On YouTube, Charges of Security Flaws - Democratic Underground

951-Riverside

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Wed Aug-30-06 03:09 AM
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On YouTube, Charges of Security Flaws

Actual Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3VV8Za04g

The 41-year-old Lockheed Martin engineer had complained to his bosses. He had told his story to government investigators. He had called congressmen.

But when no one seemed to be stepping up to correct what he saw as critical security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats, De Kort did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com.

"What I am going to tell you is going to seem preposterous," De Kort solemnly tells viewers near the outset of the 10-minute clip. Posted three weeks ago, the video describes what De Kort says are blind spots in the ship's security cameras, equipment that malfunctions in cold weather and other problems. "It may be very hard for you to believe that our government and the largest defense contractor in the world capable of such alarming incompetence and can make ethical compromises as glaring as what I am going to describe." In response to De Kort's charges, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said the service has "taken the appropriate level of action." A spokeswoman for the contractors said the allegations were without merit.

A Web site normally reserved for goofy home-movie outtakes and Paris Hilton parodies may seem an odd place to blow the whistle on potential national security lapses that require complex technical explanations. But receiving millions of hits a day and carrying the intimacy of video, YouTube.com and other sites have become an alluring venue for insiders like De Kort who want to go directly to the public when they think no one within the system is listening.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082801293_pf.html

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Kiouni

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Wed Aug-30-06 03:28 AM
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1. i read this

on abc and I was just thinking about how shitty the management must be their with these allegations but to be honest I think he might just be disgruntled, there wasn't any solid evidence from the report i read.

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Wonk

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Wed Aug-30-06 03:28 AM
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2. dupe thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2009740
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2004804
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2008576

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fasttense

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Wed Aug-30-06 05:22 AM
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3. I watched his video and there are some serious accusations

He presents a very convincing case. Unshielded cables that allow our enemies to listen in on Coast Guard communications, entry/access monitoring that fails to monitor almost fifty percent of the boat/ship, equipment that can Not take the heat and cold extremes required by the Coast Guard. These deliberate failures leave our security vulnerable and risk the lives of Coast Guard personnel. He has talked to everyone from the CEO of Lockheed Martin, Coast Guard authorities, to Homeland Security and the Inspector General. Many agree with him that these failures in meeting contract specifications are dangerous but no one wants to investigate it. Sounds like someone is making big money off our tax dollars.

You really need to watch this yourself and don't listen to the media spin about it. The corporate media is trying to minimize it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3VV8Za04g

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