FC: Noah Shachtman replies to Politech over Los Alamos story

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I understand this was circulated internally to Los Alamos employees:
> A story on the Wired.com Web site includes a claim by the reporter
> that he easily penetrated secure areas at the Laboratory; many of you
> notified Public Affairs about the story, and we appreciate your
> taking the time to bring it to our attention. Pete Nanos addressed
> the issue quite forcefully in a media conference call this afternoon,
> and here is the Laboratory's response to reporters who have called
> the PA office:
>
>> The Wired reporter clearly did not enter a Laboratory security area.
>> The Laboratory encompasses more than 40 square miles. The security
>> force protects important assets within those boundaries but cannot
>> -- and does not -- protect every square foot of property. Based on
>> the article, it appears the reporter crossed a barbed-wire cattle
>> fence, not a fence that protects a Los Alamos security area.
>>
>> There is a small security area with several buildings (roughly 400
>> feet by 400 feet) near the driveway entrance to TA-33. That area is
>> surrounded by a seven-foot-high chain-link fence topped with three
>> strands of barbed wire.  A security guard is stationed inside that
>> area seven days a week and 24 hours a day. Clearly, the reporter did
>> not climb that fence.
>>
>> There are several other buildings outside the security area that are
>> locked for property protection interests. They have no security
>> interests. There are several gates and fenced areas on the TA-33
>> site, which are there for safety access control, not security.
>>
>> It's unlikely the reporter would be prosecuted for trespassing; the
>> Laboratory does not have law enforcement authority to prosecute, and
>> none of the proper authorities witnessed the trespass.

Previous Politech message (this will be the last round, I expect):
http://www.politechbot.com/p-04506.html

-Declan

---

Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 18:35:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Noah Shachtman <noahmax6000 () yahoo com>
Subject: Re: FC: Replies to Noah Shachtman's "How I Snuck Into Los Alamos"
To: declan () well com
In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20030225204736.03bcd2d8 () mail well com>

Declan:

I've received a lot of messages like Sonja Tideman's
and Jan Conklin's. They say, in essence, that my story
wasn't a big deal, because the area into which I went
wasn't sufficiently top-secret.  If I had walked out
with, say, a wheelbarrow full of uranium, then they
would have been impressed.

Well, in 1997, during a security training simulation,
soldiers were able <a
href="http://www.pogo.org/p/environment/eo-011003-nuclear.htm#(la)">to
do just that</a>.  In 2000, during a similar exercise,
feaux bad guys "gain(ed) access to the reactor fuel…
potentially causing a sizable nuclear detonation that
would have taken out part of New Mexico and caused
havoc downwind."

I'm a scared, out-of-shape lummox without any military
training whatsoever, and with no motivation to do
anything harmful.  Yet I got into an area that I was
assured could not be accessed by any outsider ­ an
area that no one will even say officially what it's
purpose is.

If I could do what I did ­ and these simulated
attackers could made such spectacular inroads ­ what
could a more determined adversary accomplish?  That's
the question my story asks.

Several readers of <a
href="http://slashdot.org";>Slashdot</a> said that
TA-33 couldn’t have been that important, if Bussolini
and Alexander stored their allegedly
fraudulently-purchased goods there, and if I was able
to get in.

To that, one Slashdot reader <a
href="http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=55048&cid=5381010";>replied</a>,
"I'm not comfortable assuming that the buildings he
managed to get into were useless just based on the
fact that he was able to access them. It seems like
that sort of head-in-the-sand circular logic does not
good security practices make."

I agree.

---

From: "Ted Coffman" <tcoffman () fidalgo net>
To: <declan () well com>
References: <5.1.1.6.0.20030225110410.075f4e50 () mail well com>
Subject: Re: Noah Shachtman: "How I Snuck Into Los Alamos"
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 11:28:32 -0800

Damn, Declan.

If you believe this crap, I have some land in the Everglades to sell you.

I looked at the photos and they are of a building that hasn't been used in
years.   The door is ajar and the electrical box's handle is in the down,
non conductive mode.  The weeds in front of the facility should be reason
enough to list this information as garbage BS, caca, etc etc.  Take your
pick.

This guy hopped the fence into an area of no use.........Big S Deal.

Who cares!

What a moron.


Ted

---

From: "K S" <pillar918 () hotmail com>
To: <declan () well com>
References: <5.1.1.6.0.20030225204736.03bcd2d8 () mail well com>
Subject: Re: Replies to Noah Shachtman's "How I Snuck Into Los Alamos"
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 19:34:56 -0500

This kind of made me worried:
---
This sort of breaking the law to show that it can be done has been going on
forever.  There is nothing new and it is amazing how many people still
think they are doing something productive.  Why doesn't he just go to the
authorities with his trick instead of blasting it over the net?  His only
interest, methinks, is himself.  And it's sooo old and unoriginal.
[.]
Isn't the point of being a journalist to tell the PEOPLE about what is going
on? "Blasting it over the net" helps raise public awareness about our world
around us, and he wouldn't go to the authorities because, well, he'd be
arrested; it could be what he wanted, but I doubt it.

---

From: "Howard H. Bleicher" <howardb4 () earthlink net>
To: <declan () well com>
References: <5.1.1.6.0.20030225204736.03bcd2d8 () mail well com>
Subject: Re: Replies to Noah Shachtman's "How I Snuck Into Los Alamos"
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 22:42:00 -0700

Sonja,
I have read your response to Noah Shactman's posting on Politech.

The immediate past history of the 'happenings' at Los Alamos Labs. by
itself, does not lend one to feel secure about anything that goes on there.
Whether it be the undetected stealing of Lab property, the missing hard
drive, Notra Trulock, who blew the whistle on the biggest breach of nuclear
security since the Rosenbergs at Los Alamos National Laboratories, lost his
job and had his reputation destroyed or the history of dumping radioactive
waste in not too secure containers into the canyons surrounding Los Alamos
Lab. back in the 1950's, and most recently  the resignation of John C.
Browne, the director of the Los Alamos National Lab. on Dec 23, 2002 amid
mounting allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Your attempt to sooth the anxieties of us all in this time of national
insecurity, although meant well, really doesn't begin to answer the ongoing
questions concerning mismanagement, theft of property(including classified
material) and now the real threat of the Lab being an open door to amatuers
let alone terrorist penetration of it's supposed secure bordrs.

Howard H. Bleicher, D.D.S.


howardb4 () earthlink net




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