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Man Caught Trying To Sell Plans For New Aircraft Carrier
New submitter cyberjock1980 tips news that an engineer has been caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the Egyptian government. The 35-year-old civilian received security clearance four months ago after working for the U.S. Navy since February. FBI agents made contact with him, pretending to be with the Egyptian government. They struck a deal to buy documents about the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the first in a new line of improved, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The man sold four CAD drawings for the carrier, and was later seen photographing another set of schematics. A bond hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
I mean, what?
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Four CAD drawings are not worth getting excited about. When the number gets above 4 million, we're probably talking some serious information about the carrier.
This sort of reminds me of WW2 spy movies - evil nazi spy gets hold of plans for latest carrier or battleship, and is chased by intrepid All-American Hero.
Trouble is, the plans for a WW2 carrier or battleship wouldn't fit into something as small as a railroad boxcar, much less a briefcase.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
The chances of a foreign government contacting a random security cleared employee and asking to buy information is likely to be incredibly low per lifetime of each employee. Also consider that the Egyptians are both not in the market for an aircraft carrier and have enough relations with the US that they would never endanger them by doing something so obvious as building a copy of a US aircraft carrier. This "sting" is just a case of going looking for someone guilty of being stupid and greedy instead of the more difficult operation of trying to catch a real criminal.
It's just some dangerously ambitious prick deciding to shoot fish in a barrel to get a list of achievements - that's the one with the "thought process behind that brilliant idea" - present a stupid get rich quick scheme to catch the stupid.
... caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the Egyptian government.
No, he was caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the FBI. Since he thought he was trying to deliver them to the Egyptian government, that makes him a scumbag, but let's not pretend an actual crime that would have occurred without the FBI's action has been thwarted here. They didn't step in and stop something bad from happening, they just found some guy who likes money more than ethics and made a good headline out of him. Arguably doing so maybe has some deterrent effect, but don't misrepresent what happened or blow it out of proportion.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Snowden tried to go through legal means and when that failed told everyone at the same time.
This guy was in for the profit which is the true american way. I am waiting for him to get a medal from congress now.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Well thank goodness we don't have an overreaching government that drops the "national security" card at the drop of a hat. Otherwise we could end up seeing some really silly shit going down to fight a (mostly) fictional enemy.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Except this wasn't some random citizen. This was a guy who signed agreements basically acknowledging his responsibilities to protect that data, and acknowledging that he understood the various conditions of holding a security clearance. When you sign those papers you (knowingly) give up certain rights.
I'm all for railing against the government using terrorism to get it's way, but this particular application makes sense. The fucker should fry.
So this is basically and [sic] artificially generated crime, made by the FBI.
If you are given a US security clearance - after a significant background investigation and detailed indoctrination about exactly how important that it is that you do not tell anyone - not your wife, not your buddies, not your colleagues who don't have the same clearances - about classified material... and then someone claiming to represent a foreign power approaches you about providing classified information to them... and you even take more than half a second to say no, you should not have been in that job in the first place.
This isn't luring someone into adultery, or petty theft, or embezzling or even facilitating Marion Berry smoking crack. This is a dude straight up offering SENSITIVE US DEFENSE INFORMATION to a known frenemy (depending on who's in power this week) FOR MONEY. There is no scenario in which you are a Good Guy who just got entrapped into something you didn't really mean or didn't think was going to hurt anyone.
It's sorta like how I can be sympathetic to men whose jealous significant others hire PIs/escorts to hit on them and lure them into adultery to see if they're susceptible to cheating. But this is more like trying to bait someone into hiring a hit man to kill their wife to see if they would go for it... If you even consider it, buddy you are not a Good Guy and deserve what you get.
"95% of all Slashdot
First, how did that guy really "know" his contact was from "Egypt" as opposed to Iran, or wasn't a bag man for China or North Korea?
Even if it had been Egypt, how would he know it wouldn't be passed on to Iran (which has been cozying up to Egypt lately) or China or North Korea?
In any case he volunteered information on the best way to attack the carrier.
He was both willing and motivated to spy, even making suggestions on how to do it and avoid detection.
Your views are nonsense.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
How the fuck did you get modded up?
Do you have ANY fucking idea what is takes to get your clearance in the US, and nearly any other nation?
You have to give permission for them to look into your background. In the paperwork that you sign, you typically agree that you will keep things to yourself, AND that the gov has the RIGHT to follow up on any issues that present itself. I doubt that the FBI contacted this asshole. It is a NEAR CERTAINTY that he contacted somebody and said that he wanted to sell information. Then and only then, did FBI become involved. They may have intercepted initial messages. They may have an insider that told them about this guy. Regardless, once they heard that he was wanting to sell out, they have the FULL RIGHT to go after him.
Once that man agreed to allow this in writing, the FBI only did what it was legally allowed (and possibly bound ) to do. And if he was opposed to these actions, then he should never have signed a document allowing just this.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Since I haven't seen anyone point this out:
1. According to the article, the Awwad idiot actually went through with delivering classified info at the 2nd "meeting." That means he successfully stole classified from the secure facility in which it was kept.
Now, just because he sold N files to the agents, doesn't mean he only removed N files from the secure facility. Furthermore, he delivered them to agents at a hotel. Which means "out there" in the wild! So before he was arrested he could have actually had >N files copied onto an indeterminate number of his personal net connected computing gadgets, where the info could have wound up stolen by real enemies by malware bots looking for just this sort of thing, or perhaps he sent backup copies to some place where we will never know but someone else does.
In other words, the FBI agents instigated an ACTUAL breach of classified info into the wild, which is a REAL threat to national security. The info could very well already be in the hands of the Russia, China, etc.
It is the FBI fuckers who should be sent up the river!
It is the purpose of counterintelligence to protect ACTUAL national security above all else, which means not allowing classified out into the wild. They could have simply revoked Awwad's security clearance and fired him when they found him willing to commit an act of espionage, but before he actually went through with it. This would have actually protected national security, by preventing the disclosure of classified which is the whole point.
Instead they risked and caused an uncontrollable leak of classified, just to bag some idiot so he'd go to prison and the agents would get good performance reviews. These people are unethical sociopaths. It is immoral to not seek to PREVENT someone from committing a crime if you know they are willing and considering it. A sting like this should be a felony. Not to mention that now each one of us is going to have to pay a share of our life's work just to imprison the Awwad dimwit for a very long time.
2. There is something very wrong with the Navy's handling of classified, if Awwad was able to get it out at all.
In my experience, fortunately not with actual classified which I want nothing to do with since I have ADHD-like forgetfullness and work "outside the fence", but I've been trained about its handling at a national lab, it would be or should have been exceedingly difficult to steal classified in the first place.
Awwad should have never been alone with classified. It should have been on computers which, if they are networked at all, are connected to only a fully air-gapped restricted network. Even the fucking fibers can't be within like 6 feet of those from another network! The USB and other ports should be sealed off with epoxy. Swapping of classified containing hard drives to/from vault and workstation is done under direct supervision by some classified accountant. It might even be that the workers must be at least in a team of 2 or more, I'm not certain though. Workstations which process classified live in a "vault-like room." Stealing this stuff is not easy! Unless their security is very broken, it should be nearly impossible without getting caught.
Look at it this way: If the guy was stupid enough to try to sell the info yet smart enough to actually succeed at stealing some, then the Navy's security is a joke. How many have stolen information that didn't get caught?
Allowing classified to get out of it's secure facility was a collosal fuckup!
If this type of sting, resulting in the actual removal of classified from secure facilities is common practice, then the people guarding our nation are at a minimum incompetent, and at worst they are the actual traitors for being willing to risk causing actual harm to national security for the sake of their personal careers.
There is little doubt that the enemy we should truly fear is within.
Moridineas: "I'm a big support of Snowden. Much less so of Manning. This guy deserves whatever he gets."
I think this is the big telling point. Snowden is very controversial. Manning, the controversy is mostly about the magnitude of the punishment. But no one is seriously in favor of people just handing out secrets to foreign governments. Wherever you stand on the Snowdometer, this is just not that.
In countries under the rule of law, rights can not be given up. Just like a law cannot override the constitution, any piece of paper you might sign or be forced to sign cannot override the law. Not even in the case of the most obvious scum of mankind. That's because once you set up the principle that the government can selectively take away your rights, then the citizens can by the same principle selectively ignore the laws they don't like. Including those that define and give authority to the government.
No need for lawyers. People with security clearances are both encouraged and rewarded for doing the right thing. It's called "reporting adverse contacts". Yes, this was a test, and yes, he failed. He should have reported the adverse contact immediately to the operational security office at his classified site.