Asking the Experts?

I'm no engineer, so I can only take WAGs regarding this one. Perhaps Purdue’s future engineers are interested in low-tech methods of defeating security. Surely that is the reason that the university invited at least one person to sit on a panel discussion regarding homeland security.

Next week’s celebration of engineering will feature a number of discussions and showcases explaining what effect engineering can have on homeland security.[SNIP]

The highlight of Engineers Week will be a panel discussion at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24 in the South Ballroom of the Purdue Memorial Union.

"It’s a very high power panel of individuals that have been, or are in, pivotal roles in regards to homeland security," Stitsworth said.

The panel is comprised of John Sununu, former White House chief of staff; Sandy Berger, former national security adviser; Robert Crandall, CEO of American Airlines during 9/11; Reed Hundt, former FCC Chairman; David Kay, former chief nuclear weapons inspector for the United Nations; and Jonathan Zittrain, a cyberterrorism expert.

(Emphasis mine)

Pivotal role, indeed.

The criminal probe into why former Bill Clinton aide Sandy Berger illegally sneaked top-secret documents out of the National Archives — possibly in his socks — has heated up and is now before a federal grand jury, The Post has learned.

The "Socks Docs" probe forced Berger, who was President Clinton's national security adviser, to step down as Democrat John Kerry's top foreign-policy adviser last summer.

"It may have been off the front pages, but the investigation has been active," said a source with knowledge of the probe.

Berger admits removing 40 to 50 top-secret documents from the archives, but claims it was an "honest mistake" made while he vetted documents for the 9/11 commission's probe into the Twin Towers attacks.
Berger has also acknowledged that he destroyed some documents — he says by accident.[SNIP]

They [National Archive staffers] then ran a sting operation in which they coded some documents and confirmed they were missing when Berger left.

The documents were classified Code Word, the highest security classification, above Top Secret [sic].

The commission report makes clear that Berger had a habit of writing candid notes in the margin of memos, sometimes flatly rejecting plans for action.

He nixed a plan to capture Osama bin Laden with one word: "No."

Then again, Mr. Berger’s heist wasn’t exactly a triumph over technology, so I can’t see why he was invited. Maybe to give pointers how to "accidentally" destroy politically inconvenient classified material. That *had* to be a great feat of engineering.

Also most puzzling is the mainstream media fixation on the Gannon/Guckert non-story, while this horrendous and real breach of national security *admittedly* perpetrated by a former national security adviser has long dropped from the front pages.

Okay, it’s not really puzzling.

(Thanks to LGF)