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Retired General Pleads Guilty in Stuxnet case
[Federal Times] A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has pled guilty to making false statements during an investigation into a leak of classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Retired Marine Gen. James Cartwright entered the plea at a hearing Monday before U.S. District Judge Richard Leon. When Leon asked if Cartwright understood the charge, he said: "I do, sir." The offense carries a maximum of five years in prison, but Cartwright's attorney told the judge that the government and defense counsel had agreed on a recommended sentence of no more than six months. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January and it will be up to Leon to decide the sentence. Cartwright told investigators that he was not the source of classified information contained in a book by New York Times journalist David Sanger, according to charging documents unsealed by prosecutors. Neither the book nor the classified subject is identified in court papers. But Sanger has written about a covert cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities and the use of a computer virus called Stuxnet to temporarily disable centrifuges that the Iranians were using to enrich uranium. The charging documents also said Cartwright misled prosecutors about classified information shared with another journalist, Daniel Klaidman. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland announced the case on Monday. Prosecutors said Cartwright was charged via criminal information, a document that is filed with a defendant's consent and that signals that a plea agreement has been reached. Gregory Craig, an attorney for Cartwright, had no immediate comment, but his office said he would issue a statement later on Monday. Cartwright, 67, was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 until 2011, and was considered a key adviser to Obama. A former fighter pilot, the Marine general was known for his expertise in the more highly technical areas of cyberwarfare and America's nuclear enterprise. Posted by: Besoeker 2016-10-18 |
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