DATE=4/24/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MISSING LAPTOP / SECRETS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261668
BYLINE=KYLE KING
DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has
ordered a series of new security measures following
the recent disappearance of a laptop computer
containing highly classified information. The
incident is the latest in a series of embarrassing
security breaches at the State Department. V-O-A's
Kyle King reports.
TEXT: Secretary of State Albright says the
disappearance of the laptop computer is an inexcusable
breach of security that endangers U-S secrets.
/// ALBRIGHT ACT ///
Like several other recent serious lapses in
Security, this is inexcusable and intolerable.
Such failures put our nation's secrets at risk;
they also damage the department's reputation and
that of its employees.
/// END ACT ///
The laptop computer was discovered missing from a
supposedly secure area controlled by the State
Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research about
three months ago.
State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters
two office directors had been reassigned.
Secretary of State Albright said she has also decided
to transfer responsibility for security from the
Bureau of Intelligence and Research to the Bureau of
Diplomatic Security.
Republican Congressman Benjamin Gilman (from New York)
said last week that he will hold hearings on what he
called unacceptable security lapses at the State
Department.
Last year the United States expelled an alleged
Russian spy after he was found monitoring a listening
device planted in a State Department conference room.
In 1998, an unidentified man in a tweed coat walked
into an executive office down the hall from where
Secretary of State Albright works and helped himself
to a handful of classified briefing materials. The
materials were never recovered.
Secretary of State Albright says the actions she took
today are aimed at ensuring that security is a top
priority. (Signed)
NEB/KBK/TVM/gm
24-Apr-2000 16:08 PM EDT (24-Apr-2000 2008 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
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