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The Military Crime

Man Caught Trying To Sell Plans For New Aircraft Carrier 388

New submitter cyberjock1980 tips news that an engineer has been caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the Egyptian government. The 35-year-old civilian received security clearance four months ago after working for the U.S. Navy since February. FBI agents made contact with him, pretending to be with the Egyptian government. They struck a deal to buy documents about the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the first in a new line of improved, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The man sold four CAD drawings for the carrier, and was later seen photographing another set of schematics. A bond hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
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Man Caught Trying To Sell Plans For New Aircraft Carrier

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  • by ihtoit ( 3393327 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @06:54PM (#48540119)

    I mean, what?

    • Yes, the guy had a security clearance, so I suppose entrapping him can be considered part of the quality control process, but it's still ridiculous; Egypt would get much more effective military use from a dirt airstrip in the Sinai than an aircraft carrier. But hey, the FBI gets to put out a press release claiming they caught a spy! And it's less ridiculous than the time they entrapped half a dozen drunken bums in Chicago into a "plot to bomb the Sears tower", and less dangerous than the time they helped

      • by cold fjord ( 826450 ) on Sunday December 07, 2014 @12:21AM (#48541235)

        First, how did that guy really "know" his contact was from "Egypt" as opposed to Iran, or wasn't a bag man for China or North Korea?
        Even if it had been Egypt, how would he know it wouldn't be passed on to Iran (which has been cozying up to Egypt lately) or China or North Korea?
        In any case he volunteered information on the best way to attack the carrier.
        He was both willing and motivated to spy, even making suggestions on how to do it and avoid detection.
        Your views are nonsense.

        • by TWX ( 665546 ) on Sunday December 07, 2014 @02:02AM (#48541437)
          This makes me sad, in that he should have been smarter than this to get an engineering degree in the first place.

          Expensive as it might be, the first call he should have made would have been to his lawyer. Based on the advice of that call, the second call he should have made should have been to the justice department or to have his lawyer call the justice department to arrange a meeting to disclose that he was contacted and requested to provide information in exchange for money. Let the lawyer make the arrangements and do the talking if possible. After that, let the justice department figure out what to do. If it's a test, then he's off scott-free and might even be able to get the lawyer fees paid-for by the government. If it's real, then there's even a chance that the government will want to provide him with specific information to pass along and they could even let him keep the money.

          To attempt to sell secrets under any other circumstances is bound to result in being caught.
  • by quenda ( 644621 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @06:56PM (#48540127)

    Plans sold to the Middle East?
    The naval architects are now really going to regret putting in that big funnel that leads directly to the main reactor of the carrier.

  • by ericloewe ( 2129490 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:02PM (#48540153)

    So, the moron gets access to classified documents and tries to sell them to the Egyptians?

    What was the thought process behind that brilliant idea?

    "Hmm, no, the Russians or the Chinese wouldn't want these schematics... The Ehyptians, on the other hand... They're *totally* planning on building some aircraft carriers!"

    • by Dorianny ( 1847922 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:09PM (#48540189) Journal
      The FBI contacted him pretending to be from the Egyptian government and undoubtedly offering a boatload of money. It is not known whether he accepted out of a sense of patriotism he felt for Egypt or for the boatload of money.
    • Presumably if one were a corrupt government contractor, one would start with China and Russia and work your way down until you find a government who doesn't already have a copy of the plans? ...on the other hand TFS says "FBI agents made contact with him, pretending to be with the Egyptian government" so maybe he was just going to sell them to whoever bothered to ask.
    • Probably saw Snowden doing it and thought "he's mans a celebrity this could be my ticket to the bigtime to".

    • by arielCo ( 995647 )

      He doesn't care who wants to build (or sabotage) the ship - only who would pay for that information. In his position, traveling to Russia or China would've raised a dozen flags; likely he expected a third party, not exactly pro-US but less than an arch-nemesis, to buy the info presumably to trade it to Russia or China for a profit or favors.

    • by CrimsonAvenger ( 580665 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:15PM (#48540211)

      Four CAD drawings are not worth getting excited about. When the number gets above 4 million, we're probably talking some serious information about the carrier.

      This sort of reminds me of WW2 spy movies - evil nazi spy gets hold of plans for latest carrier or battleship, and is chased by intrepid All-American Hero.

      Trouble is, the plans for a WW2 carrier or battleship wouldn't fit into something as small as a railroad boxcar, much less a briefcase.

      • Well, that depends. If the "drawing" is a full 3D assembly, a 3D model of the ship... You can do some amazing things in SolidWorks and Inventor these days.
        • Note that he was taking photos of other drawings to send along to his "egyptian" buyers. Given that he thought a photo of a document was the best way of sending a copy along, it's unlikely that the "drawing" was a full 3D assembly.

          And a full 3D model of the ship would have been measured in terabytes....

      • by BarbaraHudson ( 3785311 ) <(barbara.jane.hudson) (at) (icloud.com)> on Saturday December 06, 2014 @10:00PM (#48540813) Journal

        "He also described a detailed plan to circumvent Navy computer security by installing a "bug" on his restricted computer that would allow him to copy documents without drawing attention.

        According to the affidavit, Awwad provided the undercover agent four computer-aided design drawings of the Ford and told him where to strike the vessel with a missile to sink it.

        The two men later arranged for Awwad to make a drop on Oct. 23 in Hampton. The affidavit said Awwad removed $3,000 in cash from a camouflaged hole and put in its place a 1-terabyte external hard drive and two passport photos he thought the Egyptians would use to make a fraudulent passport. Agents found six more drawings of the Ford on the hard drive.

        10 drawings and a plan to get a lot more data.

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:37PM (#48540301) Journal

      Russians or the Chinese wouldn't want these schematics... The Egyptians, on the other hand... They're *totally* planning on building some aircraft carriers!"

      Well, they are into pyramid schemes.

    • Who said the Egyptians were going to build it and not sell the designs to the Chinese/Russians?
    • by amiga3D ( 567632 )

      Really. I would have wondered what in hell the Egyptians were going to do with them. Of all the shit for the Egyptians to purchase I'd figure the last thing they'd blow money on would be a frigging CAD drawing of a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. It always amazes me how stupid engineers are when it comes to anything at all outside their own little world. Egyptians buying plans for a carrier? Hell no.

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      I fear a world in which the FBI has their own aircraft carrier.

  • by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:20PM (#48540229)
    The chances of a foreign government contacting a random security cleared employee and asking to buy information is likely to be incredibly low per lifetime of each employee. Also consider that the Egyptians are both not in the market for an aircraft carrier and have enough relations with the US that they would never endanger them by doing something so obvious as building a copy of a US aircraft carrier. This "sting" is just a case of going looking for someone guilty of being stupid and greedy instead of the more difficult operation of trying to catch a real criminal.
    It's just some dangerously ambitious prick deciding to shoot fish in a barrel to get a list of achievements - that's the one with the "thought process behind that brilliant idea" - present a stupid get rich quick scheme to catch the stupid.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mjwalshe ( 1680392 )
      Some what surprising that a Guy born in Saudi Arabia would even get security clearance.
      • We give it to many more china-born, which is far more frightening
    • by tomhath ( 637240 )
      Recall that Snowden sought out a job which gave him access to an exceptional number of NSA secrets. They seemed to think this guy had reason to sell information on how to most effectively conduct a terrorist attack the on carrier.
      • by dbIII ( 701233 )
        Recall that everyone in the fucking NSA, CIA etc etc who wants a position with a challenge sought out a job which game them access to exceptional number of secrets.
        If we want people to put the pieces together we need to give them access to them.
    • You don't need to build a carrier (assuming you're even able to replicate the bleeding edge of U.S. naval tech with just blueprints), or even have plans to sabotage one, to benefit; you can simply trade with those who can (Russia? China? ISIL?) for profit or favors.

      This bozo knew better than to contact the Russians or the Chinese in his position, but figured he wouldn't raise any flags by going with a third, "neutral" party.

    • With the right drawings you would know exactly where to hit the ship with a missile to do maximum harm. Use your imagination.
      • by dbIII ( 701233 )
        You are using your imagination far too much here - it was an internal operation looking for someone gullible to boost arrest figures or something and no foreign nation was involved at all. What could be done with the plans is entirely irrelevant because nobody was actually trying to get them - they were trying to get the person who had access to the plans.
        A lot of people are potentially for sale with the right offer (even infamously the man the carrier is named after who took a very large bribe from the In
    • No other country on earth would be interested in making a $12B, 100,000-ton aircraft carrier, but there are several who would love to know where its vulnerabilities are.

      • by dbIII ( 701233 )
        Would they love to know it enough to track this guy down (which would require high level access just to find out what he can get to) and then make him an offer? It's not looking very likely.
        This is looking like someone lazy locking up the greedy. With careful selection of the type of sting you could probably catch well over a quarter of the adult population that way.
    • Stupid and greedy is a good definition of someone who should not have security clearance.
    • Stings like this have another utility--counter-intelligence. Let's say you are approached by someone asking you to commit espionage. If you feel obligated to report it because there's a chance this is a sting/loyalty test, the government's job is made much easier. Is it worth destroying lives to accomplish this objective? Hard to say without weighing the assets being protected.

    • He got his clearance just four months back, so they will say it is routine follow up. But definitely being saudi born played a role. FBI is in tough spot. Imagine they had left this guy alone and he turned out to be a mole or a spy. All the media would be asking "Why fbi did not connect the dots? Why alarm bells did not go off?". Essentially asking FBI why it did not do racial profiling. But if it does racial profiling then it is pilloried for that too.
    • You can want the plans for an aircraft carrier for more than one reason than just building a copy. For example, looking at vulnerabilities or selling them on to other interested parties.
      • The plans are just the McGuffin. They do not matter. Nobody was buying the plans apart from the lazy sting to catch someone who is greedy.
        You've been fooled into equating this with catching the agent of a foreign power who is going around looking for people who have access to aircraft carrier plans. Nothing so useful has happened, they've only caught some guy that will sell out in very specific circumstances. With the right circumstances they could probably lock up half of Virginia, all without preventi
  • Pssst, wanna buy a nuke?

  • Really. The Eqyptians?

    Surely there're countries that'll pay far more for this information than Egypt? And be able to do far more interesting things with it.

    • And contacting any of those countries in his position would trigger a lot of alarms. But contacting a third party who's not an arch-enemy might, but would be VERY interested in selling this info to bigger people might not, or so this idiot may have thought.

      • by arielCo ( 995647 )

        But contacting a third party who's not an arch-enemy, but would be VERY interested in selling this info to bigger people, might not, or so this idiot may have thought.

  • by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:40PM (#48540311)

    Not the sort of hearing you want to attend. The spectre of something bad will be hanging over you.

  • by osu-neko ( 2604 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:43PM (#48540327)

    ... caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the Egyptian government.

    No, he was caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the FBI. Since he thought he was trying to deliver them to the Egyptian government, that makes him a scumbag, but let's not pretend an actual crime that would have occurred without the FBI's action has been thwarted here. They didn't step in and stop something bad from happening, they just found some guy who likes money more than ethics and made a good headline out of him. Arguably doing so maybe has some deterrent effect, but don't misrepresent what happened or blow it out of proportion.

    • by w_dragon ( 1802458 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @08:47PM (#48540595)
      They're removing security clearance from someone who is clearly easily bought. What's the problem?
    • by cyn1c77 ( 928549 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @11:33PM (#48541079)

      ... caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the Egyptian government.

      No, he was caught trying to deliver schematics for an aircraft carrier to the FBI. Since he thought he was trying to deliver them to the Egyptian government, that makes him a scumbag, but let's not pretend an actual crime that would have occurred without the FBI's action has been thwarted here. They didn't step in and stop something bad from happening, they just found some guy who likes money more than ethics and made a good headline out of him. Arguably doing so maybe has some deterrent effect, but don't misrepresent what happened or blow it out of proportion.

      What if he sold anti-aircraft missile designs to a terrorist organization, who then used those designs to shoot an airliner out of the sky that had your family in it? Would you still think that this was being blown out of proportion?

      Someone with a security clearance could do that and a whole lot worse. In the process of agreeing to receive the clearance, employees also agree not to do that, in writing, under penalty of law. They also agree to be surveilled while using government resources. So it is completely acceptable for a government to test their employees to see if they are susceptible to treason or espionage.

      This guy should be tried and if found guilty, put to death or locked away for life.

  • by RevWaldo ( 1186281 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:53PM (#48540355)
    | 0 | days without an accident.

    .
  • This is like a weird case of the Darwin awards; i.e., being so stupid you don't know that Egypt is not going to be interested in replicating the latest state of the art in nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

  • by Mr.CRC ( 2330444 ) on Sunday December 07, 2014 @01:53AM (#48541419)

    Since I haven't seen anyone point this out:

    1. According to the article, the Awwad idiot actually went through with delivering classified info at the 2nd "meeting." That means he successfully stole classified from the secure facility in which it was kept.

    Now, just because he sold N files to the agents, doesn't mean he only removed N files from the secure facility. Furthermore, he delivered them to agents at a hotel. Which means "out there" in the wild! So before he was arrested he could have actually had >N files copied onto an indeterminate number of his personal net connected computing gadgets, where the info could have wound up stolen by real enemies by malware bots looking for just this sort of thing, or perhaps he sent backup copies to some place where we will never know but someone else does.

    In other words, the FBI agents instigated an ACTUAL breach of classified info into the wild, which is a REAL threat to national security. The info could very well already be in the hands of the Russia, China, etc.

    It is the FBI fuckers who should be sent up the river!

    It is the purpose of counterintelligence to protect ACTUAL national security above all else, which means not allowing classified out into the wild. They could have simply revoked Awwad's security clearance and fired him when they found him willing to commit an act of espionage, but before he actually went through with it. This would have actually protected national security, by preventing the disclosure of classified which is the whole point.

    Instead they risked and caused an uncontrollable leak of classified, just to bag some idiot so he'd go to prison and the agents would get good performance reviews. These people are unethical sociopaths. It is immoral to not seek to PREVENT someone from committing a crime if you know they are willing and considering it. A sting like this should be a felony. Not to mention that now each one of us is going to have to pay a share of our life's work just to imprison the Awwad dimwit for a very long time.

    2. There is something very wrong with the Navy's handling of classified, if Awwad was able to get it out at all.

    In my experience, fortunately not with actual classified which I want nothing to do with since I have ADHD-like forgetfullness and work "outside the fence", but I've been trained about its handling at a national lab, it would be or should have been exceedingly difficult to steal classified in the first place.

    Awwad should have never been alone with classified. It should have been on computers which, if they are networked at all, are connected to only a fully air-gapped restricted network. Even the fucking fibers can't be within like 6 feet of those from another network! The USB and other ports should be sealed off with epoxy. Swapping of classified containing hard drives to/from vault and workstation is done under direct supervision by some classified accountant. It might even be that the workers must be at least in a team of 2 or more, I'm not certain though. Workstations which process classified live in a "vault-like room." Stealing this stuff is not easy! Unless their security is very broken, it should be nearly impossible without getting caught.

    Look at it this way: If the guy was stupid enough to try to sell the info yet smart enough to actually succeed at stealing some, then the Navy's security is a joke. How many have stolen information that didn't get caught?

    Allowing classified to get out of it's secure facility was a collosal fuckup!

    If this type of sting, resulting in the actual removal of classified from secure facilities is common practice, then the people guarding our nation are at a minimum incompetent, and at worst they are the actual traitors for being willing to risk causing actual harm to national security for the sake of their personal careers.

    There is little doubt that the enemy we should truly fear is within.

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