American Thinker; A former contractor working with the National Security Agency will plead guilty to stealing huge amounts of classified data in what some experts believe is the largest such theft in U.S. history.
Harold Martin will plead guilty to one count of “willful retention of national defense information” after it was discovered he had been stealing secrets for twenty years.
Reuters:
Authorities said they seized 50 terabytes of data from Martin’s home, which officials said could be the biggest theft of classified information in U.S. history.
The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the stolen data.
He faces up to 10 years in prison on the single count. Martin has not struck a plea deal with prosecutors and could still be tried on the remaining 19 counts in the indictment, the court filings said.
A lawyer for Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NSA has been hit by a series of damaging data breaches in recent years. MORE
Yeah, but there’s no way to prove INTENT!
Guilty of one count after stealing for 20 friggin years??? Until we get serious about prosecution, we will never stop it.
his lawyer is getting the case transferred to Kaliphornia where they’re already considering ‘time served’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srw3RdiIlrQ
“The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the stolen data.”
The FBI and other “Intelligence Community” experts have already determined the three top reasons people steal classified information from the gov’t.
1. Monetary — Starts out because the person is in financial difficulty; continues because it pays really well. All you have to do is call up (insert U.S. foreign enemy’s name) and meet them at their consulate in D.C., or Vienna.
2. A grudge. You got passed over for promotion or were treated badly by your gov’t employers.
3. Ego. Because you’re not very good at what the gov’t pays you to do, you take solace and pride in the fact that what you’re doing for another gov’t is viewed as excellent and indispensable by them.
Of course, it could also be all of the above. And I’ll bet the U.S. gov’t did not catch the guy on their own, and that preventing the theft would have been easy if they’d changed their system of internal controls over data.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose