I don't understand why Sandia and Lockheed didn't want to cooperate with the FBI and the Army. They must be trying to cover something up, because it just doesn't make any sense to me. Don't we want people to go the FBI and other law enforcement when hackers are stealing sensitive data and the employer won't do anything? I hope the Sandia and Lockheed managers responsible for this are fired and charged.

Sandia and Lockheed Martin fire this guy for going to the Army and the FBI? What kind of people are in charge of this place? People should be horrified that these same people are also in charge of nuclear weapons. These people should be arrested and charged with impeding a Federal investigation. Why is Lockheed in charge of managing a nuclear weapons facility, anyways? I thought the government did this.

Their is a key statement "fired him after he cooperated with FBI counterintelligence investigators." Now the question is why Lockheed Martin tried to keep this in-house and would fire someone when clearly what he did was in the name of national security. And the senior executive who said Carpenter "was very clearly told the process that had to be followed", will I tell that ignorant S.O.B., even military officers are not subject to orders deemed UNLAWFUL. And while this isn't quite like not following military orders, Carpenter was rightfully going against the extremely questionable policies of his employer.

This is just incredible. Who do these defense contractors think they are? Sandia is acting as if the taxpayer money they spend is theirs, with no responsibility to even do a good job on their contractual requirements, much less to be good citizens.

There is more of the type of coverup attempted by the DOE Sandia, NM lab and Lockheed-Martin than the public actually knows, and that is one reason We the People have become so skeptical of claims made by our government. The jury verdict proves the anger that this sort of thing engenders in America.....

With all of the recent news about hackers stealing people blind, it is disconcerting to see such a story. It seems absurd that he was fired for going to the FBI with information about national security thefts. Sounds like Sandia and Lockheed are covering their butts, and never thought that this would get out. Good for him in getting his due justice. Shame on Lockheed and Sandia. They should protect the country, not the corporation.

Revoke the legal status of coporations as "people" under the law NOW & shut down terrorist organizations like Sandia & Lockheed Martin!

I used to work for PNNL (nuclear research facility in Washington), and I can tell you exactly why he was fired, and who the hackers were.

China

...hmmm perhaps the hack break in was on purpose and the perps were in cahoots with Sandia? You know, a little "here are the keys to my house" action for this fee.

Something at Sandia is terribly, terribly wrong if such a travesty of justice was demanded by senior bosses. Ask yourself this, what scale of internal corruption at Lockheed Martin would be necessary to allow something this foul to have been perpetuated against Mr. Carpenter?

Simple bureaucratic incompetence? Not for them to have fought against common decency to the bitter end. Even contemplating a judicial appeal! Something's still rotten in New Mexico!

I agree with the previous Becky. It is shameful the way people working in government facilities waste taxpayer money as if there were no end to it. If Shawn's bosses worked in private industry they would have lost their jobs long ago. Will Bruce Held lose his job over his treatment of Shawn? What did it cost the taxpayers to defend this indefensible behavior? We can all be grateful to Shawn and his wife Jennifer for being willing to stick with this case to trial and thus expose at least some of what goes on and is usually unaccountable.

That is what happens when the government outsources jobs.

Sandia's attempt to keep this quiet -- assuming that was their objective -- has serious implications for the nation and our safety.

The DoE, Lockheed and Sandia must be held to account. If they aren't, something is terribly and dangerously amiss in the DoE.

ah come on, Lockheed Martin was up to it corp. ears with Ethics problems at the Oak Ridge facilities, ORNL and Y12. They lost that contract, yet the DOE lets them run Sandia?
Lockheed Martin first line of defense it to discredit people who want to do the right thing, and DOE goes along with it.

This tidbit from his wikapedia entry might be a clue why Lockheed and Sandia didn't want him working with the Feds (or anyone else outside of the corp.):

"In an ironic twist, Carpenter testified at trial that he found hundreds of pages of detailed schematics and other sensitive documents labeled, "Lockheed Martin Proprietary Information" and "Export Controlled" regarding the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter stashed on a foreign server in South Korea. He was helping the FBI investigate the stolen Lockheed Martin information along with hundreds of other network breaches at military and United States defense contractors when Sandia officials fired him."

Looks like we have a little CYA going on at our nuke weapon lab. Good thing there are still patriots like Carpenter around that cowboy up and do the right thing.

Privatization of the management of facilities like Sandia and Los Alamos has been a complete failure. Former colleagues at LANL and Sandia are scrambling to get out. Patriotism has given way to money-grubbing corporations and execs who would rather blame employees than accept responsibility for leadership failures. Carpenter's case is one of the few rays of hope in the cesspool of corporate corruption that is all too common these days. Hopefully someone will be held responsible if enough people take the time to contact their Congressional reps. and express their outrage. Since the taxpayers (via the Department of Energy) are most likely footing the legal bills, they will drag this case out on appeals for years and years. It is a sickening state of affairs.

This is the kind of reporting that keeps me up at night. Ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems logical to me that if one detects people spying and stealing sensitive information, it is good practice to report it. If corporate supervisors don't care, or want to sweep it under the rug, the next choice would be law enforcement. Are these Lockheed manager somehow above the law?

I personally have been through some thing similar working for ITT corpration a contractor at Ft Bragg NC these people never want to do the wright thing its all about the money

Carpenter is a bad employee who used company information to further his own interests. It sounds like he was a troublemaker all along, and should be behind bars. He knew that there were proper procedures and channels within Sandia to facilitate work with the Federal government and Army. The jury and judge were fooled. If anything, Carpenter should be ordered to pay the Corporation for all of their legal fees and trouble.

Ah America! How to keep secrets in an open society. I doubt we would ever see a public trial of a Chineese or Korean cyber warrior discussing the successes and failures of American hacking efforts and of our countermeasure capabilities.

Here you have a brilliant man who went above and beyond his call of duty to do an exemplary job for his employer, only to be told by his superiors to keep quiet and DO NOTHING when he uncovered serious national security breaches. When his strong convictions couldn't allow him to remain silent and he reported his findings to Army counterintelligence and the FBI, another superior told him he should be decapitated and he was fired! WHAT is going on here? Sandia is considering a judicial appeal?! How absurd!!! Those involved in the firing should be on their way to jail for impeding national security concerns!!