CentCom Laptops Missing From HQ

The Tampa Tribune ^ | Aug 7, 2002 | GEORGE CORYELL and LENNY SAVINO

[Freebird Forever]

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE - Two laptop computers are missing and may have been stolen from the closely guarded headquarters of Gen. Tommy Franks here, federal authorities confirmed Tuesday.

Maj. Mike Richmond at the Air Force Office of Special Investigations said his agency is one of those investigating the possible theft of the laptops. A spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Lt. Cdr. Barbara Burfeind, said late Tuesday that she would not comment ``on any ongoing investigation.''

Franks directs the U.S. and coalition forces searching for remaining al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan from the headquarters here of U.S. Central Command, also known as CentCom, where the computers were last seen.

The laptops have been missing since Thursday. Security was heightened at the base on Friday, but spokespersons for both the base and CentCom declined to say why, explaining that they couldn't discuss security issues.

CentCom would not confirm that the computers were stolen.

Besides Afghanistan, CentCom is responsible for U.S. military operations in a number of other countries in the region, including Iraq, and has been deeply involved in planning for a widely expected U.S. effort to topple Saddam Hussein.

Authorities would not speculate on who may have walked off with the laptops. Military leaders and strategists from coalition forces from the Mid- East and Europe occupy trailers next to CentCom's headquarters building.

Concrete barricades surround the massive headquarters, and guards with M-16 automatic rifles protect the compound.

Laptops typically are used by Pentagon strategists making presentations at CentCom and elsewhere. The briefings typically outline future tactical or strategic plans for military operations.

There is already an uproar in the Pentagon over security leaks and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has publicly pledged to ferret out those responsible.

Intelligence experts familiar with MacDill said the disappearance may simply have been a crime of opportunity - perhaps a case of someone grabbing the laptops because they'd been left unattended - rather than a foreign intelligence penetration.

[Freebird Forever]

Don't know what to say about this.

Hate to think we've got traitors at MacDill.

[Rodney King]

Two simple rules:

1. No agency that works with secrets should have laptops.
2. Top secret computers should not be hooked up to the internet in any way.

I don't know what the problem is with this.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Better check with this 'dude'. He may be a material witness on those laptops.

[TxBec]

Dude! You're getting a McDell.

[OldFriend]

There are traitors in EVERY branch of government. Time to start giving lie detector tests to the persons who lost their lap tops.

[Freebird Forever]

Agreed!

[hflynn]

Sounds like Osama bin Laden has been ladened as in Weighted down with a heavy load disinformation.

[FreedomPoster]

Bingo! We have a winner!

Anyone who doesn't understand that, doesn't understand InfoSec 101.

BTW, you're not the guy in the cube two rows over, are you?

[Numbers Guy]

Military leaders and strategists from coalition forces from the Mid- East and Europe occupy trailers next to CentCom's headquarters building.

I think the answer is in the above sentence. Our gallant Arab allies or the Euro-weenies, which one is more likely to have an Iraq or Al Qaeda sympathizer? Used to be that the answer was obvious: The Arabs. But lately you can't count out the Euros.

[My Favorite Headache]

Unreal...more incompetence

[aShepard]

If I shop at Home Depot, and they want to protect their $59.00 electric drill, they lock this little $1.00 wire thingy on the drill. When I leave Home Depot and they forgot to deactivate the 1/10th of a cent microchip inside the package, it sets off the alarm.

Is the government so far out of control that it can't provide any security to sensitive assets??

Or, don't they care to protect secrets, as the Congress will leak them to the world anyway??

[vannrox]

AGREED!

Anyone listening?... Please follow these Two simple rules:

1. No agency that works with secrets should have laptops.
2. Top secret computers should not be hooked up to the internet in any way.

[Rodney King]

Nope. I'm at home.

[doc30]

Don't forget that USF, about 10 miles north of MacDill AFB, is a hotbed of Islamic militancy!

[Salvation]

Does this explain the leaks?

[TaxPayer2000]

apparently this must be in some rule book, that no one dealing in secrets should have a laptop. Maybe we should add another rule. Like all persons dealing in secrets must have thier tongues cut out. Lets think a moment shall we? Is a secret any safer in a desktop? on a note pad? etched in stone? The problem is not the laptop, it is the security thereof.

[Vermont Lt]

Whatever happened to overhead projectors.

If their presenations are like the presentations at our office, the dopes spend more time on cartoons and diagrams than on content.

Powerpoint is wonderful tool, but way, way overdone these days. Go back to simple stuff: Human intellegence and pens and paper.

How come we make EVERYTHING complicated these days.

[OldFriend]

Agreed 1000%............my son served overseas and his computer was on his desk.....pretty hard to hide.....LOL....and there was NO WAY this computer was connected to the outside world. MILITARY USE ONLY.

[Campion]

Those are two good rules, all right, but they aren't enough in an age when someone can stick two gigs of data on a DAT tape that's barely larger than a box of matches.

[anymouse]

That's old tech. A new minature hard drive measuring not more than 1.5"x1"x0.5" can be pluged into a USB slot and download nearly 1 gig of data within a few minutes. Even a sloppy pat down search could easily miss that. If disguised as a functioning lighter or car alarm key chain remote control, it would hardly be given a second thought if found.

Only solution is SCIF security, where nothing but people goes in or out, period.