Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nadaka]

Its a bit difficult to explain. And it is arbitrary. It derives from what I am not allowed to do. I can face legal consequences for exposing sensitive information, you can't. There are things you can say freely, but I could face the death penalty. They are not allowed in because I am not allowed to let them in rather than the more usual order of things.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Well, the only way you could actually face the death penalty is if you released classified information in such a way that you were charged with High Treason against the United States. Only that and felony murder are crimes eligible for the death penalty, by order of the Supreme Court. Treason cases are not all that common, I believe that the last one occurred a couple of years ago and was the first in a few decades.

Of course, they'd almost certainly lock you up for the rest of your life if you did such a thing, and they might hire someone to covertly murder you, but it would have to be something big for a treason charge.

[Virex]

My semi-educated guess on this is that he's just erring on the safe side here.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

My semi-educated guess on this is that he's just erring on the safe side here.

I'm not trying to convince him to tell us anything. Hell, I didn't even actually ask for what the security levels are, just if he is allowed to tell them to us.

[Nadaka]

My semi-educated guess on this is that he's just erring on the safe side here.

It was an example of the extent of the conseqences for breaking the rules. Letting a non citizen into a sensitive facility unattended isn't that serious, but it is still something I can't legally do.

[Truean]

Sensitive is the lowest level of classification, us citizens are generally authorized.

We don't really know what level of anything he's discussing. You're using "sensitive" as a defined term with specific meaning, is the journalist?

I'm betting there's nothing sensitive at all if they're showing it to the general public. We're talking a dog and pony show to bring people in. There's probably nothing remotely outside of publicity materials in that town hall meeting.

[Zrk2]

Wait, what does Nadaka do? I'm too lazy to look it up...

[Urist Imiknorris]

Full disclosure: I am a defense contractor.

[Truean]

  And finally, it looks like people sort of kinda give a damn about that gay soldier who was booed at a presidential debate.

That is of course, unless you read the comments from viewers....He's a Captain in the U.S. Army. Most posters demand more recognition of their "patriotism" than he ever would. This despite the fact that he has 10x as much as they ever could....

No apology is planned for the soldier, though he certainly deserves one.... It is equally certain, he won't get one.

[Nadaka]

Wait, what does Nadaka do? I'm too lazy to look it up...

Systems Architect/Software Development/Programming working as a defense contractor for about 3 years now.

[RedKing]

As a fellow civilian contractor w/ security clearance, I'm with Nadaka on this. The same rules apply where I work. My wife and kids will never see the inside of where I work, because they're not cleared. Hell, we do our own janitorial work because they're not gonna pay to find a janitor with a security clearance.

On the few occasions where they do have to bring in someone for a business reason who's not cleared (visits from HP high-muckity-mucks, an HVAC tech to fix the AC/heating, electrician to fix the lights, fire marshal to inspect the premises, etc), they have to be buzzed in at the door, and then escorted every step of the way. If they're coming my way, my monitor needs to go dark. My desk needs to be devoid of any classified material. When I scribble a note on a piece of paper, it doesn't go in the trashcan, it goes into a locked drop box which is periodically collected and sent directly to an industrial shredder. Bottom line: the government don't play around with this shit when it comes to classified material (whether there's an overuse of classification is an entirely seperate matter).

And I take that responsibility very seriously. I write certain info down and gets into the wrong hands, people's covers are blown and they could wind up dead in very painful ways. Or our networks get hacked. Or even just somebody realizes what we do there, mentions it to a friend of a friend of a friend and then a gun nut militia adds us to their hitlist. Chances of a true security breach? Very low. Consequences? Very high.

Most of the info about security clearance levels is public domain though. DoD is the gold standard, other departments have their own systems which are usually modelled after (and sometimes interchangeable with) DoD.

At the bottom there's SBU: Sensitive But Unclassified. Then Secret, then Top Secret. Then there are additional modifiers that can be tacked on like FOUO (For Official Use Only - a way to tighten down unclassified material to keep it out of the public domain), FYEO (For Your Eyes Only--yes, it's not just the title of a Bond flick), and SCI (Specialized Compartmentalized Information - the jargon for "need to know basis").

And yes, non-citizens are disallowed from holding any security clearances. However, if I'm reading this right, I have to question how much of the Perry staff and Gov. Perry himself have clearances? If not, then someone damn well better have been escorting *them* every step of the way, otherwise they could be charged with trespassing and the contracting firm could lose their contract and security clearances be revoked, especially for the site security officer. Might be a good story there.

[Nadaka]

There is more to it, but basically yea. Most of the building I work in is only sensitive, so the general restrictions are a lot less. But thinking about it, I cant really see how they could hold a town hall in even a sensitive facility. Everyone would have had to be escorted.

[Truean]

Real simple stuff guys:

If everything you're saying is true about the crap you know, then they should never let a town hall meeting happen where you work. No one should be there and using it for political points is bullshit.

The problem is the citizen/non citizen distinction. Nobody, period. There ya go.

The problem with your argument is that you let ANYONE in: citizen/noncitizen, everybody out.

[Sheb]

And me who assumed a town hall metting had to happen in a twn hall.

[Truean]

So there's this lightweight material stuff....

Pardon me, but I'm always the pragmatist looking for practical application. I see "lightweight material" and my mind just buzzes all over the place more than usual. They list some applications in the article, but really what I was wondering was:

a.) How expensive are things like these to produce?
b.) Can you "compress" or otherwise combine multiple lightweight materials into incredibly strong ones? (Mention was made of aerospace structural components).
c.) Can this thing become commonplace (I imagine costs are a prohibitive factor right now to say the least)?

Basically, it seems there are always these great, "look at what science can do," articles. There also seems to be a massive lag between research and practical applications if there ever are any. I read Popular Mechanics for years; I'm still waiting for a flying car they've been saying will happen for decades now really.

Do people think this is more "head in the clouds" technology" or is this something that might be applied?  Same question for other technologies, I guess.