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)
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Source: Voice of America
.