Investigative Lead: Missing Computer from Los Alamos Methamphetamine Drug Raid
September 14, 2007For Immediate Release
Contact: Peter Stockton or Marthena Cowart (202) 347-1122
A computer which may have contained highly classified nuclear weapons information from the Los Alamos National Laboratory was traded in exchange for drugs, according to unconfirmed sources. The computer was owned by Jessica Quintana, the former contractor employee at the Lab who pled guilty in May to removing classified information after hundreds of pages of documents were discovered in a methamphetamine drug raid at her trailer.
Among the list of items collected by the Los Alamos Police Department during the execution of the search of the trailer were three memory sticks containing classified LANL documents, as well as hard copies. No computer was listed. A senior POGO source claims that the LAPD did search the computer looking for drug information and found none. They did not search for classified LANL information. POGO has also been told that the FBI never obtained a search warrant to seize the computer for a review of evidence of classified information.
Ms. Quintana allegedly broke down during an FBI polygraph session and indicated the computer she was using to work with the information on the memory sticks was now missing.
The computer remains missing. Stay tuned.
Additional Resources:
Department of Justice press release, May 15, 2007.
http://albuquerque.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel07/nationalsecurity051507.htm
Document - Los Alamos County Police Department Press Release
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/policedocs.pdf
POGO Alert - Los Alamos Classified Info Found in Drug Raid
http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-061003-lanl.html
Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government.
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28 comments:
John Mitchell took it with him in lieu of the drugs which he had ordered, but which Jessica's roomie never delivered.
In return, Mitchell bartered the computer for a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card from LANS for his own classified computing digressions.
another ace hiring for IM-1 by Kit Ruminer, who pushed through the original JQ clearance... maybe she has the computer
Wanna bet IM-1 computer systems are managed by CTN? That's probably why the system had data on it. Everyone else's classified system went diskless 4 years ago, but not ones that CTN manages because "it's too difficult".
Let's turn comuter system administration over to Pojoaque Pueblo.
OK, so now what?
So now what? Mike and his circle of jerks around him are going to disallow laptops from leaving the property. No more working at home. That will fix the problem!
I have a hardly used laptop sitting on a shelf in my office. It's already too much hassle to actually use it. So I don't.
Now there's waste. Spending money on equipment that won't be used because of stoopid policies....
No, no, it's not missing. They found it and are going to raffle it off at the picnic next Saturday. They even got Jessica to autograph it -- it will be a collector's item one day.
Nice, except POGO has no credibility and they and their mole in DOE, NNSA or the upper floors of the NSSB happily smears LANL with no regard for protecting our national security and no balance by holding other Laboratories or NWC sites to the same level of perfection they demand of Los Alamos.
They could serve a useful purpose, but they have become arrogant, ignorant and reckless with the power they imagine they hold.
If they had to live by the same standards flawless performance I think we'd see them behave differently.
Ah, a fresh POGO-bashing post.
Unfortunately, POGO-bashing is an all too predictable occurrence whenever they break bad news about LANL, which, as you've noticed, is quite frequently.
I've got to tell you: shooting the messenger only accomplishing one thing: making the shooter look foolish.
No surprise here, I suppose. Bash away.
--Gussie
"A computer which -may- have contained highly classified nuclear weapons information from the Los Alamos National Laboratory was traded in exchange for drugs, according to -unconfirmed- sources."
POGO is really hard-up for a scoop to come up with this one! Their credibility as an organization to "expose corruption and misconduct" has been lowered a notch further, towards grocery-store journalism. Read the sentence again. And the source? .... unconfirmed. It may seem like POGO-bashing to Gussie, but I believe that our friends POGO have really stooped into the gutter with their 'newsworthy' exposes. FOX news should be able to pick this story up from them tonight. I can't wait. Like flys in a barn.
KSFR/KSFQ FM, the new 101.1 signal in Los Alamos, has promised to not repeat a news story over the air from unconfirmed, unsubstantiated, or anonyous sources in the government. That's a class act, compared to what POGO has become.
Well did the FBI seize the computer without a warrant and after seeing the error of their ways hide it behind a copy machine some place?
I heard POGO's source is Rich Marquez.
Stop whinning 3:17PM. POGO is just doing what worthless scum like you hate because you're the reason we need watchdogs like POGO. You're the arrogant SOB that dumps your chemical waste down the drain and complains about having to lock up classified information at night, and you damn well know it. That's why you hate those who blow the whistle on you and your kind. Well get over it troll scum.
So what are you saying 4:46PM? For unbiased reporting listen to a Los Alamos radio program? I suppose you think the LANL Newbulletin is a reliable source? You probably actually think FOX news is news, don't you? You are pathetic!
Leave Sir Richard of LANS alone. Were it not for him where would the kingdom of LANS be today? So cease your blasphemy now, or he'll have no choice but to seize your wench for his own evil purposes.
Interestingly, I just googled ("google news") for "Los Alamos computer" and "pogo los alamos" and found nothing relevant to this story. It doesn't seem to be carrying very far...
"Stop whinning 3:17PM. POGO is just doing what worthless scum like you hate because you're the reason we need watchdogs like POGO. You're the arrogant SOB that dumps your chemical waste down the drain and complains about having to lock up classified information at night, and you damn well know it. That's why you hate those who blow the whistle on you and your kind. Well get over it troll scum."
7:31pm
As I said before time and time again POGO causes more harm than good. All sorts of things happen in places like Oak Ridge and Sandia and nothing is said. POGO also botched up a number of stories about LANL, remember Tommy Hook? 7:31pm you sound like a nutcase with some serious mental issues and you and everyone else damm wells knows it! Well I guess the mental wards allow some internet time to the patients to help them recover. It looks like you took a few steps back.
Why don't you cite for us what POGO got wrong about Tommy Hook? I haven't seen it yet.
This commenter -below- obviously doesn't live around here, because the 'Los Alamos radio program' they refer to comes from KSFR/KSFQ, which is a Santa Fe noncommercial. It has nothing to do with LANL or the city on the hill, except to report news in New Mexico.
Hmmm, missed the point entirely, did you? Maybe Murdoch should buy POGO as one of his news bureaus. They certainly would fit in with FOX now.
"So what are you saying 4:46PM? For unbiased reporting listen to a Los Alamos radio program? I suppose you think the LANL Newbulletin is a reliable source? You probably actually think FOX news is news, don't you?...."
Pinky, where were you in June of 2005? Remember this?
http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/ha-050601-hook.html
POGO jumped on the media frenzy, when our own famous Mr. Tommy Hook, got beat up at the Cheeks parking lot in Santa Fe by 'LANL thugs' who 'wanted to silence him' as a whistleblower. Later it was deterimined by Santa Fe Police that Mr. Hook had an altercation with another fine member of Cheeks' clientele, including running into them in the parking lot. In addition to being there without his wife's knowledge late that night (another whole story too long to include), the now infamous Mr. Hook was seen that very evening attempting to set his own hook, paying a lap-dancer after consuming his share of alcohol.
SFPD investigated Tommy's beating - which had nothing to do with LANL, UC thugs, or men in black or any other delusional device that Tommy cooked up after getting the crap beat out of him. So much for a star whistleblower.
Not exactly what you'd expect from someone who's about to turn governments witness against LANL? Nope, Tommy didn't use good judgement. His story fell apart, and those who believed it at the time and reported it, had egg all over themselves. POGO fell for it with their 'investigative alert'. They let it silently die, no retractions, no apologies, and worse yet, no analysis of their own mistake in believeing Hook's Christmas story. This was the first serious indication, to many, that the Project on Government Oversight was not an independent research group to ferret out corruption and misconduct in the government. They had good intentions in the past, but their weakness has become their reliance on 'unconfirmed' sources which they immediately use to form an attack strategy.
Some of POGO's secret sources are characters like Tommy Hook, a disgruntled, unpopular, former LANL employee. Keep your eyes open, as more may surface through POGOs investigations. Oversight is a good thing, but POGO's own oversight is their lust for scandal about LANL, whether real or imaginary.
The link you provide doesn't work for me. Could you copy and paste whatever it is you see when you click on it.
You are quick to pick out facts which smear Hook but ignore those that are inconvenient. These have been covered extensively in earlier posts. Hook says he was attacked twice. There was no investigation of the first attack. Further, he claimed he was called to meet at Cheeks that night. The FBI claims there was no such call but has so far not explained how they could know this. And further, as recently as the trial for the assailants in the second attack the FBI said they were unaware of Hook's claim of a first attack.
Putting aside all that, was anything Hook was blowing the whistle on ever disproved? By your standard we should toss out all of Richard Feynman's work because he liked to go to topless bars, no?
As for what I was doing in June 2005, stay tuned. You'll likely be hearing quite a lot about that.
The link works fine -- blogger just truncates long lines and splits them up. Cut and paste the first line into your browser address bar, then cut and paste the second line on the end of that, without a space in between.
Thank you, it is a display problem in blogger. I only see one line ending in .htm (it should be .html).
Readers can click here to get to the POGO web page in question.
I see no mention of 'LANL thugs', but I do see two discrepancies between their media advisory and Hook's account of what happened.
1. The media advisory states, "A group of three to four assailants threatened Hook to keep silent". It is my understanding that only the first assailant made such a threat.
2. The advisory also states, "When Mr. Hook got into his car to leave, attackers pulled him out of the car and brutally assaulted him." Hook's account was that the first assault happened before he got into his car.
There could be a reasonable explanation for both discrepancies. The media advisory was published the Monday after the weekend assault. Hook was still heavily medicated and suffering from a broken jaw. Its not hard to imagine that it was difficult for him to communicate.
I'm willing to ask POGO, and even Tommy Hook if I knew how to contact him, for clarification on these discrepancies. However I'm not about to conclude that because of these discrepancies POGO is wrong about Quintana's missing computer.
"9/15/07 10:05 PM"
Good point Pinky and Mr Brain.
What they in fact did is a typical problem with the media in general. They report the incident before really getting all the facts. Months go by and the facts come in and the story falls apart. They never mention the last part. It is never heard from again. Like the mustang. It happens all the time. Remeber the drunk astronauts story? Well it turns out they where never drunk, but only a couple of minor news stories where put on that. It is called asymmetric reporting. Additionly POGO and other news media outlets will reiterate a series of facts however without any comparisons you have no idea what they really mean. You never see something like
"LANL has had 8 incidents in the last five years while the DOE complex average is 10." You just see 8 and think that it must be zero everywhere else. If POGO did this than the story will not be as sensational.
I didn't delete inconvenient parts of the Hook story. I posted what I read in the newspapers around here. If there is some other agenda that brought Tommy Hook to Cheeks, it got lost in the reporting, esp. after the rest of the story came forth. The relevant need to regurgitate all this was to shed some light on POGOs eagerness to attack LANL and UC, whether based on facts or fibs. This is relevant to the current 'hot story' from POGO, on Jessica whats-her-face.
Does anyone believe that Tommy Hook was an honest whistleblower that just got taken advantage of?
I have first-hand knowledge about a 'whistleblower' at LANL who was close to psychotic, and made threats to anyone who challenged their intelligence or authority.
When they were cornered, they started making-up stories of safety concerns and making anonymous calls to DOE. After these expensive acts were paid for by us taxpayers, this employee's mental state went from bad to worse. They were eventually hauled off site by Pro-force, only to later win a settlement by calling the DOE whisteblower hotline and claiming they were framed and discrimated against. Meanwhile, co-workers lived in fear for retribution from the wacko. My point here is that being a whistleblower doesn't infer that you are also an angel trying to fix things right. It does, however, entitle you with an ability to claim all sorts of things, to attempt to get paid off - whether your story is real or made up. Unfortunately, this has become prevailent, so the winners are usually the attorneys.
PATB, your story would be interesting to hear sometime. I understand that you got screwed and may be carrying some "baggage", in more ways than one. What are you waiting for? Now's the time to drop your load on LANL while its down. Flogging the lab is so popular on this blog.
1:51 PM - I have first-hand knowledge about a 'whistleblower' at LANL who was close to psychotic, and made threats to anyone who challenged their intelligence... When they were cornered, they started making-up stories of safety concerns ..."
Hmmm. Let's see. This is a theme that seems to appear time and time again at LANL. Except that you omitted one thing and that is that LANL senior managers and Legal empower these individuals by not firing them immediately and they let these nutjobs go on for months and months (and in some cases years). One recent and ongoing example is Huynh in DX who got lifetime career awards and numerous uncompeted LDRDs showed up her butt to keep her from going to the papers crying abuse! This in turn hurts lots of other people and many end up leaving the Lab (like many did from DX-2). When the situation gets out of hand because management would not "manage" it, the (most recent) spineless idiots like Wallace and McMillan crawl back into their hole in the emerald palace while others pick up the pieces. The nutjobs ultimately go away (or in the rare event get fired) and sue and the Lab gets dragged through the papers.
The topic sure seems to be a moving target today. I'll just say that I'll carry baggage for POGO or Hook or anyone else who appears to be unjustly maligned. Always have and always will. I'm not familiar with the unnamed "wacko" or Huynh in DX so I can't offer any perspective there. Nor am I interested in talking about my story, mustangs or astronauts when the topic is Quintana's missing computer. She claimed that she took files home to catch up on work. To do this she would have had to download the thumb drives to her computer at home. If that computer is in fact missing, then so is at least:
"a total of 408 separate classified documents that ranged from Secret-National Security Information (pertaining to intelligence) to Secret-Restricted Data (pertaining to nuclear weapons). All of these documents originated from the classified document/classified video media vault located in the DX (now HX) Division HQ building at TA-8-21-143."
"a total of 408 separate classified documents that ranged from Secret-National Security Information (pertaining to intelligence) to Secret-Restricted Data (pertaining to nuclear weapons). All of these documents originated from the classified document/classified video media vault located in the DX (now HX) Division HQ building at TA-8-21-143."
You gotta be kidding me! What happened to the IM and/or Security personnel responsible for this facility? If a young druggy 20-something could make off with this type of information, what are the professional spies making off with???
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