NSA Contractor Indicted Over Mammoth Theft of Classified Data

Reuters

A former National Security Agency contractor was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges he willfully retained national defense information, in what U.S. officials have said may have been the largest heist of classified government information in history.

The indictment alleges that Harold Thomas Martin, 52, spent up to 20 years stealing highly sensitive government material from the U.S. intelligence community related to national defense, collecting a trove of secrets he hoarded at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the stolen data. Martin faces 20 criminal counts, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison, the Justice Department said.

This guy's going to jail for the next 200 years. I can only imagine what would possess somebody to do what he did. You jeopardize your freedom ... and for what? You're making good money ... It's not like you've got a hard job to do.

I can see the polygraph examination queue filling to capacity ... and then some ... over the next few weeks.

Can you imagine all the juicy crap he has collected? ........ Drool.

a reply to: Snarl


Amazing he made it 20 years and nobody noticed what he was doing. This guy must have balls of steel.

a reply to: Snarl

And he is just now being found out after 20 years?

I can't even say what I did for one of my jobs until 2018.. And that was nothing.. I was watched and checked like a mofo.
But Even then I never dealt with any classified info ever.

I get confused when I hear these stories.

I talk about psy ops a little too much and my computer is hacked beyond repair.

Does he have hidden money from China somewhere?
What the hell is his motive?

I doubt you can keep 20 years of info at your house without it getting out somehow.
I can only hope it did not, but then that would assume he was hoarding information with no reason to spread it, which I'd give a 1% chance.

Man this guy had 20 years worth of the good stuff! Crazy! Definitely crazy for taking it. I wonder what he had and what he was going to do with it?

a reply to: Reverbs

Lock his ass up. Period.

He seems like a classified info hoarder so to speak. No word on what his intentions were...big vacant gap.


Will be interesting to see how many years this dude gets.

Anybody who tries to draw a comparison between him and Hillary Clinton are idiots.


Not even in the same ball park.


Although it is interesting to note that prior FBI Director Mueller has been hired by Booz Allen to examine their vetting process since both Snowden and this guy worked for the same government contractor....the above mentioned:

www.boozallen.com...

EDIT: S&F for the OP...almost forgot

originally posted by: RickinVa
a reply to: Reverbs

Lock his ass up. Period.

He seems like a classified info hoarder so to speak. No word on what his intentions were...big vacant gap.


Will be interesting to see how many years this dude gets.

He needs the entire system thrown at him in my opinion.

The secrets I hold are minimal, but they could endanger Americans if they were known. So even after my NDAs expire I'm not going to ever say it. People imagine these things are juicy.. It's more like "how things work" it's operational details. I'd like those to stay secret. It's nothing dangerous to our freedoms. It is dangerous if bad people know how things work.

I have respect for whistle blowers if they have a good avenue to say something to the right people in government, and those people should have some leeway.

This is NOT that.

This is extremely dangerous.

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: Snarl
And he is just now being found out after 20 years?

My first thoughts as well. I used to get polygraphed every year ... like clockwork. It's an expensive and time-consuming tool.

How this dude could be responsible for "the largest heist of classified government information in history" without being subject to 'an examination' is baffling.

I am of the opinion that you can't beat the machine if it's being run by a competent examiner.

With the government collecting more sensitive data ... quicker ... and retaining so much of it, I expect to see a lot of growth in the personnel security sector. And I do mean a LOT.

a reply to: Snarl

I love the fact most people hold their secrets.
It's not a cool club to know things like other's think.. Like I used to think.

It's not fun.

Our country needs to hold these secrets.

An analogy I might think of is someone who has friends who are police officers and lawyers, and after knowing what they say after a time you can figure out how to get away with murder.

Some of the things I know could be used in bad ways.
And even though I didn't swear an oath to that job.. (contracted)..

I did swear my oath when I joined the Army.

I meant that until the day I die.

It's the MOST important promise I ever made. And I WILL keep it.

How'd he get it out of the SCIF?

That's worth looking into. We occasionally had interesting documents in the Army that weren't always as carefully handled as they might have wanted but our entire area was sort of scif-ish.

I recall one interesting analysis of the...um...interesting habits of government officials in one country that was for either leading selected ones into evil or blackmailing them, not sure which but it was passed around for weeks with many a joke at their expense.

originally posted by: Grayarea
a reply to: Snarl


Amazing he made it 20 years and nobody noticed what he was doing. This guy must have balls of steel.

What i find more amazing is how hilary clinton managed to do it for far longer and dodge every case for it. even when the country could witness her lying on tv.

I have seen a situation where a contract employee applied for the exact same job numerous times for the same exact FBI position but failed..but yet kept their same exact job as a contractor.

The system is broke.

With any luck it'll all get released online in the not-too-distant future!

a reply to: Snarl

Do you think it is likely that he will be convicted on all twenty counts?

It certainly seems that this fellow had an agenda. One has to assume, since he has allegedly been collecting data for decades, that his motivation was financial, that some of this information has been sold from time to time. Just having the data lying around would be too dangerous unless there was some sort of potential pay off involved, and the fact that he has been sitting on this data, rather than finding a way to release it, suggests that he was not intending any whistle blowing of any kind.

Oh, also, ahem.... STOP USING CONTRACTORS TO DO WORK THAT SHOULD BE DONE BY STATE EMPLOYEES YOU FOOLS!

a reply to: Snarl

The indictment alleges that Harold Thomas Martin, 52, spent up to 20 years stealing highly sensitive government material from the U.S. intelligence community related to national defense, collecting a trove of secrets he hoarded at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

What an odd story. You steal highly sensitive government material and just hoard it in your house?

So would that mean that this man had to ill intent when he performed these acts? Maybe he was just grossly negligent...

a reply to: Snarl

One word to describe Martin: Hoarder

No, really. That's his defense back in October.

POLITICO 10/21/16 06:11 PM EDT Updated 10/21/16 06:11 PM EDT - Judge won't release ex-NSA contractor accused of hoarding classified data

Federal defender James Wyda called his client "a compulsive hoarder" and said he should be released because there was no indication he ever released any of the information he gathered to anyone or even intended to do so. The defense attorney said Martin lacked any desire to harm the U.S.

a reply to: Snarl

The article(s) say he kept the info "in his home". I'm wondering exactly how this was stored?

You'd think at a minimum he'd know enough to encrypt the info. Why he didn't both encrypt and then store somewhere in a secure "cloud" anonymously and far from his home is beyond me as both are easy to do.

There's definitely a lot more to this story than what is being told publicly as so many things simply don't make sense if you know anything about classified data, facilities, access, etc. I would be very surprised if it were otherwise though. N'est pas?

My first thoughts as well. I used to get polygraphed every year ... like clockwork. It's an expensive and time-consuming tool.

I know the feeling. Did you also have to have those done in a separate facility from where you worked? First few times I went through it they had to fly me to the facility where it was being done. Lost an entire day or more each time for a procedure that takes less than 30 minutes...

It's going to be interesting to see what's exposed publicly as this plays out. Especially now with all of the other things the various intel agencies are dealing with re: new administration. If they're lucky, the public might just be able to learn something if they pay attention and connect the dots.

The indictment also alleges that Martin stole documents from U.S. Cyber Command, the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office.

Martin was employed as a private contractor by at least seven different companies, working for several government agencies beginning in 1993 after serving in the U.S. Navy for four years, according to the indictment.

he worked for at least 7 different companies maybe that has something to do with why he didn`t get caught sooner?
he kept moving from one company to another, maybe he quit and moved to a different company every time he was going to be polygraphed?

I wonder if the Hillary defense will work? no intent, careless and negligent, it`s worth a try.

originally posted by: Riffrafter
a reply to: Snarl

I know the feeling. Did you also have to have those done in a separate facility from where you worked? First few times I went through it they had to fly me to the facility where it was being done. Lost an entire day or more each time for a procedure that takes less than 30 minutes...

Oh, yeah. The 30 minute one is referred to as the Loyalty Exam. There's another one called a Lifestyle. That one's ... different. There was another in-betweener, but I forget the name of that one now.

My last one, they flew me (and the team I worked with) out of the country. The big-wigs only got the Lifestyle. Me and the other security dude spent four days on the machine. Got 30 days convalescence in Hawaii after. I was glad not to be running details and errands at the onset, but I thought 30 days con-lv was excessive (plus, my wife and kids weren't invited so it was really a month of counting down). I did get in some good diving.

a reply to: Snarl

When the FBI does your initial polygraph, it is a called a full scope polygraph.

It is not a pleasant experience by any means. After that, the 5 year updates are standard polygraphs.


The full scope reminded me of that Barney Miller episode where they all had to take polygraphs and the one guy came out all upset and they asked him what was wrong and he replied.."He said I didn't love my mother"