Posted on 07/12/2002 7:07:27 PM PDT by PatriotReporter
Liar! Liar! How pathetic, that citizens and journalists have to resort to ferreting out classified documents in order to prove our government dissembles. Someone is covering their arse.
The State Department needs a thorough cleaning.
WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- One day after she berated Foreign Service employees for security lapses, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted that the State Department was missing two more laptop computers.The Washington Post reported Friday that Albright testified Thursday before a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that two unclassified laptops were missing.
One of the missing machines was assigned to Morton Halperin, assistant secretary of state for policy and planning. Although Halperin said he had not used the computer, others in his office may have used it for tracking expenses and routine memos, the newspaper reported ...
See: House Chair Rips State Dept. Over Missing Laptops, AP, May 5, 2000, by Barry Schweid (posted May 6th by Native American Female Vet); excerpted.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some of the computers at the State Department used for classified material are not equipped with passwords and other security features, a senior U.S. official said Friday.Describing the computers as of the ''off-the-shelf'' variety, the official said he did not know whether a laptop computer discovered missing in February from the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research had the devices.
The department confirmed Friday that two other laptop computers had disappeared, but only the one that vanished in February is known to have contained secret information.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the areas in which computers containing classified information are used are themselves secure and the computers are not supposed to be removed. The problem, he said, is that someone got into the secure area of the bureau who should have not been there. And, he said, it is the way the area is secured, not what is on the computers, that provide security.
Entry into secure areas are carefully logged, the official said.
Disclosure that some computers are not equipped with protective devices was the latest twist in the State Department's security situation and tensions between Congress and the department ...
But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the job was in the competent hands of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. ''It's comprised not only of special agents who conduct investigation and provide dignitary protection, but also of very seasoned information and computer security specialists with many years of experience,'' he said.
Thus far, three laptop computers have been reported missing. Of the two newly announced computers, one had been signed out to a senior official, Morton H. Halperin, the assistant secretary of state for policy planning.
Boucher said the computers were found to be missing during an inventory ordered after the unexplained disappearance in February of a laptop computer containing highly classified information. That is the only one of the three laptops known to contain classified material, he said.
Suggesting other equipment may be missing as well, Boucher said: ''I don't want to mislead anybody into thinking that we're saying there's only two others -- two unclassified machines missing. We're still in the middle of this inventory" ...
Officials have said the first missing laptop contained large quantities of documents about arms proliferation issues and highly sensitive information about sources and methods of U.S. intelligence collection.
Earlier, a bugging device was found in a conference room.
See: More State Department Laptops Lost, NewsMax.com, May 18, 2000 (posted by kattracks).
A total of 15 State Department laptop computers have vanished over the last year and a half, the Washington Post reported today, adding that the matter has now resulted in a security crackdown.The missing laptops, all identified as "unclassified" or not containing classified information, are part of the State Departments inventory of some 1,913 portable computers. And a security check of the department's 60 laptops that could contain secret information revealed that only one was missing ...
Diversion...disinformation...discombobulation...
I've read all Mowbray's reporting on this issue, and he has not revealed anything that could be considered injurious to our national interests. On the contrary, he has shown the light of day on a culture that places its interests above Americans' security. It sounds like he was naive, or perhaps frustrated, enough to make a mistake in this instance, but I have a feeling the so-called "cable" contained nothing more than further embarrassing information about the State Department's handling of visas. State has outright lied and ducked about this issue for months, and what is obvious from Mowbray's writing is that there are people within the department who are just as outraged by the policy as he is.
Just an honest mistake by AP or Nando?, totally inadventent, nothing inmplied here.
My hunch is that the cable was classified CONFIDENTIAL or the innocuous Official Use Only, or they might have really made trouble (which is what they wanted to do in the first place). Now State has undoubtedly got the original and there are markings on some cables that can give away its provenence. Let's hope he hasn't blown his source. I still say it is likely that he will lose his State pass privilege, because if for no other reason, he should have known better than to sound off the way he did
Agreed. Let's hope.
I always assume that ten per cent of what is classified really needs to be kept secret. The other nine tenths is classified to cover up incompetence or criminality.
Do you remember that in 2000 (I think) Congress passed what was essentially a British-style Official Secrets Act, which Clinton only vetoed when he was pressured by his media pals? As I remember, Mowbray and the whistleblower could both have done hard time under that law.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.