Re Pinpoint.
dailynews.yahoo.com
Two Laptops Missing From State
Department
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two more laptop computers
have gone missing from the State Department but without
classified information, department spokesman Richard
Boucher said on Friday.
The disappearance came to light during an inventory
ordered after a laptop computer containing classified
information went missing about two months ago, Boucher
said.
One of the two laptops was assigned to the office of the
policy planning staff, headed by Morton Halperin, who has
his offices on the same floor of the State Department as
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Boucher said he did
not know which office the second laptop came from.
The disappearance of the first laptop was a serious
embarrassment to the State Department, which last year
found a eavesdropping device in a conference room. A
Russian diplomat was expelled for listening to the
transmissions.
Albright harangued State Department
staff this week on the need for tighter
security in the building.
But the chairman of the U.S. House of
Representatives Intelligence
Committee, Florida Republican Porter
Goss, on Thursday cast doubt on her
plan to improve security.
Boucher said he wanted to draw a clear distinction between
the computer which contained classified information and
those used for routine office work.
``We are talking about apples and oranges ... We're talking
about a laptop of a different color,'' he said.
``There are disappearances of ordinary equipment, TVs,
things like that. As in any big building, with thousands of
people not really well guarded internally at night, things
have disappeared in this building,'' he added.
When unclassified equipment goes missing, the bureau of
Diplomatic Security might hold someone responsible and
charge them the cost of the equipment, he added.
The Washington Post said on Friday that one of the policy
planning laptop was signed out to Halperin. Halperin told
officials he had never used it but others in his office might
have, it added.
Responding to Goss's criticism of the Diplomatic Security
bureau, Boucher praised the bureau's record.
``It is a professional security organization. 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. |
