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!!

Hats off to this guy. This has been going on for years across the board in Gov. IT. No one wants bad news like a "break in" when their contract is on the line. Usually he would have gone through the Inspector General ( who is extremely understaffed)and this would have taken months. Maybe this will bring attention to these issues... because if it was a financial institution...we would have never heard a thing.

This guy was canned because he was told by corporate management that he was a Lockheed Martian first and an American second, and he said screw that. That's one of the main things wrong with this country (and the world) today; corporate interest (or political partisan interest) always trumps the national interest. Always, always follow the money- everything else is what comes out of the south end of a bull. Good on him and good on the jury.

This is "classic" big business in action. Exactly what happens when companies - especially those dealing with defense and high technology - are taken over by lawyers and bean counters. Common sense no longer prevails, and you get idiotic statements out of company spokespeople who are more concerned with image than doing the right thing. Serves 'em right, in this case.

Just goes to show that Senior Management in Defense Contractors will put profits and reputation over the safety and security of the country they were hired to protect... I find it truly telling that when shown the evidence and given the opportunity to do the right thing they chose to try and protect themselves and not go after the true perpertrators of this crime!

This is a perfect example of how our national security is being eroded every day due to Bush's policies. He wanted to sell our ports to Dubai, has opened our roads to mexican truckers who will no doubt smuggle 10X the amount of drugs into the U.S. then before, and allows these companies to handle sensitive nuclear weapons info and they sure don't care about the American people. They only cared about not allowing this leak to get out to the public. Well, too late for that. I hope their all fired and their contracts are revolked forever.

I'd be interested in checking into possible Chinese connections with LMT. Management seemed to be awfully cavalier in its attitude toward national security. As has been said before, especially in a corporate setting, "follow the money." I'll be surprised if something doesn't turn up.

Lockheed was fined $13 million dollars by the U.S. State Department in 2000 for giving a state-owned Chinese conglomerate information about satellite motor (violations of the Arms Export Control Act).

It makes no sense to me why they would fire him. If he cooperated with the FBI, shouldn't they protect him? What happened to the Sandia National Laboratories and Lockheed people responsible for his firing? Are they being charged with anything? Their conduct is shameful and criminal. This guy should get medal.

I advise readers to check a little further into this story. It turned out to be the Chinese government that was hacking into systems...and it wasn't even remotely limited to Sandia Labs. It was rampant throughout government (mainly military) installations. Do a search for the operation titled "Titan Rain" on our side and you should come up with an article on Time. Unbelievable that it had to come to their firing the guy over something so critical to national security. Kudos to you Shawn, for having the guts to do the right thing.

It looks like espionage. So, why hasn't the FBI made arrests? Is it because China is a lender of last resort to a bankrupt USA???

A jury of the citizens have spoken on this issue, and they have sent a very clear message. Lockheed should offer this guy his job back and apologize. Reports such as this one make me worry for our safety. If this guy had found information about another 9/11, we'd all be screwed. I can't believe we are seeing stuff like this after all this country has been through. Corporations like Lockheed are milking the taxpayers for all they're worth while they are firing patriots like Carpenter behind the scenes.

I used to work at Sandia, in a group which manufactured electronic components for nuclear weapons and defense satellites. The production line was so contaminated with stray metals and human “substances” that the parts seldom met test requirements.

As a former Lockmart employee that worked in various IT roles, it doesn't come as a surprise that they canned this guy for going to the feds. They sure as hell don't want the public, stockholders or partner companies to know their network leaks information like a sieve. Hackers were breaking into our networks and stealing files on a fairly regular basis. Sometimes they were on our networks for months before anyone discovered them. God knows what they have stolen.

I was a contract manager for three years at Lockheed, and had to leave because I just couldn't live with myself anymore. Writing about it even makes me want to puke. These contracts are most profitable when they are overbudget. The "cost plus" contract structure is horrible for the American taxpayer. Since government contractors like Lockheed get a percentage of costs, there is absolutely no incentive to find the best price. The converse is true, and I've seen Lockheed execs scramble to find the most expensive subcontractors so their profits are maximized. That's where the proverbial $1000 toilet seats come from - cost plus. It is all about the money. Waving American flags, commericals with pictures of eagles and regular trumpeting how much they support the troops is just a load of bull.

God bless america and shawn carpenter. I was very proud to meet mr. carpenter. he is truly a sincere person. He did the right thing to take on Sandia and show the american people that the money grubbers and polititically correct people are the ones that we need to be watching. thank god that there are still people like shawn.tell me Who is in charge? some one has to wake up and see what is happening to our national security.

I read in a recent Computer World interview that one of Carpenter's discoveries was a stash of stolen Lockheed Martin schematics on the Mars Reconassance Orbiter hidden on a server in Korea. He informed the FBI about his discovery when his sandia managers told him to ignore it. How can they fire him when he was helping the FBI investigate stolen Lockheed information? Our enemies can potentially use technology like this in their own missles. The managers should be put in jail.

give this man a medal. he has guts and grit and took on the corrupt lockheed managers that did him wrong and won. the jury sent a decisive message when they stuck it to lockheed. he beat them even though they have more money than god. he has my vote for congress anytime.

Unbelievable. Why hasn't this story been on TV? The conduct of Sandia managers in his case is clearly criminal. These idiots are helping the terrorists, spies and others who seek to harm our country. I hope the managers involved are fired and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. God bless Mr. Carpenter for doing the right thing.

Shocked by no press? $2 Billion Tax Dollars worth of Lockheed planes (8 of the new F22's) on their way to our base in Japan lost all navigation and fuel systems when they crossed the international date line end of Feb 2007 and received limited press as well...obviously Lockmart has some friends in high media places. The $250 planes as effective as CESSNA 152's in combat had to be visually led back to Hawaii by guide dogs to receive a software patch before they could be successfully sent to a base in Okinawa. Lockmart by far has the worst IT systems in ALL of corporate America - it's PATHETIC, the complete incompetence and is actually mind boggling...elementary schools probably have better designed and secured networks and applications. Someday the truth will come out...because hopefully no place can be so poorly managed and stay on top for too long - especially as our nations defense and tax dollars ride on their behaviours...

They can't even handle the corruption at Halliburton, how can they stop these other companies too. Recently they found out China acquired technology from the Aegis and they also have been working on missiles to take out our carriers while our government has done pretty much nothing to counter it. There are just a bunch of idiots in Washington.

woooaaaaaah :P now i feal dumb by reading all the stuff here _._ *sigh*

It is pure bliss to read a story about a patriotic underdog slamming a greedy defense contractor in times like these. The touchy-feely prime time commercials Lockheed recently aired about "supporting our troops" make me want to throw a brick through the TV. They consistently screw up contracts they shouldn't have won in the first place, bilk tax payers out of billions of dollars with huge budget overruns, and often fail to deliver a finished product or service that functions as advertised. I know, because I was once a staffer on the Hill. Wake up, people. If you disagree with what's going on, take five minutes and write your Congressional representatives. Believe it or not, they do read the letters. Kudos to ABC for getting his story out there, and kudos to Shawn for doing the right thing.

It's simple: Carpenter is a patriot, and the Sandia managers that fired him are self-serving Benedict Arnolds. It is beyond comprehension that this man was fired for going "outside the company" to the FBI and the US Army to report thefts of sensitive national security and military information. I read in another story sent from a buddy in my unit that one of the Sandia managers threatened Carpenter with "decapitation" in an angry meeting. In this time of war, it is stunning that a supposed leader in this organization would get away with using such terms. Americans have suffered this fate at the hands of terrorists abroad. What kind of shop are these people running, and who is supposed to be watching them? Reading stories like this make my blood boil. What is happening to our country?

Of course, stories like these are not new, nor will there be any changes. What I see here is the ongoing territorial war between the FBI and the CIA (who operate worldwide through Lockheed Martin). One of these entities has a mission to protect the United States of America and its citizens and the other has a mission to organize the Chaos which perpetuates such scandals to the shareholders profit. (guess who is who?) The bottom line, if you cross the CIA, your ass is grass, take Saddam Hussein as an example, he was once, "one of the boys" and look how far they went to eliminate him for the sake of their "prestige"

Sometimes people in these large companies become cold and heartless. I don't know any person in their right mind who could turn a blind eye to a crime being committed, especially after 9/11.
These are the same kind of people who allowed 9/11 to occur!

No More!!! The management should be fire!

If an American citizen can't turn to federal law enforcement when national security is at risk, who can they trust? It makes me proud to be an American when I see that our justice system works in a case like this one. The corrupt Lockheed managers need to be fired and imprisoned for putting their own interests above our country's. Shawn is a true patriot.

This is just craziness. This place develops nuclear weapons? I wonder how many other employees there keep quiet about malfeasance for fear of losing their jobs. Hopefully they don't work on nuclear weapons components.