[Eagles6]

"In 1993 and 1994, Lee knowingly assembled 19 collections of files, called tape archive (TAR) files, containing Secret and Confidential Restricted Data relating to atomic weapon research, design, construction, and testing. Lee gathered and collected information from the secure, classified LANL computer system, moved it to an unsecure, "open" computer, and then later downloaded 17 of the 19 classified TAR files to nine portable computer tapes ."

"These files, which amounted to more than 806 megabytes, contained information that could'do vast damage to the national security.

""These codes and their associated data bases and the input file, combined with someone that knew how to use them, could, in my opinion, in the wrong hands, change the global strategic balance."

""They enable the possessor to design the only objects that could result in the military defeat of America's conventional forces ... They represent the gravest possible security risk to ... the supreme national interest."

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2000_rpt/specter.html http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory022603.asp http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1138

[tallhappy]

Exactly!!

This sounds so ominous what you quoted but all it amounts to is he copied his code (stuff he wrote over years and years) from the main unix server to his local computer or a novell account.

It is so inoccuous but presented as so ominous you know whomever is feeding this to stupid reporters is not doing it to provide accurate information.

[Arthalion]

They enable the possessor to design the only objects that could result in the military defeat of America's conventional forces

In other words, Lee didn't copy any nuclear secrets, he copied the source code for a CAD-style program used in weapons research. He didn't copy a design, he copied a program used to make designs...a program that he wrote.

If he really wanted to give the design to China, he could have easily re-written it himself on his home computer and just sold it to them. It would have taken a little more time, but there's nearly zero chance of getting caught. A computer program is the creation of the programmer, and the ultimate "master copy" will always reside in the head of the person who wrote it. If Lee had really intended to steal the program and send it to China, he could have easily just moved over there and written it for them, or re-written it from memory. There was no reason for him to make backup tapes.

On the other hand, any computer programmer will tell you that CVS-style systems are really awful to work with, and that most programmers will simply check the entire program out and copy the code onto their local machine whenever they need to do any edits. While this practice could technically be illegal in a classified environment, it's a pretty standard part of the programming world.