Man Steals Nuclear Equipment; Tries To Sell It To A Spy
I don't know about you, but I've had a sneaky suspicion since this story broke that we weren't getting the whole story...
Herald Sun (Australia)
Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, worked for Bechtel Jacobs, a contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a US nuclear research facility created in the 1940s to develop a nuclear bomb.
Mr Oakley was charged with taking US government data and hardware and agreeing to pass it to another person.
ABC television said he was arrested trying to sell it to an undercover agent.
It was unclear how the low-level contract worker, who did maintenance work and escorted visitors at the Oak Ridge National lab in Knoxville, Tennessee, managed to access the classified documents.[..]
Mr Oakley had reason to believe that equipment would be "utilised to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign nation,'' the Justice Department statement said.[..]
The US Department of Energy said the materials posed no threat to people who may have come across them.
Dude stole a pen and now they finally caught a terrorist.
He's not a Muslim...so it's not "terrorism"!
So, the United States is outsourcing the committing of espionage...against themselves? That's, um, efficient.
Hes not a muslim so hes not a terroist.. but its the same differance!
notice the oxy moron in that one . Oh come on now folks,, pish posh.
Hes a simple janitor given access to some few old used radioactive parts juts ´´laying around´´
BTW that was on my blog last tuesday.
Next will the ´´teacher terroist ´´ that hatched a plot to topple the goverment using a stapler!
Excuse me, but tell me how a 67 year old maintenance guy 1) Gets his hands on such dangerous materals and 2)How the fuck would he have had any idea what it was he was stealing?? Man, something smells awfully fishy about this story. This is even more ridiculous that the Islamofascist pizza guys who were gonna attack and overrun Fort Dix (Hey, whatever happened to them, anyway?)
so let me guess he was goint to sell it to IRAN!!!!!!!!!!!!RIGHT
gene214 @ 5:
---------------
They be chilling and illing somewhere,, across the sea,,,,,,,
Here's a better account of it:
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=6812001
You know, with all these batshit crazy terrorist plots being uncovered, one can only wonder why no one has asked Michael Jerkoff or Fran "I wanna be a Fox bimbo" Townsend how this is happening given the humongous budget Homeland Security has. Oh yeah, stupid me! That would require someone from the MEDIA to ask! What was I thinking?
Low level worker = expendable.
Federal officials said Oakley wanted to sell the secrets to someone pretending to be an agent of the French government to assist in its nuclear energy program.
Uh, the French already have a nuclear energy program. Really, they do! Reactors and everything! I saw the picture of this Superspy who poses such a threat to national security. I wouldn't buy a set of tires from this guy.
So they were pieces of trash that he broke up into pieces with his hands and they want to use a U.S. citizen for more scare tactis. Be afraid, very afraid.
With our credibility at an all time low, it is doubtful the man could have got much from any other country.
I would imagine other nations are highly suspect of anything that is considered "intelligence" from the USA.
Jack Jett
www.jackejett.com
Don't worry President Bush declassified every document a moment before the maintenance guy stole them, really.
The Herald Sun is one of Mr. Murdoch many papers here in Australia. It may be a true story. But - It is a Murdoch Paper. Whos knows???
jack jett @ 13:
What gets me is, if he's such a security threat, why was he allowed to make bail? Sounds to me like they had more on him than they did on the so called "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. And let's not overlook the fact that this guy Oakley was so dumb, he was taken in by somebody posing as a French spy. Like I say, something really fishy about this whole story.
The only foreign nationals usually caught within Tennessee's borders or around US nuclear facilities are Israeli. Since the local accounts are wiped off the web fast, you can read about them on Daniel Hopsicker's site.(He's an ex-NBC producer who does gum-shoe reporting, like the Knight-Ridder guys: on his feet.)
Here's his archive page. Look for "mover" stories:
http://www.madcowprod.com/archive2.html
back in 1997 i was renting a apartment . it had a smoke detector etc for nys housing codes.
well one day a wasp flew into the place and being allergic to bee,s i hit the thing as it landed near the smoke detector.
It came crashing down on the floor, broke apart, wasp guts and all and there in my face laying was a small nickel color looking thing inside the smoke detector that said,, in BIG LETTERS
´´WARNING THIS DEVICE CONTAINS RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL DO NOT OPEN DISPOSE IN A PROPER PLACE´´
Um where would be? I picked it up using bbq tongs and tossed inside the recycable garbage bin.
So um yeah,, this nuke material folks,, its everywhere,,,,,,,,,,i mean,, that might be your ticket to frigging CAMP x because of your landlords chose of smoke detectors? please spare me the bullshit. Oh and drama too washington!!!!!
in 1997 former gov George pataki was GOV of NYS!!!! and mayor of nyc? rudy!!!
Yawn..... I'm more interested in the head they found in Bush intestine during his colonoscopy the other day.
More and more reason to implant the masses with RFID chips... it's a brave new world, after all.
http://www.azstarnet.com/news/192831
GonzoD @ 19:
That's funny, I thought they found the constitution up there.
GonzoD @ 19:
In case you were ever wondering what ever became of Jeff Gannon - now ya know!
LibertyLover @ 20:
More like a cowardly old world, but with new technology.
GonzoD @ 19:
I believe, that was 5 brain cells and they removed them.
it was a double naught spy
Ever notice how every single story that comes out is looked at like it is a hoax? Why doesn't anyone trust the Bush Administration?
My favorite one was the story about the dude that confessed to killing Jon Benet Ramsey weeks earlier. The story broke the same day the suspended habeas corpus.
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for telling the truth, I got so pissed off I got the domain name
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with my own blog, with some help from my friends in Washington
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hypocrisy, and their disinformation.
Please visit http://www.soundpolitics.net and see what another fact based
real political Blog looks like.
We are focusing on national election fraud, the right wing controlled
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It's worth noting why a Google search shows that this story is only reported in some blogs like Free Republic, and the Knoxville News Sentinel: because it's not much of a story.
From the News Sentinel:
So basically, you have a complete idiot thinking he's doing something exciting and profitable, and being played for the fool he is by the FBI, with no real underlying threat to national security. Nothing new there. Just as with the others, he deserves whatever he gets, but it's not exactly a major plot thwarted.
Friar Tuck @ 7:
I agree, it does smell fishy. On the other hand, it could be that the 67 year old maintenance man is actually an experienced intelligence operative working for some other nation and he is simply using the maintenance job as a cover. It would be interesting to see who he was trying to pass that information off to. Since no names were mentioned I can only conclude that maybe they do not want to divulge that information yet with the hope that they may find more spies, or that they know exactly who he was passing that information off to and do not want to divulge it yet because he works for an allied nation. If he were working for say China or Iran they would make it well known and use it as leverage against those nations.
Joe O. @ 28:
Joe, I'm a devout believer in Occam's Razor - the idea that, all things considered, the simplest explanation is often the one that is correct. I really do believe this guy's a nobody. Just more fear mongering by the administration which is desperate to get Iraq off the front pages and the American sheeple back on board for the War on Terrah.
All Facts Support My Positions @ 26:
I certainly hope that is the case that the man is a nobody. On the other hand, if he is a nobody no one will get an arguement from me if the Bush Administration uses that same nobody to hype more fear into the American public. The Bush Administration will go to any lengths to cover up their own crimes and incompetence.
Friar Tuck @ 18:
It's Americium, which is a highly radioactive substance that has one more proton than Plutonium. However, there is only 0.2 micrograms in a typical smoke alarm. Smoke alarms have always had this stuff, as the gamma radiation coming off of it is used in some way to detect very trace amounts of smoke.
I remember a few years ago there was some Freeper or NRO article was whining about how a terreriss can get his hands on enough Americium from smoke detectors to make a deadly dirty bomb. Of course this is highly impractical because:
-- You need to collect 500 of them to get enough material.
-- The Americium is meshed with gold and embedded into the electronics.
-- If you made some huge complicated process to remove and refine the Americium, the amount per detector is so small, that you'd most likely lose it somewhere in the process.
Actually, Am is a source of alpha, not gamma radiation. Trace amount of smoke absorbs the radiation quickly, setting off the alarm when the presence of the radiation drops. Some of the newer types of detectors (photoelectric) use infra-red LEDs, when disrupted sets off the alarm. While the latter has no radioactive materials, it has a slower response time to sudden bursts of fire.
His neighbors are just dumb...er I mean dumbfounded. I think the radiation emitted by a flashbulb could destroy all the braincells in Midtown....I tell my wife that all the time.
http://www.wate.com/global/Story.asp?s=6813150
"...worked for Bechtel Jacobs..."
any relation to...?
.
Wasn't there a story a year ago by some girl that got caught with some planted materials and such?
.
BeliefSuspended @ 34:
First off, after we raise the base salary of teachers to $80,000 a year and boost education spending by a hundred billion or so, the next relatively tiny expenditure we ought to make is a mandatory trip to another industrialized country for every American.
Seriously, I don't care if it's Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Australia, the Netherlands or Japan, these people have to get a dose of the real world to counteract years of reality TV.
They sound like people who are afraid the Hari Krishnas are plotting with the aliens to blow up their trailer park because they "hate our freedoms."
gene214 @ 29:
Exactly. You have to ask why all these non-stories are popping up right now. Hmm, could it be that the "War on Terror" is losing its popularity in the polls? That people are pissed our leaders aren't getting the troops out? I wonder.
reminds me of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg false accusation, their granddaughter, Ivy Meeropol, reflects on their lives, principles, and ultimate sacrifice in this movie Heir to an Execution
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388996/
And another note on alpha radiation:
Compared to other types of radioactive decay, alpha particles are big and slow. Nothing to worry about unless you swallow or inhale some particulate. the layer of dead skin cells on your body is enough to properly shield you from normal amounts of it. The worry with alphas is that once they get in your lungs they just start tearing stuff apart. But such a tiny amount inside a metal container inside another plastic container is of no concern. Just don't eat it.
On "terrorism"/"spying":
Has anyone else noticed that many of the big terror busts recently have involved undercover FBI agents engaging in what used to be called entrapment?
-Group of misfits and loners is generally disgruntled
-Undercover FBI agent meets them, suggests something crazy, even offers to get weapons or explosives for them
-When the FBI agent buys the metal rods or sells them fake bomb parts (that they never would have thought to seek without the agent's prodding), they get busted and it makes the news.
Weird. It's almost like there aren't actually that many people who would be terrorists of their own accord.
I dont really understand the focus on this story. You think the Bush admin is framing random people for espionage to take the focus off Iraq? First of all I think they would have made up juicier story and framed someone above the janitor level. And secondly, this story is barely a blip on the media radar.
navyswan @ 40:
Thanks for pointing that out. I just remembered about that this morning. Gamma radiation is the stuff you really have to watch out for. Alpha radiation is no more than a highly energized helium ion.
And yes, quite a bit of very low radioactive materials are harmless outside the body. Just treat it like it were lead or other heavy metal.
This is one of those stories I can't wait to hear the full, unadulterated truth. I suspect it is going to turn out to be somewhat comical, once the headlines have faded.
(I have to admit, I dropped an old-fashioned thermometer, and now I have a deadly stockpile of mercury.)
This smells fishy.
Joe O. @ 28:
Oak Ridge has three areas: K25, Y12, and the Office of Science (ORISE). Y12 is where they make nuclear weapons. Office of Science is a bunch of research labs, different types of research, not normally weapons related. K25 -- where this guy worked -- , otherwise known as the East Tennessee Technology Park, is one big CERCLA clean-up site. It's where the original gaseous diffusion plant was erected, and DoE has been cleaning it up for years, and will still be working on it some years from now. They have hangar-sized warehouses full of hazardous waste barrels, a TSCA-permitted incinerator, some fairly sophisticated but not unique water treatment facilities, a CERCLA landfill, and the remnants of the gaseous diffusion plant which they are taking apart and preparing for shipment out to a site in Utah.
But there's nothing at K25 that could possibly be of interest to weapons makers. If there were, the guards there would be armed with rifles and would shoot you for walking on the wrong side of the street, as they do at Hanford, where fissile material is stored. And having access to K25 wouldn't get you into the door at either Y12 or at Office of Science. Security at DoE sites has to be experienced to be believed, and I speak as someone who inspects military bases for a living.
So, some low-level contractor for BJ is going to have access to serious equipment and materials? Not in this lifetime.
Sounds like the obvious pack of Rethug. fairytales, to SCARE, LIE, SCARE, LIE.
Australia is trying to please UK/USA,even if it is B.S.,all this about Nuke selling is just--bullsh!T to please.
Recall,the medical Muslim who was arrested at the airport as a terrrroist was jailed and news splattered across all front pages of the media. Now it is found because his father-in-law bought only a one-way ticket top India and 2 days after the London bombings--and being Muslim and a medical profession---arrest the rag head and torture him until he talks.
Guess what--he only wanted to see his new born child and was planning to buy a return ticket later. And for this--jail time and water boarding. America style thuggery sucks !
Nick @ 43:
Only criminal for private persons to have. Your coal powered electrical plants are dropping loads in the rivers already. Clinton administration was preparing charges under the nature protection/pollution laws, the industry donated a couple hundred millions to Bush's campaign, and the case was dropped.
It's a prime example of "third party cost", which "classic" economists never tell you about.
Did you hear about CHERTOFF's latest "gut feeling"? A simultaneous nuclear terrorist attack in LA and San Francisco!
Anybody else notice the flood of nuclear terrorism stories lately. Ever since the begining of the war on the constitution they mentiond the possibility of nuclear terrorism in passing but now they have "concrete evidence" of "real" attempts so when it happens it will seem more plausible as something that was destined to happen sooner or later.
Saw this story on the news... Dude looks like someones grandpa..
Heard the story put out for public consumption... whole thing sounds fishy to me... Frankly the old guy looks like some kind of card carrying nra member who votes republican to me... Don't know what his real story is... Like I said... Fishy... The real truth just might be more embarrassing than criminal... As in goofy security protocols at the site....That would be a black mark on HLS and the Bush administrations claims to be on top of terrorism... yea, as if....Who really knows besides a select few.. About the only thing I'm sure of, is this story will be spun for all it's worth until the next dejour scandal item hits the news stands. I'm thinking the higher up mukkity mucks at Oak Ridge are wishing Paris Hilton would do..SOMETHING... Like take her top off on T.V. for Jay Leno or someone...........JD
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