of despotic evil. No democrats can ever be associated with this ultimate Culture of Corruption that encompasses EVERY ASPECT of the criminal republican party.

OBVIOUSLY, every republican must be indicted, and investigated for crimes against humanity, such as the loss of such information. HEADS MUST ROLL...starting from the TOP of course! A Democratic Congress should waste ABSOLUTELY NO TIME WHATSOEVER in demanding INVESTIGATIONS, IMPEACHMENTS, CONVICTIONS, and INCARCERATIONS of EVERY CRIMINAL republican OF NOTE!!

I am utterly shocked, scared, and amazed... we MUST PREVAIL to that end!

[NorthernSpy]

42. your intent is quite transparent

The ENTIRE criminal republican party must be held accountable ...for such an incredibly stupid and planet-threatening act of despotic evil. No democrats can ever be associated with this ultimate Culture of Corruption that encompasses EVERY ASPECT of the criminal republican party.

OBVIOUSLY, every republican must be indicted, and investigated for crimes against humanity, such as the loss of such information. HEADS MUST ROLL...starting from the TOP of course! A Democratic Congress should waste ABSOLUTELY NO TIME WHATSOEVER in demanding INVESTIGATIONS, IMPEACHMENTS, CONVICTIONS, and INCARCERATIONS of EVERY CRIMINAL republican OF NOTE!!

I am utterly shocked, scared, and amazed... we MUST PREVAIL to that end!

Investigate "every" Republican for "crimes against humanity"?

No. We'll have plenty to keep us busy just investigating and prosecuting the worst of the worst.

The Republicans have run the federal government for years (into the ground). I infer that you would like to make the notion of holding these people accountable sound absurd. But it's not.


I notice that you declare -- with the same insincere bombast -- that "no democrats can ever be associated with this ultimate Culture of Corruption that encompasses EVERY ASPECT of the criminal republican party."

If you had paid closer attention to what DUers actually think and say, you'd have known that we are well aware that certain people (eg, Joe Lieberman) who have claimed affiliation with the Democratic Party have collaborated with the Bush regime.

[cool user name]

21. Definitely K&R and posted on another forum as well.

This is insanity!

[sweetheart]

23. security breach my foot

Any one of uz could, were we with such a clearance, to take some work home
with uz. Therez only a coupla ways out of los alamos physically, and an online
distribution is traceable, so then, since the data never went more than a few
miles from where it normally sits, this is not the drama its made to be.

Any person who smokes a joint is suddenly a national security risk when the
data went nowhere... an imaginary crime, and you're whipped up in to a feral
right wing persecution frienzy by a working class bob who takes drugs to
get by life in an isolated fundy paranoid secretlab community.

As much as the pukes have been bad managers of our national heritage,
this is not the big drama you're making out. The devious intent is better
attributed to the republicans who started iraq, not some poor clerk in LANL TA-55.

[Dems Will Win]

25. It wasn't me that said it was "devastating" or the worst security breach

in Los Alamos history...

[sweetheart]

26. but you did say

"The documents might have been sold to raise cash for a meth buy."

did you? If so, then you are demeaning the character of this unknown 22year old woman who
did not realize that all of los alamos itself is not the secure camp on its far-away mesatop,
who did not take it all that biggie a deal that a few chips went here and then there again,
and this person suddenly is a meth junkie. Then is that indictment not the predictable
slight of the corporate media as well?

That woman is just a person like any of uz, none of whom would sell out nuclear weapons
plans to terrorists for a fucking drug. What a presumption about drugs users, framed in
that comment, not a progressive one, mind. I respect, that like with foley, people are
willing to walk heavy on their own constituency for a PR win... and let the first person
who does not use any drugs including caffeine, penacillin or alcohol cast the first stone.

[Richard Steele]

34. NO, actually, it is the very DEFINITION of a "security breach".

And NO, you most certainly CANNOT just "take those documents
home to work on". With some of those documents, it's a "security breach"
the second they LEAVE THE VAULT without proper authorization.

And your ASSUMPTION that this stuff "never went more than a few
miles from where it normally sits" is based SOLEY upon the word
of the MethAmphetamine user who STOLE them.

Tell me, why would she ever possibly need the actual ACCESS CODES
to nuclear weapons to "work on at home"?

[Felinity]

41. Thanks for jumping on this point

(Edited for clarity.)


My brain was hurting.

Is it too much to ask that highly classified information NEVER leave secured areas?

Is there ever a time that someone NEEDS to take that kind of risk with this type of info? What, was it the final episode of "Survivor on that night?" (irony noted)

[FlaGranny]

45. I used to work for NORAD

many years ago with a "secret" clearance. I had my background checked - they actually did check it too. They contacted neighbors and acquaintances and I'm sure they checked for any criminal record. I was 18-19 years old when I got that job. I worked in the building that housed the headquarters of the eastern US/Canadian command. Top generals regularly met in that building (Curtis LeMay even showed up on occasion). I had no access to "top secret" documents. They were kept locked up in a safe that was located right in the office where I sat. In fact, right next to my desk. A major was in charge of that safe and no one, but no one got near it unless there was a legitimate reason to. Even though I had a secret clearance, I had no access to secret documents after I had typed one. I had "no need." When a secret or top secret document was typed, the carbon paper was locked in the safe and waste from that safe was regularly taken to the incinerator and burned under the direct supervision of that major. It is amazing that that is not still the case.

[elehhhhna]

24. K&R 25. Rec it, please!

[redacted]

27. KR 34; didn't know this story broke FRIDAY NIGHT, as in 24 hours ago

[sakabatou]

28. Jeebus-Fucking-Chrysler...

In the words of C-3PO, "We're doomed!"

[Octafish]

33. Plame was bad.

This Los Alamos was bad.
Posting Iraq's H-bomb blueprints online was bad.
Letting AQ Khan get away with nuclear proliferation and profiteering was bad.
Still unable to connect two dots if his country's life depended on it, Bush said it was all OK.

Great article and information, Dems Will Win.
Most honored to K.R. & B.

[upi402]

35. The list is seemingly endless.

Add the former Soviet Union's stuff to that too. Kerry was right to give lethargic Americans the heads-up on securing nuclear material.

[robertpaulsen]

36. That's not the first "security breach" at a nuclear plant this year.

Remember this story?

$500K Seized; Strange Situation Reported At Nuclear Plant
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2236825

Police follow money trail from nuke plant (New Details)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2243166



Remind me again exactly what it is that Homeland Security keeps secure.

[bklyncowgirl]

39. So some drug addict with a thumb drive stole the US nuclear coes.

Are you feeling safer?

[NorthernSpy]

43. they gave a "Top Secret" security clearance to someone too young to RENT a CAR?

(... until the law on car rentals changed a year ago.)

:wow:

I'd have thought that a person would have to be somewhat more senior in their position before they'd be allowed a high-level clearance.

Kind of weird that you could be feasting your little eyes on the most highly classified nuclear secrets for three years before the folks at Hertz would let you drive off in one of their precious automobiles.

[FlaGranny]

46. See my post #45 above.

Age aside, I can't believe she had free access, given MY experience.

[Crunchy Frog]

48. I think somebody WANTS out enemies to have nukes.

It gives them a justification for maintaining a continuous wartime footing, so that we will always need a "wartime president" to protect us.