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When you think of secret materials, both connected with the government and with companies, you have to figure that they are well protected don't you? WRONG! Most of them are, but there are many cases on record where secret material has been treated more like an empty gum pack than a secret document. When I was involved in destroying secret classified materials in the military, I had to completely burn them, and then mix the ashes with sand and bury the resulting residue. While some of the stuff was definitely overkill, l kenw that some of these materials were common knowledge and even appeared in magazines, the army felt that they could not be too careful at the time, after all there was a cold war raging. It seems that there have been a lot of lapses in security since those days.
1 World Trade Center Before It Was Destroyed We all know what happened to the World Trade Towers in New York City. You would think that anything to do with the new Freedom Tower would be well protected, such as the floor plans, wouldn't you? If you said yes to this question you would be wrong again. The date was April 18, 2008 and a homeless man was going through some garbage at West Houston and Sullivan streets. What he found was completely unexpected. He actually found the blueprints for the yet unbuilt Freedom Tower that was to replace the World Trade Towers that had been taken down on 9/11. To make matters worse the pages, including the first page, were all stamped “Secure Document – Confidential”. There was not one copy of the plans for the entire building, but two copies. The homeless man did the right thing and turned in the plans. Everyone was shocked that they were in the trash. The Port Authority director of media relations stated, "Violating these protocols is cause for serious disciplinary action - up to termination for employees and breach of contract and legal action for contractors," The homeless man may have been homeless, but he turned out to be a responsible American, one that was far more responsible than the people that originally had the plans. Another security breach occurred in 2008, and it was a very serious one. This one occurred in the United Kingdom. As hard as it is to believe, top-secret documents were taken on to a train so a civil servant could read them while he was traveling. This is wrong on so many levels. For one thing, anyone that has ever ridden on a train knows that some people will read over your shoulder. The files I am talking about contained all sorts of information on terrorists. I guess the employee was tired, or had something else on his or her mind, because when the civil servant got off of the train the file stayed there. There it was, a very sensitive file on terrorism, just laying on a seat for all to read. The file was found by a passenger who gave it to the BBC, who later turned it over to the police. By then I suppose everyone knew the contents.
A Former Secret Document That Was Declassified Many people who take the train in the United Kingdom are carrying secret papers, at least it seems that way. Secret papers that spoke to the war in Iraq were taken on a train by a lawyer. The lawyer was working for the British government. They really know how to pick them don't they? Anyway, the papers were left unguarded and the lawyer told the government that they were stolen. Could that be legalese for “I left them on the train”? He said that he could not fit his bag into the overhead storage space so he put it in a baggage rack at the end of the car. Can you imagine taking papers like this on a train and them letting them out of your sight? He said that when the train reached King's Cross station. he noticed the bag was missing and called the police.
Laptop Computer Despite all sorts of warnings about bringing work laptops home, apparently some workers from the Veterans Administration thought that they knew better. There they were with their nice new laptops sitting in their homes with the personal date of millions of vets, but did they care? No not really. When one guy cared was when his home was burglarized and the laptop was stolen. There it was, millions of ve'ts records in the hands of crooks. This included all their social security numbers and both military and civilian information. How was this made better? The vets got an apology, Wow that really helped. You have to wonder how people can be so cavalier with this type of stuff? They certainly wouldn't like it if their records were in the hands of criminals. Here we go again. Another train fiasco in the United Kingdom. Pensions Secretary James Purnell left a red box containing secrets on a train. There were strict rules that stated that documents were never to be taken out of the red box on a trip. Hey, why allow the red box to leave the building anyway? It is beginning to look like there should be a secret service agent posted in all train cars in the U.K. This happened just months after one of the other train incidents where a large fine was levied against a civil servant for leaving top secret documents on a train. Passengers testified that the Secretary left his red box open on the seat while he walked around the train talking on his mobile phone. One passenger stated that he though that the guy was showing off. The documents left on the train were similar to those from the US Veterans Administration in that they had people's personal information, including addresses,names, and National Insurance numbers to name a few pieces of information on the documents. Why are secret documents treated so lightly in so many cases? Could it be that the people that are handling them have such utter disregard for us that they treat them the way that they do? What I am talking about is the fact that so many political types, who were either elected or appointed to their civil service positions, were the ones who were losing the documents. I am not saying that this is true in all cases, but it certainly is true in many of them. You would think that taking chances with people's personal data would be a criminal offense, and yet most people that lose this stuff don't even get a slap on the wrist. I say that if you take a computer out of work when you are not supposed to, and it contains either secret or confidential files on people, that should be an automatic jail sentence, never mind even if it wasn't lost. People should demand that anyone that does this feel the full effect of the law.
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